James Dickey

Born in Atlanta in 1923, Dickey attended Clemson College in 1942. He later received a bachelor of arts and a master of arts degree from Vanderbilt, where he graduated magna cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Dickey was the first living author inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors at Anderson College. Noted as a poet, critic, and novelist, Dickey is best known to the general public for Deliverance, a 1970 novel that later was made into a movie starring Burt Reynolds. Other Dickey works include prose poems entitled "Hericho" and "God's image." His book of poems Buckdancer's Choice won the National Book Award in 1966. ​Dickey died in South Carolina after a long illness in 1997.