American poet Mary Oliver was BOTD in 1935. Born in Maple Heights, Ohio, she had a turbulent childhood, marked by what she described as “a very dysfunctional family” and sexual abuse. She developed a love of nature from an early age and began writing poetry at 14. She attended Ohio State University and Vassar College but left without completing a degree. She spent the next seven years working for the estate of Edna St Vincent Millay, helping organise Millay’s papers for publication. Her first volume of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, was published in 1963, earning respectful comparisons to Millay’s work. After publishing steadily over 20 years, she became an overnight celebrity when her 1983 collection American Primitive won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Notable for its elegant simplicity, Primitive expressed a sense of wonder at the natural world, drawing from the traditions of 19th century Transcendentalist writers Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau. By 2007, at the age of 72, she was declared America’s best-selling poet. She met Molly Malone Cook in the late 1950s, who became her literary agent and life partner. They lived together in Provincetown for over 40 years until Cook’s death in 2005. Oliver’s popularity continued throughout the 2000s, with endorsements from high-profile fans including Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama. She retired to Florida, continuing to write and publish until her death in 2019, aged 83.