Originally published at The American Conservative.

Donald Fagen, the lead singer of Steely Dan, tells a story about the poet Anthony Hecht that does not appear in David Yezzi’s new biography. In 1966, “my formerly tweedy, graying poetry professor, Anthony Hecht,” returned for the fall semester at Bard College “in gray-and-white-striped Uncle Sam bell-bottoms, a bright paisley shirt, a suede vest and Beatle boots.” Hecht had apparently spent the summer in Haight-Ashbury. He soon reverted to his usual tweed, but it inspired Fagen to go see San Francisco for himself.

Hecht’s influence on the lyrics of Steely Dan may be his most widely appreciated legacy today, given how few Americans read poetry anymore. The influence is obvious. Hecht was a formalist with a wry sense of humor. His poems are disciplined, articulate, and clever, always anchored to a moment, a place, and specific characters. “Kid Charlemagne,” the song that came out of Fagen’s own trip to San Francisco, has lines Hecht could have written.

Read the rest at The American Conservative.