James Dickey

Ernest Suarez
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James Lafayette Dickey is widely known for his novel

Deliverance

(1970), which became a national bestseller and an award winning motion picture, but his greatest achievement is as a poet. Born on February 2nd, 1923 in Atlanta, Georgia to Eugene and Maibelle Swift Dickey, he is arguably the most important and influential poet to emerge from the American South in the second half of the twentieth-century. In his verse and fiction, Dickey examined the dynamic between romanticism and naturalism through a stunning array of perspectives, including those of soldiers, suburbanites, laborers, criminals, children, religious fanatics, and animals. He enjoyed cutting a flamboyant figure, and used his celebrity status to promote his own work and poetry in general, appearing on television talk shows and…

2482 words

Citation: Suarez, Ernest. "James Dickey". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1258, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1258 James Dickey 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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