Born the ninth child of a poor Brooklyn family, Owen Dodson (1914-83) rose to a life of stunning achievement. A scholarship student at Bates College, where his classmates included John Ciardi and Edmund S. Muskie, Dodson went on to advanced study at Yale. His poetry and first novel were widely hailed by critics and general readers; during his career, he wrote or directed more than 300 dramatic presentations, and for twenty-five years he was a professor of drama at Howard University. James Hatch draws on extensive interviews with Dodson, his family, and his friends, and on access to private papers, placing Dodson in a social and literary context that will help readers understand Dodson's struggle with arthritis, alcohol, race, and homophobic prejudice.