Howard Wilson Baker, 85; California-Oriented Poet, Farmer

Howard Wilson Baker, a California-oriented poet known for his elaborate stanza forms and frequent use of Greek imagery, has died in Porterville, Calif.

His wife and collaborator, Virginia Baker, said he was 85 when he died of cancer Wednesday at Sierra View District Hospital in Porterville.

Born in Philadelphia, Baker lived with American expatriates in Paris during the post-World War I years, taught at Harvard in the 1940s, at UC Berkeley and Davis in the ‘50s and ‘60s and became a successful California citrus farmer while continuing to write his odes.

Critic William Van O’Connor wrote that Baker “writes a quiet poem that is obviously the work of a considerable critical intelligence and craftsmanship.”

Baker’s subjects ranged from Greek literature to the Mardi Gras on to California’s farms and valleys. In 1966, a Los Angeles Times critic called his “Ode to the Sea and Other Poems” a work of “fine lyric lines” and “as refreshing as light rain.”

His other works include a novel, “Orange Valley,” another collection of poems, “Letter From the County,” and a play, “Trio.” His work is represented in several anthologies, among them “Oxford Book of American Verse” and “Understanding Poetry.”