[1] Clampitt was born on June 15, 1920, of Quaker parents, and brought up in New Providence, Iowa.

At nearby Grinnell College and later in the American Academy of Arts and Letters she began a study of English literature that eventually led her to poetry.

To support herself, she worked as a secretary at the Oxford University Press, a reference librarian at the Audubon Society, and a freelance editor.

In the decade that followed, Clampitt published five books of poetry, including What the Light Was Like (1985), Archaic Figure (1987), and Westward (1990).

Clampitt also published a book of essays and several privately printed editions of her longer poems.