Bly, Robert

Bly, Robert (Elwood)

(1926–  ) poet, writer; born in Madison, Minn. He studied at St. Olaf College, Minn. (1946–47), Harvard (B.A. 1950), University of Iowa (M.A. 1956), eventually settling in Moose Lake, Minn. He was a magazine founder and editor, and is known for translations as well as for his own poetry. His Iron John: A Book About Men (1990), a controversial work propounding his views on the need for modern men to rediscover their essential maleness, unexpectedly if temporarily turned Bly into a cross between a minstrel and a guru as he toured the land strumming his harp and explaining his ideas.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.