12 Facts About Richard Hugo

Richard Hugo, born Richard Franklin Hogan, was an American poet.

In 1942 he legally changed his name to Richard Hugo, taking his stepfather's surname.

Richard Hugo served in World War II as a bombardier in the Mediterranean.

Richard Hugo left the service in 1945 after flying 35 combat missions and reaching the rank of first lieutenant.

Richard Hugo married Barbara Williams in 1952, the same year he started working as a technical writer for Boeing.

Richard Hugo later became the head of the creative writing program there.

Richard Hugo's wife returned to Seattle in 1964; they divorced soon after.

Richard Hugo published five more books of poetry, a memoir, a highly respected book on writing, and a mystery novel.

Richard Hugo wrote a large number of informal epistolary poems at a time when that form was unfashionable.

Richard Hugo's The Real West Marginal Way is a collection of essays, generally autobiographical in nature, that detail his childhood, his military service, his poetics, and his teaching.

Richard Hugo remarried in 1974 to Ripley Schemm Hansen and became stepfather to Matthew and Melissa Hansen.

Richard Hugo died of leukemia in Seattle on October 22,1982.