Page "Denise Levertov" Paragraph 2

When she was five years old she declared she would be a writer.

At the age of 12, she sent some of her poems to T. S. Eliot, who replied with a two-page letter of encouragement.

In 1940, when she was 17, Levertov published her first poem.

During the Blitz, Levertov served in London as a civilian nurse.

Her first book, The Double Image, was published six years later.

In 1947, she married American writer Mitchell Goodman and moved with him to the United States the following year.

Although Levertov and Goodman would eventually divorce, they had a son, Nikolai, and lived mainly in New York City, summering in Maine.

In 1955, she became a naturalized American citizen.