10 Facts About Anthony Hecht

Anthony Hecht's work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.

Anthony Hecht was educated at various schools in the city – he was a classmate of Jack Kerouac at Horace Mann School – but showed no great academic ability, something he would later refer to as "conspicuous".

In 1944, upon completing his final year at Bard, Anthony Hecht was drafted into the 97th Infantry Division and was sent to the battlefields in Europe.

Anthony Hecht saw combat in Germany in the "Ruhr Pocket" and in Cheb in Czechoslovakia.

However, his most significant experience occurred on April 23, 1945, when Anthony Hecht's division helped liberate Flossenburg concentration camp.

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Anthony Hecht later received his master's degree from Columbia University.

In 1947 Anthony Hecht attended the University of Iowa and taught in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, together with writer Robie Macauley, with whom Anthony Hecht had served during World War II, but, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after his war service, gave it up swiftly to enter psychoanalysis.

Anthony Hecht later won the Furioso Poetry Award and enrolled at Columbia University as a candidate for a master's degree in English literature.

In 1993 Anthony Hecht published The Hidden Law, a critical reading of Auden's body of work.

Anthony Hecht spent varying lengths of time teaching at other notable institutions such as Smith, Bard, Harvard, Georgetown, and Yale.