By Heidi Marshall

Chicago native and poet Gwendolyn Brooks taught at Columbia College from 1963 to 1969. She received the college’s first honorary degree, a Doctor of Humane Letters, in 1964. The commencement program for that year used Walt Whitman’s portrayal of poets to describe her:

With soul of love and tongue of fire!
Eye to pierce the deepest deeps and sweep the world! ....
You are the poet of the great idea, the idea
perfect and free individuals.”

Brooks was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949 for "Annie Allen" and was named the poet laureate of Illinois in 1968. She is pictured here instructing a class at Columbia’s former location at 540 North Lake Shore Drive, where she taught and oversaw the college’s poetry curriculum.

Heidi Marshall is Columbia’s college archivist. If you have photos or materials you think might be of interest for the archives, let her know!
hmarshall@colum.edu / 312.369.8689. Visit the Columbia archives online at lib.colum.edu/archives.