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 …
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Citation: Suarez, Ernest. "James Dickey". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1258, accessed 31 October 2024.]
