Adorable Story #65: Gwendolyn Brooks

One of the most influential and widely read American poets

“Poetry is life distilled”

— Gwendolyn Brooks

1960: Poet Gwendolyn Brooks on the back steps of her home in Chicago — Photo by Slim Aarons / Getty Images

Poet laureate, activist, and award winning author Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the most influential and widely read American poets.

She authored over 20 books and was the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was also the first black woman to hold the role of Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was highly regarded even during her lifetime and served as the Illinois poet laureate for 32 years.

Gwendolyn managed to bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 1940s and the young black empowerment writers of the 1960s.

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Early Life and Education

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on June 7, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas.

Shortly after her birth, her family moved to Chicago, where she spent most of her life.

Brooks’ parents, Keziah Wims Brooks, a schoolteacher, and David Anderson Brooks, a janitor who had hoped to become a doctor, encouraged her early literary interests.

By the age of 13, Gwendolyn Brooks had published her first poem: Eventide.

Eventide

Along the pathway of the sun,
I see the golden road.
The little winds of twilight run,
To guide me to my abode.

Gwendolyn sent her early poems to both Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson, and both elder poets responded with letters of encouragement. She also became a regular contributor to the Chicago Defender’s “Lights and Shadows” poetry column when she was 16 years old.

By 16, she had already a portfolio of around 75 published poems.

Gwendolyn Brooks attended Hyde Park High School, then transferred to the all-black Wendell Phillips Academy High School, and later to the integrated Englewood High School. She graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936.

Literary Career and Achievements

Gwendolyn Brooks’ literary career is marked by her acute observations on African American life, particularly in urban settings. Her first poetry collection, A Street in Bronzeville, was published in 1945, earning her national acclaim.