John Ashbery, Celebrated And Experimental Poet Of The 20th Century, Dies At 90
Although his enigmatic poems confounded literary critics and peers who heaped praise on him, his abstract, modernist style reinvented literature for a generation of writers.
Updated at 8:20 p.m. ET
John Ashbery, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet known for his surrealist, confounding works, has died at age 90.
The poet died of natural causes in his Hudson, N.Y., home early Sunday, confirms Farrar, Straus & Giroux, the publicist for a new Ashbery biography.
His 1975 collection, , what many consider won a rare trifecta of the literary world: the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle prize. The title poem was a mediation on Parmigianino's 16th century Italian painting of the same name. In 2012, Former President Barack Obama recognized Ashbery with the National Humanities Medal.
