Thomas McGrath; Poet Was Blacklisted in ‘50s

MINNEAPOLIS — Thomas McGrath, 73, poet and professor blacklisted during the 1950s McCarthy era, died on Thursday after a long illness.

McGrath, who was fired by Cal State Los Angeles for his refusal to testify before a government committee investigating communism, worked as a film writer and factory and farm worker until the 1960s, when he was hired to teach at North Dakota State University. He retired in 1981 from Moorhead State University in Minnesota.

McGrath wrote 20 books of poetry and fiction. He achieved his greatest fame with “Selected Poems, 1938-88,” which won the 1989 Lenore Marshall-Nation Prize and the first Minnesota Book Award for poetry.