David Wagoner

David Russell Wagoner was born in the city of Massillon, Ohio, on June 5, 1926. His father found a job in a steel mill in Whiting, Indiana, in 1933 and the family moved there.

Whiting was a heavily polluted industrial town and the boy’s young mind was deeply influenced by his surroundings. He began writing at the age of ten and was also interested in magic and theater.

After completing his schooling he attended the Navy ROTC program at Pennsylvania State University where he studied short-story writing and playwriting. He also attended a poetry workshop with poet Theodore Roethke, who became his mentor and later a close friend. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1947.

He proceeded to the Indiana University from where he received an M.A. in English in 1949.

Soon after earning his master’s degree he embarked on an academic career, accepting a teaching position at DePauw University in 1949. Shortly after, he moved to the Pennsylvania State University in 1950.

During this time he also began pursuing a writing career simultaneously and published his first book of poetry, ‘Dry Sun, Dry Wind’ in 1953. He followed it up with two novels in quick succession: ‘The Man in the Middle’ (1954) and ‘Money, Money, Money’ (1955).

His early literary works reflected his childhood experiences of growing up in a polluted and depressed place, devoid of any greenery or natural resources. In 1954, he moved to the University of Washington in Seattle as an associate professor of English. His mentor Roethke was the one who suggested this step.

He published ‘A Place to Stand’ (1958), and ‘Poems’ (1959) before bringing out the poetry collection ‘The Nesting Ground’ in 1963 which addressed his new, pristine surroundings in the Pacific Northwest, a stark contrast to the polluted bleak Midwestern landscape of his youth.

In 1965, he published the novel ‘The Escape Artist’ which went on to become his best known novel. The story revolved around the life of a young boy who tries to make it big as an amateur magician. The work which reflected Wagoner’s own childhood fascination with magic was later made into a feature film by the executive producer Francis Ford Coppola.

David Wagoner’s best known novel is ‘The Escape Artist,’ the story of an amateur magician who has to deal with unscrupulous people in his pursuit for greatness. The book was adapted as a film in 1981.

The poem ‘Lost’ is regarded as his masterpiece. Since its first printing in 1972, it has appeared on greeting cards and used in life-coaching and yoga practices in addition to being repeatedly reproduced in poetry anthologies. The poem has also found a place in Oprah Winfrey’s website.