Amy Clampitt

Ms. Clampitt published her first full-length book of poetry, "The Kingfisher," when she was 63. Ms. Clampitt was born in New Providence, Iowa, and grew up on a 125-acre farm. After earning a bachelor's degree with honors in English at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, in 1941 she studied at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research. She worked as a secretary and a writer at Oxford University Press from 1943 to 1951 and as reference librarian at the National Audubon Society from 1952 to 1959. Through the 1960's and most of the 70's, she was a freelance writer, editor and researcher. From 1977 to 1982 she was an editor at E. P. Dutton. Ms. Clampitt received a fellowship award for distinguished poetic achievement from the Academy of American Poets in 1982 and a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992. She was a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She is survived by her husband, Harold L. Korn; two brothers, Lawrence, of Brunswick, Me., and Philip, of Auburn Hills, Mich., and a sister, Beth, of Carlisle, Iowa.