Background
Langland, Joseph Thomas was born on February 16, 1917 in Spring Grove, Minnesota, United States. Son of Charles M. and Clara Elizabeth (Hille) Langland.
Langland, Joseph Thomas was born on February 16, 1917 in Spring Grove, Minnesota, United States. Son of Charles M. and Clara Elizabeth (Hille) Langland.
Bachelor, University Iowa, 1940. Master of Arts, 1941. Doctor of Letters (honorary), Luther College, 1974.
Born in Spring Grove, Minnesota, Langland was raised in Northeastern Iowa on the family farm. Langland received both a bachelor"s degree (1940) and a master"s degree (1941) from the University of Iowa. He served in the United States. Army as an infantryman during World World War World War II After the war, Langland taught part-time at the University of Iowa and then joined the faculty of University of Wyoming, teaching there from 1948 to 1959.
He then moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he founded the Master of Fine Arts Program for Poets & Writers.
He was a faculty member at UMass from 1959–1979 and a professor emeritus from 1979 until his death in 2007. His work appeared in Massachusetts Review, Paris Review, The Nation, The New Yorker.
They had three children: Joseph Thomas Junior., (1946?). Elizabeth, (1948); and Paul, (1951).
He died April 9, 2007 at his home in New Rochelle, New York at the age of 90.
His papers are held at Luther College in Iowa.
Served to captain, infantry Army of the United States, 1942-1946, European Theatre of Operations.
Married Judith Gail Wood, June 26, 1943. Children– Joseph Thomas, Elizabeth Langland, Paul.