22 Facts About Robert Hayden

Robert Hayden was an American poet, essayist, and educator.

Robert Hayden served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as US Poet Laureate.

Robert Hayden was the first African-American writer to hold the office.

Robert Hayden was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Ruth and Asa Sheffey, who separated before his birth.

Robert Hayden was taken in by a foster family next door, Sue Ellen Westerfield and William Hayden, and grew up in the Detroit neighborhood called "Paradise Valley".

Robert Hayden attended Detroit City College with a major in Spanish and minor in English and left in 1936 during the Great Depression, one credit short of finishing his degree, to go to work for the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project, where he researched black history and folk culture.

Robert Hayden enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1941 and won a Hopwood Award there.

Erma Robert Hayden was a pianist and composer and served as supervisor of music for Nashville public schools.

In pursuit of a master's degree, Hayden studied under W H Auden, who directed his attention to issues of poetic form, technique, and artistic discipline.

Robert Hayden died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on February 25,1980, aged 66.

Robert Hayden stayed consistent with his idea of poetry as an artistic frame instead of a polemical demonstration and to his conviction that poetry ought to, in addition to other things, address the qualities shared by mankind, including social injustice.

Robert Hayden's practice was to make separation between the speaker and the movement of the poem.

Robert Hayden made ready use of black vernacular and folk speech, and he wrote political poetry as well, including a sequence on the Vietnam War.

However, on April 22,1966, Robert Hayden was denounced at a Fisk University conference of black writers by a group of young protest poets led by Melvin Tolson for refusing to identify himself as a black poet.

Robert Hayden is known as a nature poet and is included in the anthology Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry.

Robert Hayden said that he was inspired by a trip to Duluth, Minnesota during the smelt fishing season.

Robert Hayden has often been praised for his work crafting poems, the unique perspectives in his work, his exact language, and his absolute command of traditional poetic techniques and structures.

Robert Hayden's work was often overlooked due to the racial discrimination and prejudice prevalent in the 20th century.

Robert Hayden was elected to the American Academy of Poets in 1975.

Robert Hayden was awarded successive honorary degrees by Brown University and Fisk,.

In January 1980 Robert Hayden was among those gathered to be honored by President Jimmy Carter and his wife at a White House reception celebrating American poetry.

Robert Hayden served for a decade as an editor of the Baha'i journal World Order.