Beloved poet Mary Oliver, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, dies at 83
Celebrated American poet Mary Oliver, who received both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for her numerous contributions in the field of literature and poetry, has died at the age of 83.
Her literary executor, Bill Reichblum, announced that she died from lymphatic cancer at her home in Hobe Sound, Florida on Thursday, January 17. Oliver was one of America's most popular poets who wrote more than 15 collections of poetry and essays, often exploring the link between nature and the spiritual world.
Her view of death was summed up in her much-loved 1992 poem, 'The Summer Day', where she ponders the value of feeling "idle and blessed". Her final couplet asks the reader "Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?"