William Daniel Ehrhart (born September 30, 1948) is an American poet, writer, scholar and Vietnam veteran. Ehrhart has been called "the dean of Vietnam war poetry." Donald Anderson, editor of War, Literature and the Arts, said Ehrhart’s A Combat Marine Memoir, is “the best single, unadorned, gut-felt telling of one American’s route into and out of America’s longest war.” Ehrhart has been an active member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). He was a 1993 Pew Fellowships in the Arts.
Immediately upon graduating High School in June 1966, Ehrhart joined the United States Marine Corps, serving three years, including 13 months in Vietnam. Ehrhart, an Infantry Sergeant, was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries he received while fighting in Hue City. He subsequently earned bachelor's and master's degrees, and (at the age of 52) a doctorate. Over the years, he has held a wide variety of jobs, from merchant seaman to newspaper reporter to high school teacher. He currently teaches at The Haverford School.
Ehrhart began writing when he was 15 years old, and has been writing more or less continuously ever since. His first published work, a poem about Swarthmore College, appeared seven years later in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the following year eight of his poems were included in Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans. Exclusively a poet until he was almost 30, he has since written and published a wide variety of nonfiction prose from 400-word newspaper commentaries to 40-page scholarly essays to 400-page personal narratives.
The influence of Ehrhart's encounter with the Vietnam War can readily be seen in his writing, but though he is known primarily as a "Vietnam War poet," in fact his subject matter ranges widely. He has written essays and articles on such topics as radio disc jockeys, tugboats on the Delaware River, the Internal Revenue Service, and a variety of modern and contemporary poets including William Wantling to Daniel Hoffman. His wife and daughter are major sources of inspiration for his poetry. His poems also reflect his respect for nature, his love of friends, his active engagement with the world around him, and his consternation at the human condition.
The Madness of It All: Essays on War, Literature, and American Life, McFarland & Co., 2002.
Ordinary Lives: Platoon 1005 and the Vietnam War, Temple University Press, 1999.
Busted: A Vietnam Veteran in Nixon's America, University of Massachuetts Press, 1995.
In the Shadow of Vietnam: Essays 1977-1991, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1991.
Passing Time: Memoir of a Vietnam Veteran Against the War, McFarland & Co., 1989.
Going Back: An Ex-Marine Returns to Vietnam, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1987.
Vietnam-Perkasie: A Combat Marine Memoir, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1983.
Editor
Unaccustomed Mercy: Soldier-Poets of the Vietnam War, Texas Tech Univ. Press, 1989.
Carrying the Darkness: Poetry of the Vietnam War, Texas Tech University Press, 1989.
Co-editor
Retrieving Bones: Stories & Poems of the Korean War, Rutgers University Press, 1999.(with Philip K. Jason)
Demilitarized Zones: Veterans After Vietnam, East River Anthology, 1976. (with Jan Barry)
Anthologie
(Partial Listing)Poems & Prose have also been reprinted in over 100 anthologies, textbooks, cultural studies, critical studies and other books. Recent examples include:
American War Poetry, Goldensohn, ed., Columbia University Press, 2006.
