美國有正在衰退的歐洲文明所缺乏的東西，“一種必要的抵抗，那就是根本性的給和取，對藝術至關重要”。無疑，約翰·古爾德·弗萊徹（John Gould Fletcher，1886—1950）已達到這一點，他的《詩選》贏得1939年普利策奬。他跟T.S.艾略特和埃茲拉·龐德一起，曾屬於一個移居國外者的實驗小組，他們感覺到歐洲比美國更適宜於藝術傢。他居留國外二十年以上，在那裏寫作大量實驗性的自由詩。但自從1933年起，他生活在美國。
弗萊徹先生在阿肯色州度過童年時代。他的父親，一個邦聯老兵，來自蘇格蘭拓荒者的一個傢族。詩人在傢裏跟着他媽媽學習，媽媽是一個有學問有才華、有德國和丹麥血統的婦女。他討厭數學，喜愛歷史，“覺得他父親的房子裏戰前南方的存在深深地影響他”，讀斯科特、坦尼森、柯勒律治、莎士比亞和《聖經》。在安多弗和哈佛的中學和大學時代，他開始寫詩。他在畢業之前離校了。他以為他想成為一個考古學家；但當他出國花費了五年時間跟他的文學朋友一起，閱讀法國象徵主義，寫下很多他從來沒有出版的詩，以及雖然出版了而他自己從不喜歡的一本詩集。這個時候他開始賦予他的詩歌以自由形式，“按照感覺的情形和他的材料的條件”，他開始寫關於“一個人能聽見的、看見的、嗅到的和嘗到的東西”。艾米·洛威爾發現他的這種詩歌，說服他在她著名的、廣為探討的選集《意象派詩人》裏露臉。從那時以來，他不但寫了很多詩歌和文學評論，而且寫了他的自傳。1933年他從阿肯色大學獲得法學博士學位，1939年他的《詩選》獲得普利策奬。
John Gould Fletcher (January 3, 1886 – May 10, 1950) was an Imagist poet (the first Southern poet to win the Pulitzer Prize), author and authority on modern painting. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to a socially prominent family. After attending Phillips Academy, Andover, Fletcher went on to Harvard University from 1903 to 1907, but dropped out shortly after his father's death.
Background
Fletcher lived in England for a large portion of his life. While in Europe he associated with Amy Lowell, Ezra Pound, and other Imagist poets; he was one of the six Imagists who adopted the name and stuck to it until their aims were achieved. Fletcher resumed a liaison with Florence Emily "Daisy" Arbuthnot (née Goold) at her house in Kent. She had been married to Malcolm Arbuthnot and Fletcher's adultery with her was the grounds for the divorce. The couple married on July 5, 1916. The marriage produced no children, but Arbuthnot's son and daughter from her previous marriage lived with the couple, who later divorced.
On January 18, 1936, Fletcher married a noted author of children's books, Charlie May Simon. The two of them built "Johnswood", a residence on the bluffs of the Arkansas River, then outside Little Rock. They traveled frequently to New York for the intellectual stimulation, and to the American West and South for the climate, after Fletcher developed chronic arthritis.
Fletcher suffered from depression, and on May 10, 1950, died by suicide by drowning himself in a pond near his home in Little Rock, Arkansas. Fletcher is buried at historic Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock. A branch of the Central Arkansas Library System is named in his honor.