Not a single movement, but a constellation of writers and artists active in the San Francisco Bay Area at the end of World War II. Poets associated with the San Francisco Renaissance include Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, Robin Blaser, Jack Spicer, and Michael McClure. Though the poets wrote in different styles and often espoused different aesthetic and political views, all favored the Modernist tradition of innovation, and many were influenced by Charles Olson and the Black Mountain School. Donald Allen’s influential anthology The New American Poets included a section devoted to the “San Francisco Renaissance,” and many claim that by labeling the group, Allen in some way invented it. However, the poets writing in San Francisco at that time were active and influential across many genres, and often read and collaborated with one another.
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San Francisco Renaissance
A constellation of writers and artists active in the San Francisco Bay Area at the end of World War II, including Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, Robin Blaser, Jack Spicer, and Michael McClure.
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- Glossary Terms
- AuthorAlthough known primarily among a coterie of poets in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time of his death in 1965, over time, Jack Spicer has become a towering figure in American poetry. His numerous poetry...
- AuthorSongwriter, playwright, poet, artist, and photographer Helen Adam was born in Glasgow, Scotland and studied at Edinburgh University before moving to the United States in 1939. As a teen in Scotland, she established...
- AuthorBeat poet, playwright, novelist, and documentary filmmaker Michael McClure was born in Marysville, Kansas, and raised there and in Seattle. Educated at the University of Wichita, the University of Arizona,...
- AuthorDescribed by Kenneth Rexroth as “one of the most accomplished, one of the most influential” of the postwar American poets, Robert Duncan was an important part of both the Black Mountain school of poetry, led...
- AuthorPoet, editor, and essayist Robin Blaser is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Nomad (Slug Press, 1995), Syntax (Talonbooks, 1983), Cups (Four Seasons Foundation, 1968), and The Moth Pœ...
- AuthorKenneth Rexroth was born in South Bend, Indiana and frequently moved around the Midwest during his childhood. He led a tumultuous life that included being orphaned at 14, constant traveling both in the US ...
- AuthorGary Snyder began his career in the 1950s as a noted member of the “Beat Generation,” though he has since explored a wide range of social and spiritual matters in both poetry and prose. Snyder’s work blends...