When only eight years old, Wilbur published his first poem in ''John Martin's Magazine
. His first book, The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems
, appeared in 1947. Thereafter he published several volumes of poetry, including New and Collected Poems
(Faber, 1989). Wilbur was also a translator, specializing in the 17th century French comedies of Molière and dramas of Jean Racine. His translation of Tartuffe'' has become the play's standard English version and has been presented on television twice (a 1978 production is available on DVD). Wilbur also published several children's books, including
Opposites,
More Opposites, and
The Disappearing Alphabet. In 1959 he became the general editor of The Laurel Poetry Series (
Dell Publishing). Continuing the tradition of
Robert Frost and
W. H. Auden, Wilbur's poetry finds illumination in everyday experiences. Less well-known is Wilbur's foray into writing theatre
lyrics. He provided lyrics to several songs in
Leonard Bernstein's 1956
musical Candide, including the famous "
Glitter and Be Gay" and "Make Our Garden Grow". He also produced several unpublished works, including "The Wing" and "To Beatrice". His honors included the 1983
Drama Desk Special Award and the
PEN Translation Prize for his translation of
The Misanthrope, the
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the
National Book Award for
Things of This World (1956), the
Edna St Vincent Millay award, the
Bollingen Prize, and the Chevalier, . He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959. In 1987 Wilbur became the second poet, after
Robert Penn Warren, to be named
U.S. Poet Laureate after the position's title was changed from Poetry Consultant. In 1988 he won the
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry and in 1989 he won a second Pulitzer, for his
New and Collected Poems. On October 14, 1994, he received the
National Medal of Arts from President
Bill Clinton. He also received the
PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation in 1994. In 2003 Wilbur was inducted into the
American Theater Hall of Fame. In 2006 he won the
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. In 2010 he won the
National Translation Award for the translation of
The Theatre of Illusion by
Pierre Corneille. In 2012
Yale University conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters on Wilbur. He had a literary correspondence with Catholic nun, literary critic and poet
M. Bernetta Quinn. Wilbur died on October 14, 2017, at a nursing home in
Belmont, Massachusetts, from natural causes aged 96. ==Awards and honors==