Born in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1914, William Stafford claims his mother as his strongest literary influence. This poet and author earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Kansas and his doctorate from the University of Iowa. In 1948, he began his more than 30-year teaching career at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. During his lifetime, Stafford published more than 50 books, won the National Book Award, and was the poetry consultant to the Library of Congress. He was also Oregon's poet laureate—the state's most famous or most representative poet—from 1975 to just before his death in 1993. Stafford was a conscientious objector—a person who refuses to serve in the armed forces or bear arms for moral or religious reasons—during World War II (1939–1945). During this time he began his habit of writing before sunrise each day. Best known for his poetry, William Stafford typically wrote a poem a day. He even wrote a poem—"Are You Mr. Stafford?"—on the day he died.