Nick Virgilio was born in Camden in 1928. He grew up with two brothers in the Fairview section of Camden. his father was a violinist.
Virgilio graduated from Camden High in 1946 and entered the Navy that same year. When he left the Navy in 1948 he enrolled at Temple University and got his degree in 1952.
In the 1950s Virgilio worked as a radio announcer in various locations. In 1958 he returned to Camden. He lived there the rest of his life.
Virgilio discovered haiku in 1962 and began to write it right away. Like Walt Whitman, he was not able to support himself as a poet, but he did begin to get a following that grew over the years. One of his first supporters was Father Michael Doyle at Camden's Sacred Heart Church.
His first collection of poems was published in 1985. By then, Nick Virgilio was considered the best haiku poet in the English language. Haiku is more difficult to write in English than in Japanese, so Virgilio experimented with the form, changing the syllables sometimes as needed, but keeping the three-line form.
Virgilio's youngest brother, Larry, was killed in the Vietnam War. This inspired some of the most famous of Virgilio's haikus. Many others were inspired by his life in Camden, the environment he lived in, and the people he met.
He died in 1989 as he was waiting to film a television show about his poetry. He is buried in Harleigh Cemetery, in a grave that can be seen from Walt Whitman's burial place.
