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Very good in Very good jacket. viii, [1], 174, [4] pages. Illustrations. Slight DJ wear and soiling. Frontis illustration. A Forewarned Word by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Preface. Chronology. Section BY PATCHEN. Section ABOUT PATCHEN. INDEX Part One (By Patchen) and Part Two (About Patchen). Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911-January 8, 1972) was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Patchen's biographer wrote that he "developed in his fabulous fables, love poems, and picture poems a deep yet modern mythology that conveys a sense of compassionate wonder amidst the world's violence." Along with his friend and peer Kenneth Rexroth, he was a central influence on the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation. Throughout his life Patchen was a fervent pacifist, as he made clear in much of his work. He was strongly opposed to the involvement of the United States in World War II. In his own words, "I speak for a generation born in one war and doomed to die in another." This controversial view, coupled with his physical immobilization, may have prevented wider recognition or success beyond what some consider a "cult" following. Patchen's first book of poetry, Before the Brave, was published by Random House in 1936. His earliest collections of poetry were his most political and led to his being championed, in the 1930s, as a "proletariat poet". He continued to push himself into more and more experimental styles and forms. Although he did not achieve widespread fame during his lifetime, a small but dedicated following of fans and scholars continue to celebrate Patchen's art. The University of California, Santa Cruz, hosts an archive of his work, entitled "Patchenobilia, " and many bookstores around the San Francisco Bay Area, Patchen's final home, continue to host jazz and poetry events which include his works. In Jimmy Buffett's 1973 album A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, one of his songs is about Kenneth Patchen--Death of an Unpopular Poet. In a November 10, 2015 video on youtube, entitled Jimmy Buffett-Death of an Unpopular Poet, from a November 5, 2015 concert in Key West, Buffett first explains his fascination with Patchen's poetry before singing this song which Buffett says he loves. Between 1987 and 1991 there were Kenneth Patchen Festivals, celebrating his work, in Warren, Ohio, which encompasses the town of Niles, where Patchen was born and grew up. These festivals were sponsored by the Trumbull Art Gallery in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Cruz. The little street where he lived as a child was renamed Patchen Avenue by the town of Niles. In 2007, Gallery 324 in the Galleria at Erieview in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, held a Kenneth Patchen Festival reception on April 13. Featured were Larry Smith of Bottom Dog Press, Doug Manson, editor of Celery Flute Player (a Kenneth Patchen newsletter), numerous colorful Kenneth Patchen silkscreens on loan from the Trumbull Art Guild in Warren, and Douglas Paisley's paintings of The Journal of Albion Moonlight with text. The following day, at the same gallery M. L. Liebler and the Magic Poetry Band from Detroit accompanied readings by poets Chris Franke, Jim Lang, and others. Later that night, the festival moved uptown to The Barking Spider Tavern in the University Circle area for poetry readings accompanied by the Cleveland band The John Richmond All-Stars. In 2011, Kelly's Cove Press published Kenneth Patchen: A Centennial Selection, edited by Patchen's friend Jonathan Clark, in celebration of the centenary of Patchen's birth. In April 2012, Allen Frost published the Selected Correspondence of Kenneth Patchen, which includes letters between Patchen and James Laughlin, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Henry Miller, Amos Wilder, Dylan Thomas, Thomas Wolfe and E. E. Cummings. A full-color...
