Philip Levine | Prize-winning poet, 87

Philip Levine, 87, a former poet laureate who won the Pulitzer Prize in writing that celebrates the lives of the working class, died Saturday at home in Fresno, Calif., his wife said Sunday.

Born and raised in industrial Detroit, Mr. Levine is known for books such as What Work Is and News of the World. He won the Pulitzer for poetry in 1995 for a collection called The Simple Truth, and he served as the country's poet-in-chief from 2011 to 2012.

Before turning to writing full time, Mr. Levine worked blue-collar jobs in factories and driving trucks, which became the material for his poetry.

He settled in California in 1958, where he taught at California State University, Fresno, for more than three decades and at universities across the country.

Mr. Levine had been diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer less than one month before his death, said Frances Levine, his wife of 60 years. Mr. Levine is also survived by three sons. - AP