| L. E. Sissman | |
| Birth Name: | Louis Edward Sissman |
| Birth Date: | 1 January 1928 |
| Birth Place: | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard University |
| Awards: | Golden Rose Award National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry (1978) |
Louis Edward Sissman (January 1, 1928 Detroit – March 10, 1976) was an American poet and advertising executive.
Sissman was raised in Detroit. He went to private schools, and in 1941 he became a national spelling champion when he won the 17th Scripps National Spelling Bee. He was a Quiz Kid.
Near the end of World War II Sissman entered Harvard. He was expelled but returned, graduating in 1949 as Class Poet.
In the 1950s he worked at Prentice-Hall as a copyeditor in New York City. In the 1960s he worked at odd jobs, including campaigning for John F. Kennedy. Eventually, he was hired by Quinn and Johnson Advertising, in Boston, and he rose to the position of Creative Vice President. He married Anne, and lived in Still River.
In 1965, he discovered he had Hodgkin lymphoma. He fought the disease for a decade. He wrote book reviews and poems for The New Yorker,[1] monthly columns for The Atlantic, and was published in Harper's Magazine.[2]
His papers are housed at Harvard University.[3]