Philip Booth at Bowdoin. 1949
A recently published book introduces the reader to the life and “widely admired poetry” of Philip Booth. Born in New Hampshire in 1925, Booth taught English at Bowdoin from 1949 to 1950, before going on to teach at Dartmouth and Wellesley. He took a position in the early 1960s at Syracuse University, where he co-founded the prestigious creative writing program.
Writing in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, Dana Wilde said “there should be more books like Jeanne Braham’s Available Light, which he described as a “readable little volume.” Wilde said the book focuses particularly on Booth’s deep ties to the town of Castine, on the Maine coast, where he spent much time and had strong family ties. Philip Booth died in 2007.