Stone, Ruth (1915–)
Stone, Ruth (1915–)
American poet. Born Ruth Perkins, June 8, 1915, in Roanoke, VA; dau. of Roger McDowell Perkins and Ruth Ferguson Perkins; m. Walter Stone (poet and novelist); children: 3 daughters.
Moved to England; husband committed suicide (1958), an event which influenced Stone's later poetry; taught at universities in US, including Indiana University, New York University, Old Dominion, Brandeis, and State University of New York at Binghamton; works include In an Iridescent Time (1959), Topography and Other Poems (1971), Cheap (1975), Second-Hand Coat (1987), Who is the Widow's Muse (1991), and Nursery Rhymes from Mother Stone (1992); won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Ordinary Words (1999) and the National Book Award for In the Next Galaxy (2003). Received Shelley Memorial Award (1964), Delmore Schwartz Award (1983), Whiting Writer's Award (1986), Paterson Poetry Prize (1988) and Wallace Stevens Prize (2003).