Born in 1919, Clinton F. Larson as a 16 year- old freshman at the University of Utah was planning on a career in medicine. It was an English class taught by Brewster Ghiselin that changed the course of his life. Ghiselin saw the potential in Larson's writing and encouraged him to seriously pursue it. Ghislein once was a student of D. H. Lawrence and Larson would later joke about being "a literary grandson of D. H. Lawrence."
Larson ended up teaching at Brigham Young University and in 1974 was appointed BYU's first Poet-in-Residence, a position that he held until his retirement in 1985. He was devoted to his students and never missed a day of class during his teaching career.
A prolific poet, he wrote over 5 volumes of poetry. He was also a prolific playwright, composing primarily poetic dramas on a variety of subjects. He enjoyed writing on religious topics and in the 1960s he wrote the text for the sixteen volumes of The Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon.
Larson served as an editor for several compilations of national and international poetry. He was also one of the founders of BYU Studies, the Rocky Mountain Writers' Convention, and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Larson passed away in 1994.
