William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey and followed in the footsteps of Ezra Pound to become a principal poet in the Imagist movement. Williams tried to separate himself from European cultures and traditions by playing with meter and lineation to invent a singularly American style.

As for interesting things about Williams – you probably didn’t know that Williams married Florence Herman after his proposal to her older sister was refused. You also probably didn’t know that Williams’s primary occupation was not as a writer, but actually as a doctor. He worked as a doctor by day and wrote on nights and weekends. Williams was highly opposed to European influence on American culture and felt strongly that American literature should be unique to American culture. Williams was known for his opposition to European influence, which gained him popularity in America; however, two days after his death in 1963, a British publisher decided to publish all of Williams’s poems.