(1923–97). One of the United States most distinguished poets and winner of the National Book award for poetry, James Dickey was also a lecturer, teacher, critic, essayist, and novelist. He was perhaps best known as the author of the novel Deliverance (1970).
James Lafayette Dickey was born in Atlanta, Ga., on Feb. 2, 1923. In his youth he was involved in sports and was a freshman starter on the Clemson College varsity football team. In 1942, after one year in college, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as a fighter-bomber pilot. He flew more than 100 missions in the Pacific for the 418th Night Fighter Squadron, and between missions he studied literature in base libraries. After World War II Dickey attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. The English major was also a track star and won the state championship in the 120-yard high hurdles. He graduated in 1949 and earned his master’s degree in 1950.
Before being called back to duty in the Korean War, Dickey taught English at Rice Institute. During the war he sold his first poem, Shark in the Window.
Unable to support his family on a teacher’s salary at the University of Florida, he went to work for an advertising agency in New York City. His first collection of poetry, Into the Stone and Other Poems, was published in 1960. Despite a successful career in advertising, in 1961 Dickey decided to devote himself to his poetry. During his years as poet in residence at Reed College in Portland, Ore., San Fernando Valley State College in Los Angeles, and the University of Wisconsin, he published the poetry collections Drowning with Others (1962), Helmets (1964), and Two Poems in the Air (1964), and a collection of essays.
From 1966 to 1968 Dickey served as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. He was awarded the National Book award for poetry in 1966 for Buckdancer’s Choice.
Dickey settled in Columbia, S.C., in 1968, where he was poet in residence and a professor of English at the University of South Carolina. In 1970, after seven years of writing, the novel Deliverence was published to high praise. He also wrote the screenplay for the popular 1972 motion picture based on the novel and appeared in the movie.
His poetry often featured pilots, football players, and backwoodsmen, and the themes in his work included nature, metaphysics, history, and religion. His works were admired for their clarity, passion, and strength. He published more than 20 books, including the collections of poetry Poems 1947–1967 (1967), The Zodiac (1976), and‘The Whole Motion (1992); and the collections of essays Babel to Byzantium: Poets & Poetry Now (1968), Self-Interviews (1970), and Jericho: The South Beheld (1974). James Dickey died on Jan. 19, 1997, in Columbia, S.C.