Peter Elbow

Peter Elbow was born in New York City, the youngest of three children. His father, C. William Elbow, owned an elegant men’s clothing shop in Paterson, NJ. His mother, Helen Platt Elbow, was an artist. He was raised as well by Estelle Jones, whom he considered to be a second mother. 

He grew up in Fairlawn, NJ, with long summers in an old farmhouse on Martha’s Vineyard, MA. 

Peter’s passion as a teenager was skiing. He chose his boarding school (Proctor Academy in New Hampshire) because skiing was compulsory. He chose Williams College in Massachusetts because it had a good ski team – but not so good that he couldn’t get on it. He was a “three-event man”, competing in downhill, cross-country and jumping under a beloved coach, Ralph Townsend, who had served in the Tenth Mountain Division during World War II. Peter graduated from Williams in 1957. 

After Williams, he studied at Oxford University in England for two years, receiving his MA in English Language & Literature. He then started graduate school at Harvard University, but left after 1.5 semesters due to severe writer’s block. He eventually returned to graduate school and received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1968. 

Peter taught at MIT (in the Humanities Department) for seven years. He was a founding teacher at Franconia College, a brand new experimental college in New Hampshire, as one of only five faculty with 80 students. He spent nine years at The Evergreen State College in Olympia WA, beginning in the college’s second teaching year. After a one-year visiting professorship at Wesleyan University in Middletown CT, he moved to the State University of New York at Stony Brook as Director of the Writing Program. He then spent many years at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in the English Department and the Writing Program. He retired from teaching in 2000 but never retired from writing. 

Peter Elbow became a household name in the writing and English communities. His breakout book, Writing Without Teachers (Oxford University Press, 1973), was based on his own experience overcoming his inability to write at Oxford and Harvard. His technique of “freewriting” – letting the words come with no self-censorship, no self-editing and no self-criticism – empowered many thousands of people to be able to write and use their own voice to do so. 

His other most popular books include Writing With Power, Everyone Can Write and Vernacular Eloquence, as well as Oppositions in Chaucer (based on his dissertation), several textbooks and about 100 academic essays and articles. 

Peter met Cami Pelz in 1970 in Cambridge MA, and they married on July 8, 1972 at Cami’s parents’ hilltop cabin in Stephentown NY, overlooking the Taconic Range of mountains. They moved to Seattle in 2014 to be closer to their two children – Abby, a nurse, and Ben, a middle school PE teacher – who both live in Anchorage AK. 

An avid amateur violist, he performed for many years with the Pioneer Valley Symphony in Greenfield MA and with Valley Light Opera in Amherst MA. After moving to Seattle, he played with the New Baroque Orchestra and with the Haydn & Beyond workshops at the Music Center of the Northwest. In Horizon House, he performed at numerous Camerata sessions and played frequently for residents in Assisted living, as well as hosting weekly string trios and quartets with friends in his HH apartment. 

Peter died peacefully at Virginia Mason Hospital, with Cami and his children at his side, surrounded by their laughter, stories and love, just as he would have wanted. He is survived by his wife Cami, daughter Abby, son Ben (and his wife Sarah Stone), and grand-daughters Izzy and Hettie. 

He was pre-deceased by his siblings, Joan Elbow Cordier of Carry-le-Rouet, France, and William Thayer Elbow of Edgartown MA. 

A memorial service will be scheduled at a later time. Gifts in Peter’s memory may be made to the American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia PA 19102.