American poet who also wrote children's books and literary textbooks. His best-known works include Breaking and Entering, Dark Horses, and Hangover Mass.
As a boy, he was very interested in science fiction and wrote stories for sci-fi pulp magazines.
His first poetry collection, Nude Descending a Staircase, won the Lamont Poetry Prize.
He married Dorothy Kennedy, with whom he had five children.
He was inspired by the works of Clement Moore.
