Trivia

World War II and Korean War veteran. Flew night fighter and radar observation missions in the South Pacific with U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, and served as a training officer with the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War.

Dickey spent 10 years writing his novel "Deliverance.".

Before Dickey's death, there were talks of making a movie from his last novel, To the White Sea, with the Coen Brothers in negotiations to direct.

Graduate of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee (B.A. in English, 1949; M.A. in English, 1950).

Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, 1966-1968.

Won a National Book Award in 1966 for his poetry collection "Buckdancer's Choice."

Worked for five years as an advertising copywriter in New York City and Atlanta.

Daughter Bronwen Dickey is a writer primarily known for her travel essays.

Taught at many colleges and universities, including Reed College (Portland, Oregon), San Fernando Valley State College (Northbridge, California), University of Florida (Gainesville), University of South Carolina (Columbia), University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee and Madison).

Father of Christopher Dickey.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, volume 105, pg. 163-174. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, Inc., 2002.

He had an intense dislike of the poetry of Sylvia Plath, and of the cult that grew up around her following her suicide in 1963. He once called her "the Judy Garland of poetry" and implied that her suicide had in fact been an accident and that she only meant to make it appear that she was suicidal as a means of gaining public sympathy.

The famous scene in "Deliverance" where Burt Reynolds kills the Bill McKinney character with a bow and arrow reflects Dickey's obsessive interest in archery. He would sometimes invite other writers to watch him practise his archery for an hour or more, with no suggestion that they might be allowed to shoot a few arrows themselves.