Peter Kane Dufault

Peter Kane Dufault was born in Newark, New Jersey, and earned his BA from Harvard University. He served as a bomber pilot in World War II, flying missions in North Africa. After leaving the army, he lived a varied life, holding jobs ranging from tree surgeon, journalist, house painter, and Liberal candidate for the US Congress, running on an anti–Vietnam War platform. Poets such as Marianne Moore and Ted Hughes championed Dufault, as did New Yorker editor Howard Moss, who published the poet 44 times. Dufault’s books of poetry include Angel of Accidence (1954), For Some Stringed Instrument (1957), On Balance (1978), New Things Come Into the World (1993), Looking in All Directions (2000), and To Be in the Same World (2007), among others. Writing of Dufault, who was relatively obscure at the time of his death, Brad Leithauser noted, “He was constantly posing new theological questions, in an era often hostile to poetry of devotion. He looked hard at the natural world, then looked hard at its spiritual implications. … It’s always a joy to encounter an unfamiliar poet whose poems speak to you as a confidant.”