The series had already published four books, all written by Yale students, and the judges sought to attract a nationwide pool of applicants.

[5] Although the contest was briefly opened to any writer of English-language poetry under Auden's judgeship, it has remained limited to American citizens ever since.

[7] The competition's first judge, Charlton Miner Lewis, was a prominent professor in Yale's English department.

[8] The inaugural competition took place after the end of World War I, just as an influx of young veterans returned from fighting in Europe and entered college.

[9] Modernist poetry emerged in this period, but early entries in the series reflected the neoclassical tastes of the older generation adjudicating the competition, all men who had received degrees from Yale in the late-19th century.

The period was also notable for the two-time refusal of Sylvia Plath's manuscript Two Lovers,[14] and Colossus, which was subsequently published in England.