Editing Wallace Stevens (section)

===Career===

After working in several New York law firms between 1904 and 1907, Stevens was hired in January 1908 as a lawyer for the American Bonding Company.<ref>Richardson, Joan. ''Wallace Stevens: The Early Years, 1879–1923'', New York: Beech Tree Books, 1986, p. 276.</ref> By 1914 he had become vice president of the New York office of the Equitable Surety Company of [[St. Louis, Missouri]].<ref>Richardson, ''The Early Years'', ''supra'', p. 424.</ref> When this job was made redundant after a merger in 1916, he joined the home office of [[The Hartford|Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company]]<ref>Richardson, ''The Early Years'', ''supra'', p. 445</ref> and moved to [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]], where he remained for the rest of his life. 
[[File:Wallace Stevens House - Hartford, CT.jpg|thumb|Stevens's Hartford residence.]]

Stevens's career as a businessman-lawyer by day and a poet during his leisure time has received significant attention, as summarized in Thomas Grey's ''The Wallace Stevens Case''. Grey has summarized parts of the responsibilities of Stevens's day-to-day life that involved the evaluation of surety insurance claims as follows: "If Stevens rejected a claim and the company was sued, he would hire a local lawyer to defend the case in the place where it would be tried. Stevens would instruct the outside lawyer through a letter reviewing the facts of the case and setting out the company's substantive legal position; he would then step out of the case, delegating all decisions on procedure and litigation strategy."<ref>Thomas Grey. ''The Wallace Stevens Case''. Harvard University Press. 1991. Page 17.</ref>

In 1917 Stevens and his wife moved to 210 Farmington Avenue, where they remained for the next seven years and where he completed his first book of poems, ''[[Harmonium (poetry collection)|Harmonium]]''.<ref name="poets.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/wallace-stevens-walk|title=The Wallace Stevens Walk &#124; Academy of American Poets}}</ref> From 1924 to 1932 he resided at 735 Farmington Avenue.<ref name="stevenspoetry.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.stevenspoetry.org/stevenshouse.htm|title = 118 Westerly Terrace}}</ref> In 1932 he purchased a 1920s Colonial at 118 Westerly Terrace, where he resided for the remainder of his life.<ref name="stevenspoetry.org"/> According to Mariani, Stevens was financially independent as an insurance executive by the mid-1930s, earning "$20,000 a year, equivalent to about $350,000 today [2016]. And this at a time (during [[The Great Depression]]) when many Americans were out of work, searching through trash cans for food."<ref>Mariani, Paul. ''The Whole Harmonium: The Life of Wallace Stevens'' – April 5, 2016. Page 182.</ref> [[Harriet Monroe]], reviewing ''Harmonium'' for [[Poetry (magazine)|''Poetry'']], wrote: "The delight which one breathes like a perfume from the poetry of Wallace Stevens is the natural effluence of his own clear and untroubled and humorously philosophical delight in the beauty of things as they are."<ref name=":Poetry Foundation"/> 
 
By 1934, Stevens had been named vice president of the company.<ref>Richardson, ''The Later Years'', ''supra'', p. 87.</ref> After he won the [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1955, he was offered a faculty position at Harvard but declined since it would have required him to give up his job at The Hartford.<ref>Richardson, ''The Later Years'', ''supra'', p. 423.</ref>

Throughout his life, Stevens was politically conservative.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kennedy_lfpd_9/22/5820/1490014.cw/index.html|title=Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama: Wallace Stevens: Biography|first1=Dana|last1=Gioia|first2=X.J.|last2=Kennedy|publisher=Longman|year=2005|access-date=February 14, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724011822/http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kennedy_lfpd_9/22/5820/1490014.cw/index.html|archive-date=July 24, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/21/home/stevens-biography.html|title=Books of The Times|first=John|last=Leonard|work=The New York Times|date=July 27, 1970}},</ref> The critic [[William York Tindall]] described him as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] in the mold of [[Robert A. Taft]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59685340|title=''Preface to'' Wallace Stevens: Images and Judgments|first=Harry T.|last=Moore|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|year=1963|page=xi}}</ref>