William Carlos WilliamsPoet / Physician Born: 17 September 1883
Died: 4 March 1963 Birthplace: Rutherford, New Jersey Best known
as: Author of the poetic epic Paterson William Carlos Williams
was a local doctor in New Jersey throughout his life while also
becoming a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. Williams was considered
a groundbreaker: he wrote poems about the everyday lives of
working people, an unusual notion for the time, and often tried
unusual meters and styles. In later years these traits endeared
him to Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg. Williams also wrote
plays, novels, and essays. At the same time, he worked as a
general physician in his hometown of Rutherford, New Jersey, for
four decades. He published his Autobiography of William Carlos
Williams in 1951, the year a series of strokes forced him to
retire from medicine. He was given a posthumous Pulitzer Prize
in 1963 for his 1962 collection Pictures from Brueghel, and
other Poems. Extra credit: Williams's mother was born in Puerto
Rico, which helps acc