Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. Both his father and grandfather kept greenhouses. These greenhouses had a profound effect on Roethke and would figure largely in his future writing. He graduated from Michigan State University, continued his education at Harvard, and went on to teach English at various universities. His first book of poetry, Open House, was full of the imagery of plants and growth that would characterize his later work as well.

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965), poet, novelist, and literary critic, was born in Nashville, Tennessee. While in high school he was involved in acting and journalism. He attended Vanderbilt University and became an instructor of English. He loved teaching and has often said that if he were a rich man, he'd pay money to teach. His classes were always full, and his students loved him. During World War II, Jarrell served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flying cadet. He hated the war and wrote about its evil and tragedy in two volumes of poetry, Little Friend, Little Friend (1945) and Losses (1948). Many critics believe that these poems are America's best literature about World War II.

Jarrell's poetry collection The Woman at the Washington Zoo received the National Book Award in 1961. During the early 1960s Jarrell began writing children's books. The Bat-Poet (1963), The Animal Family (1965), dedicated to the family cat, Elfi, and Fly By Night (published in 1976, after Jarrell's death) all were illustrated by Maurice Sendak. His last book of poetry, The Lost World, was published by Macmillan in the spring of 1965. Jarrell was killed that same year while walking beside a highway in North Carolina.