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George Hill Dillon

Born: 1906 in Jacksonville, Florida
Pen Name: George Dillon

Connection to Illinois: George Dillon attended the University of Chicago and after graduating stayed and worked in Chicago.

Biography: Dillon was an American editor and poet. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida but spent his childhood in Kentucky and the Mid-West; graduating from The University of Chicago in 1927 with a degree in English. Dillon met Edna St. Vincent Millay at the University of Chicago when he introduced her at a reading. 'This meeting was the start of a relationship that would alter his personal and professional destiny, and prompt each of them to immortalize the other in poetry.' '''*''' Harriet Monroe, the founder and editor of ''Poetry'', was another one of Dillon’s earliest advocates. She appointed him an associate editor at the magazine. He was 25 when he published his second book of poems, ''The Flowering Stone'', which won the Pulitzer Prize - making Dillon one of the youngest poets ever to win the prize. After writing his Pulitzer Prize winning book ''The Flowering Stone'', Dillon started translating the work of French poets like Charles Baudelaire's ''Flowers of Evil''.The sudden death of Harriet Monroe in 1936, put Dillon in the position to take Monroe’s place as editor at ''Poetry''. Dillon was the editor at the magazine from 1937 to 1949. After retiring, Dillon started translating French poetry again including Jean Baptiste Racine's book ''Three Plays of Racine''. * Quote taken from ''The Summery Night Before the Frost'' by Shannon McCloskey Allain.


Awards:
  • -- 1932 Pulitzer Prize , ''The Flowering Stone''

Primary Literary Genre(s): Poetry

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Article on George Dillon on Open Letters Monthly - ''The Summery Night Before the Frost'' by Shannon McCloskey Allain : http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/the-summery-night-before-the-frost/
George Dillon on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=george++dillon


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