Robert Bly, poet and ‘Iron John’ author, dies at 95

Robert Bly’s book “Iron John” was a New York Times bestseller for more than two years. | Sun-Times file

Though an award winner for his poetry, the writer found his greatest fame for a work of prose, his 1990 meditation on modern masculinity.

MINNEAPOLIS — Robert Bly, one of the most prominent American poets of the last half century and author of the best-selling men’s movement classic “Iron John,” has died. He was 95.

His daughter, Mary Bly, said her father died Sunday at his home in Minneapolis after suffering from dementia for 14 years.

“Dad had no pain. … His whole family was around him, so how much better can you do?” she told The Associated Press.

Bly was born and raised in the western Minnesota town of Madison. In 1968, he won the National Book Award for his second poetry collection, “The Light Around the Body,” a book of Vietnam War protest poems. Bly donated his $1,000 prize money to the draft resistance movement.

But Bly found his greatest fame for a work of prose called “Iron John: A Book About Men.” His meditation on modern masculinity was released in 1990, and spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list.

Mary Bly urged fans to send memorial donations to their favorite poetry associations.

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