Born in
Spring Grove, Minnesota, Langland was raised in Northeastern
Iowa on the family farm. Langland received both a bachelor's degree (1940) and a master's degree (1941) from the
University of Iowa. He served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman during
World War II. His first collection of poems
For Harold (1945) was written for his younger brother who was killed in action in the
Philippines. After the war, Langland taught part-time at the University of Iowa and then joined the faculty of
University of Wyoming, teaching there from 1948 to 1959. He then moved to the
University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he founded the
MFA Program for Poets & Writers. He was a faculty member at UMass from 1959 to 1979 and a professor emeritus from 1979 until his death in 2007. His work appeared in
Massachusetts Review,
Paris Review,
The Nation,
The New Yorker. He married Judith Gail Wood on June 26, 1943. They had three children: Joseph Thomas Jr., (1946?); Elizabeth, (1948); and
Paul (1951). He died April 9, 2007, at his home in
New Rochelle, New York, at the age of 90. His papers are held at
Luther College in Iowa. ==Works==