Hayden Carruth, poet and author of more than thirty books, died September 29 at his home in Munnsville, New York, after a series of strokes. He was born on August 3, 1921 in Waterbury, Connecticut, and received degrees from the University of North Carolina and the University of Chicago. His university education was punctuated by his service in the Army Air Forces in Italy during World War II. Carruth worked at Poetry Magazine and the University of Chicago Press, and as Poetry Editor for Harper’s Magazine. He lived for many years in Vermont and New York, supporting himself as a laborer and, later, as a professor at Syracuse University. Virginia Quarterly Review has described Carruth as “certainly one of the most important poets working in this country today,” a designation reflected in his awards, which include a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and a Lannan Fellowship. In 1996, he received a National Book Award for the collection, Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey. Letters to Jane, one of Carruth’s last books, is a volume of his tender correspondence with the poet Jane Kenyon during her final illness