17 September 2026 marks 143 years since the birth of American poet and physician William Carlos Williams. He was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle. After training he returned to New Jersey and worked for decades as a family doctor and paediatrician.

He sought an American voice distinct from European models, favouring ordinary objects, everyday speech and fragmented rhythm. The short poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” is among the best-known examples; we do not reproduce the lines here, as they remain in copyright. His major work Paterson, published in several volumes, treats the New Jersey city as both character and organism.

Williams also wrote fiction, essays, drama and autobiography. His influence reached later generations, including writers associated with the Beat movement and the Black Mountain school. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry posthumously in 1963 for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems. He died in March 1963, before the prize was announced.

Photo: 1921 passport photograph. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Source consulted: Poetry Foundation — William Carlos Williams; Pulitzer Prizes — William Carlos Williams.