On this day in 1939 Seamus Heaney was born, eldest of nine children on a County Derry farm. His first collection of poems (Death of a Naturalist, 1966) earned four major awards and provoked Christopher Ricks to declare that those "who remain unstirred by Seamus Heaney's poems will simply be announcing that they are unable to give up the habit of disillusionment with recent poetry." There have been almost three dozen books since, and a long list of awards -- these include the 1995 Nobel -- for translation and criticism as well as poetry, but Heaney has maintained his reputation as an accessible poet, an approachable man, and an ambassador of literature ... FULL STORY »
