Twentieth century nonfiction was mostly written about the changes America was
             going through. Archibald MacLeish, a well-known poet,laywright, and public official, wrote about
             the social and political issues of the time. He argued that the personality of the poet should be
             independent from the integrity of the poem's existence. His public service work and concern for the social problems through his writing, make him a true all-American.
             Archibald MacLeish was born in 1892 in glencoe, Illinois. He served in World
             War I before studying law and earning a degree at Harvard. He was determined to concentrate
             on his writing so he joined the colony of famous writers in Paris. He wrote verses that reflected
             the many artistic and social concerns of the day. He wrote the volumes The Happy Marriage,
             The Pot of Earth, Streets on the Moon, and The Hamlet of a MacLeish during that time also.
             When he returned to his Massachusetts farm in 1928 he became editor of Fortune. He still
             continued to write poems and dramatic verse. His sense of socila concern was combined with his
             art. MacLeish's best poems are morally sensitive explorations of the human perdicament.
             Influences for his poetry were myth and literary tradition. Other influences were Ezra Pound and
             T.S. Eliot. He also used biblical stories. A verse play J.B. was based on the book of Job. He won a Pulitzer prize for that play. MacLeish was successful in his lifetime winning a total of three Pulitzer prizes. the other were for Conquistador, about the spanish conquest, and Collected Poems.
             In the essay "the Unimagined America", from A Continuing Journey, Archibald MacLeish writes about the power of imagination and how it built America today. He calls upon
             Americans to be more imaginative and have faith in the future. His purpoes for writing the essay
             was to make readers aware of the fact that America took alot of creativity to be what it is today. ...