To be precise and reckless: that is the consummation devoutly to be wished.

James Dickey died on January 19 1997 six days after his last class at the University of South Carolina where from 1968 he taught as poet-in-residence. Between the wars he attended Vanderbilt University graduating with degrees in English and philosophy as well as minoring in astronomy. Air Force during the Korean War.

He was appointed the eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1966. James Lafayette Dickey (February 2 1923 – January 19 1997) was an American poet and novelist.