The Writer

Richard Wilbur drew from his own life experience to create “The Writer.” Although the autobiographical poem wasn’t published until 1976, it was written much earlier when the poet’s daughter, Ellen Wilbur, was still a child. When she was five years old, Ellen received a typewriter from her parents and began her writing journey. This would have been in the late ‘40s to early ‘50s (Ellen Wilbur was born in 1943).

Growing up in a successful literary household, Ellen’s creativity was nurtured from an early age; however, after briefly experimenting with poetry, she turned her attention to short prose fiction. Richard Wilbur has been quoted as saying, “From the first, we knew Ellen had a gift, and told her so. But I don’t think she has learned anything from me—she’s a natural writer. She has a perfect sense of narrative structure that I don’t have at all; it amazes me” (Harvard Magazine, 2008).

While she didn’t become a household name or find widespread recognition the way her father did, Ellen Wilbur built a successful career as a short fiction writer. Her work appeared in a range of prestigious literary magazines including Ploughshares and The Harvard Review, and she published a full-length collection of short stories: Wind and Birds and Human Voices.