Working-class poet dies at 87
Not all of Philip Levine's poetry was about his hometown of Detroit, but a lot of it was. And as this son of Russian immigrants rose from the streets to win the Pulitzer Prize and even become poet laureate of the US, his literary voice never stopped pulsating with the sweat and soul of the blue-collar city where he was born.
Levine, whose poetry sang of the triumphs and tragedies of the working class, died Saturday at his home in Fresno, Calif. He was 87.
His wife, Frances Levine, told the Associated Press that her husband died less than a month after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
A graduate of what is now Wayne State University, Levine won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Simple Truth" in 1995 and two National Book Awards for "What Work Is (1991) and "Ashes: Poems New and Old" (1980). He served as the country's poet laureate in 2011-12. He wrote 25 books of poetry, the last, "News of the World" was published in 2009.
Levine spoke about the influence of Detroit on his work in a 2011 interview with the Free Press. "You grow up in a place and it becomes the arena of your discovery," he said.
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