WRITER

Robert Pinsky

1940 - Today

Photo of Robert Pinsky

Icon of person Robert Pinsky

Robert Pinsky (born October 20, 1940) is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. He was the first United States Poet Laureate to serve three terms. Recognized worldwide, Pinsky's work has earned numerous accolades. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Robert Pinsky has received more than 246,083 page views. His biography is available in 15 different languages on Wikipedia. Robert Pinsky is the 6,849th most popular writer (down from 6,042nd in 2019), the 14,390th most popular biography from United States (down from 12,534th in 2019) and the 1,044th most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 250k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 37.44

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 15

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.00

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.16

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The figured wheel
Poetry, Poetry (poetic works by one author)
1996
C. P. Cavafy
Poetry, collections
1980
History of my heart
Poetry (poetic works by one author)
1984
Jersey Breaks
American Poets, Biography
2022
The sounds of poetry
Oral interpretation of poetry, Poetry (poetic works by one author), Oral interpretation
1998
At the foundling hospital
American poetry, Poetry (poetic works by one author), POETRY
""Since the death of Robert Lowell in 1977, no single figure has dominated American poetry the way that Lowell, or before him Eliot, once did. But among the many writers who have come of age in our fin de siècle, none have succeeded more completely as poet, critic, and translator than Robert Pinsky."--James Longenbach, The Nation. The poems in Robert Pinsky's At the Foundling Hospital consider personality and culture as improvised from loss: a creative effort so pervasive it is invisible. An extreme example is the abandoned newborn. At the Foundling Hospital of eighteenth-century London, in a benign and oddly bureaucratic process, each new infant was identified by a duly recorded token. A minimal, charged particle of meaning, the token might be a coin or brooch or thimble--or sometimes a poem, such as the one quoted in full in Pinsky's poem "The Foundling Tokens." A foundling may inherit less of a past than an orphan, but with a wider set of meanings. The foundling soul needs to be adopted, and it needs to be adaptive. In one poem, French and German appear as originally Creole tongues, invented by the rough needs of conquered peoples and their Roman masters. In another, creators from scorned or excluded groups--among them Irving Berlin, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, and W.E.B. Du Bois--speak, as does the Greek tragic chorus, in the first-person singular. In these poems, a sometimes desperate, perpetual reimagining of identity, on the scale of one life or of human history, is deeply related to music: The quest is lyrical, whether the subject is as specific as "the emanation of a dead star still alive" or as personal as the "pinhole iris of your mortal eye." "--
2016

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Robert Pinsky ranks 6,849 out of 7,302. Before him are Mariam Petrosyan, Faye Kellerman, Mimoza Ahmeti, Yiyun Li, Javier Valdez Cárdenas, and Dan Barker. After him are Laurie Lee, Roberto Orci, Ingrid Klimke, Toru Dutt, Ernest Cline, and James T. Farrell.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1940, Robert Pinsky ranks 603. Before him are Madam Auring, Padma Sachdev, Maxine Hong Kingston, Faimalaga Luka, Bharati Mukherjee, and Craig Brown. After him are Adam Faith, Melba Moore, Barney Frank, Savitri Jindal, Jim Clyburn, and Harry Jerome.

Others Born in 1940

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United States

Among people born in United States, Robert Pinsky ranks 14,390 out of 20,380. Before him are Kathleen Wilhoite (1964), William Allen (1803), Saginaw Grant (1936), Joni James (1930), Jon Tester (1956), and John Fetterman (1969). After him are Stephen Kotkin (1959), Tom Laughlin (1931), Bob Bryar (1979), Jimmy Ruffin (1936), Duane Swanson (1913), and Alison Mosshart (1978).

Others born in United States

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Robert Pinsky ranks 1,044. Before him are David Ignatius (1950), Seth Meyers (1973), Elaine Showalter (1941), Michael Arndt (1970), Faye Kellerman (1952), and Dan Barker (1949). After him are Ernest Cline (1972), James T. Farrell (1904), Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979), David X. Cohen (1966), Emanuel Pastreich (1964), and William Joyce (1959).

American born Writers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous