Donald Merriam Allen (

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, 1912 –

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, August 29, 2004) was an American

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

, publisher and translator of American literature. He is best known for his project ''

The New American Poetry 1945-1960 ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' (1960), one of the anthologies of contemporary American writing he released.

Early life

Allen began his working life as a Japanese translator within the US military, serving during WWII.

Career

After his service ended, Allen became an editor at

Grove Press Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United S ...

, where he worked for 16 years. He was one of the first translators of the Romanian-French Absurdist playwright

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre#Avant-garde, French avant-garde th ...

, and Allen's 1958 volume ''Four Plays of Eugène Ionesco'' helped to introduce the playwright to American audiences in the 1960s. Along with editing works by

Lew Welch Lewis Barrett Welch Jr. (August 16, 1926 – May 23, 1971) was an American poet associated with the Beat generation literary movement. Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s. He taught a poetry workshop as part of the University o ...

, Allen edited

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

, including ''Collected Poems'' (1971; 1991) and ''Selected Poems'' (1974). He is referred to directly in O'Hara's "Personal Poem" which is in ''

Lunch Poems ''Lunch Poems'' is a book of poetry by Frank O'Hara published in 1964 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights, number 19 in their Pocket Poets series. The collection was commissioned by Ferlinghetti as early as 1959, but O'Hara delayed in compl ...

'', a book Allen also edited. O'Hara writes, in reference to a conversation he had with

LeRoi Jones Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous b ...

, "we don't like Lionel Trilling/we decide, we like Don Allen."

John Rechy John Francisco Rechy (born March 10, 1931) is a Mexican-American novelist and essayist. His novels are written extensively about gay culture in Los Angeles and wider America, among other subject matter. '' City of Night'', his debut novel publis ...

records in his memoirs that Allen offered him the contract to publish ''

City of Night ''City of Night'' is a novel written by John Rechy. It was originally published in 1963 in New York by ''Grove Press''. Earlier excerpts had appeared in '' Evergreen Review'', ''Big Table'', ''Nugget'', and ''The London Magazine''. ''City o ...

''. In 1960, Allen moved from New York to San Francisco, where he established Grey Fox Press and the Four Seasons Foundation, two literary presses where he continued to publish works from Beat, San Francisco Renaissance, Black Mountain, and New York School writers. As the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Grey Fox Press, he published works by

Jack Spicer Jack Spicer (January 30, 1925 – August 17, 1965) was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'' won the American Book Award for poetry. ...

, along with ''Enough Said'' (1980) by

Philip Whalen Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dalles f ...

, and ''I Remain'' (1980), a collection of Welch's letters. Other authors published by Grey Fox Press included

Richard Brautigan Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. He wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four books of poetry. Brautigan's work has been publi ...

, Robert Duncan,

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

Joanne Kyger Joanne Kyger (November 19, 1934 – March 22, 2017) was an American poet. The author of over 30 books of poetry and prose, Kyger was associated with the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, the Beat Generation, Black Mountain, and the New Y ...

Philip Lamantia Philip Lamantia (October 23, 1927 – March 7, 2005) was an American poet, writer and lecturer. His poetry incorporated stylistic experimentation and transgressive themes, and has been regarded as surrealist and visionary, contributing to the ...

Charles Olson Charles John Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modernist United States poetry, American poet who was a link between earlier Literary modernism, modernist figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams an ...

Michael Rumaker Michael Rumaker (March 5, 1932 - June 3, 2019) was an American author whose life intersected with writers and other artists identified with the ''Beat Generation''; studied at Black Mountain College; and found inspiration in AIDS Coalition to Unlea ...

, Aaron Shurin, and

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...

. Also in 1960, Allen edited the anthology ''The New American Poetry''. In that book, released through Grey Fox Press, Allen included "Statements of Poetics," which was an experimental aesthetics discussion from

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. An author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and ...

, Whalen, Snyder,

Michael McClure Michael McClure (October 20, 1932 – May 4, 2020) was an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famo ...

, Jones,

John Wieners John Joseph Wieners (January 6, 1934 – March 1, 2002) was an American poet. Early life Born in Milton, Massachusetts, Wieners attended St. Gregory Elementary School in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and Boston College High School. From 1950 to 19 ...

, along with Kerouac and

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

. While working with the Four Seasons Foundation, Allen also assisted in the publication of (among others): ''Interviews'' (1980) by Edward Dorn, ''A Quick Graph: Collected Notes and Essays'' (1970) by

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than 60 books. He is associated with the Black Mountain poets, although his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. Creeley was close with Charle ...

, and ''The Graces'' (1983) by Aaron Shurin. In 1997, Allen helped edit, along with Benjamin Friedlander, the ''Collected Prose of

'' (University of California Press).

Grey Fox Press

Grey Fox Press and Four Seasons Foundation were among the many emerging presses that

City Lights ''City Lights'' is a 1931 American synchronized sound film, sound romance film, romantic comedy drama, comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a ...

distributed in the late 1960s, and when Don Allen began thinking about retirement, City Lights offered to acquire the backlists. Today, City Lights publishes the significant works from these presses in their City Lights/Grey Fox series. The Donald Allen Collection, processed in 1991 for a special collection series at the

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

library, contains materials which Allen published through the Four Seasons Foundation and Grey Fox Press. The papers document Allen's editing and publishing works dating from 1957 to 1975, although some material is from the 1930s.

References

External links

''Great Anthology: The New American Poetry: 1945-1960''
article at "The Academy of American Poets" website

article by

Marjorie Perloff Marjorie Perloff (born Gabriele Mintz; September 28, 1931 – March 24, 2024) was an Austrian-born American poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry. Perloff was a professor at Catholic University, the University of ...

to Donald M. Allen''
at Empty Mirror Books website

by Kevin Killian

MSS 3
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Donald 1912 births 2004 deaths Poets from Iowa American book publishers (people) Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area 20th-century American poets American military personnel of World War II