Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the

San Francisco Renaissance The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco, which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetry avant-garde in the 1950s. However, others (e.g., Alan Watt ...

, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider himself to be a

Beat poet The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...

, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine. Largely self-educated, Rexroth learned several languages and translated poems from Chinese, French,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, and Japanese.

Early life

Rexroth was born Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth in

South Bend South Bend is a city in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It lies along the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. It is the List of cities in ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, the son of Charles Rexroth, a pharmaceuticals salesman, and Delia Reed. His childhood was troubled by his father's

alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...

and his mother's

chronic illness A chronic condition (also known as chronic disease or chronic illness) is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term ''chronic'' is often applied when the ...

. His mother died in 1916 and his father in 1919, after which he went to live with his aunt in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and enrolled in the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

. At age 19, he hitchhiked across the country, taking odd jobs and working a stint as a Forest Service trail crew hand, cook and packer at the Marblemount Ranger Station in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

.Suiter 2002, p. 81

Poetry career

In the 1930s, Rexroth was associated with the

Objectivists Objectivism is a philosophical system named and developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive a ...

, a largely New York group gathered around

Louis Zukofsky Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was an American poet. He was the primary instigator and theorist of the so-called "Objectivist" poets, a short lived collective of poets who after several decades of obscurity would reemerge a ...

and George Oppen. He was included in the 1931 issue of ''

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

'' magazine dedicated to Objectivist poetry, and in the 1932 '' An “Objectivists” Anthology''. Much of Rexroth's work can be classified as "erotic" or "love poetry", given his deep fascination with transcendent love. According to Hamill and Kleiner, "nowhere is Rexroth's verse more fully realized than in his erotic poetry". With ''The Love Poems of Marichiko'', Rexroth claimed to have translated the poetry of a contemporary, "young Japanese woman poet", but it was later disclosed that he was the author, and he gained critical recognition for having conveyed so authentically the feelings of someone of another gender and culture.Weinberger 1986, pp. 117-118 Linda Hamalian, his biographer, suggests that, "translating the work of women poets from China and Japan reveals a transformation of both heart and mind". Kenneth Rexroth Street

With Rexroth acting as master of ceremonies,

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 ...

, Philip Lamantia,

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 ...

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 ...

, and Philip Whalen performed at the famous Six Gallery reading on October 7, 1955. Rexroth later testified as a defense witness at Ferlinghetti's

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...

trial for publishing "Howl". Rexroth had previously sent Ginsberg (new in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

) to meet Snyder, and was thus responsible for their friendship.

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 ...

named Rexroth as one of his own mentors. Rexroth was eventually critical of the Beat movement. Years after the Six Gallery reading, ''Time'' referred to him as "Father of the Beats. Rexroth ostensibly appears in

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 ...

's novel '' The Dharma Bums'' as Reinhold Cacoethes.

Politics

As a young man in Chicago, Rexroth was involved with the

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

movement and was active in the IWW. Fellow poet

recalled that Rexroth self-identified as a philosophical anarchist, regularly associated with other anarchists in North Beach, and sold Italian

anarchist newspapers Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

at the

City Lights Bookstore City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected ...

. Rexroth, a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

, was a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Painter

Rexroth trained as an artist and was an avid painter into his 40s. His mediums were usually wax and silica on Masonite or board. In his introduction to an undated auction catalog of Rexroth's paintings, critic Bradford Morrow observes that his early works were mainly abstract, often geometric reminiscent of Mondrian, but that as time went on, Rexroth turned to more figurative treatment of his subjects.

Last years

Rexroth died in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

, on June 6, 1982. He had spent his final years translating Japanese and Chinese women poets, as well as promoting the work of female poets in America and overseas. The year before his death, on Easter, Rexroth converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

.Hamalian 1991, p. 367

Works

As author

(all titles poetry except where indicated) *''In What Hour?'' (1940). New York: The Macmillan Company *''The Phoenix and the Tortoise'' (1944). New York: New Directions Press *''The Art of Worldly Wisdom'' (1949). Prairie City, Il: Decker Press (reissued in 1953 by Golden Goose and 1980 by Morrow & Covici) *''The Signature of All Things'' (1949). New York: New Directions *'' Beyond the Mountains: Four Plays in Verse'' (1951). New York: New Directions Press *''The Dragon and the Unicorn'' (1952). New York: New Directions Press *''Thou Shalt Not Kill: A Memorial for Dylan Thomas'' (1955). Mill Valley: Goad Press *''In Defense of the Earth'' (1956). New York: New Directions Press *''Bird in the Bush: Obvious Essays'' (1959) New York: New Directions *''Assays'' (1961) New York: New Directions (essays) *''Natural Numbers: New and Selected Poems'' (1963). New York: New Directions *''Classics Revisited'' (1964; 1986). New York: New Directions (essays). *''Collected Shorter Poems'' (1966). New York: New Directions. *''An Autobiographical Novel'' (1966). New York: Doubleday (prose autobiography)(expanded edition 1991 by New Directions) *''Heart's Garden, The Garden's Heart'' (1967). Cambridge: Pym-Randall Press *''Collected Longer Poems'' (1968). New York: New Directions. *''The Alternative Society: Essays from the Other World'' (1970). New York: Herder & Herder. *''With Eye and Ear'' (1970). New York: Herder & Herder. *''American Poetry in the Twentieth Century'' (1971). New York: Herder & Herder (essay). *''Sky, Sea, Birds, Trees, Earth, House, Beasts, Flowers'' (1971). Santa Barbara: Unicorn Press *''The Elastic Retort: Essays in Literature and Ideas'' (1973). Seabury. *''Communalism: From Its Origins to the Twentieth Century'' (1974). Seabury (non-fiction). *''New Poems'' (1974). New York: New Directions *''The Silver Swan'' (1976). Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press *''On Flower Wreath Hill'' (1976). Burnaby, British Columbia: Blackfish Press *''The Love Poems of Marichiko'' (1978). Santa Barbara: Christopher's Books *''The Morning Star'' (1979) New York: New Directions *''Saucy Limericks & Christmas Cheer'' (1980). Santa Barbara: Bradford Morrow *''Between Two Wars: Selected Poems Written Before World War II'' (1982). Labyrinth Editions & The Iris Press *''Selected Poems'' (1984). New York: New Directions *''World Outside the Window: Selected Essays'' (1987). New York: New Directions *''More Classics Revisited'' (1989). New York: New Directions (essays). *''An Autobiographical Novel'' (1964; expanded edition, 1991). New York: New Directions *''Kenneth Rexroth & James Laughlin: Selected Letters'' (1991). New York: Norton. *''Flower Wreath Hill: Later Poems'' (1991). New York: New Directions. *''Sacramental Acts: The Love Poems'' (1997). Copper Canyon Press. *''Swords That Shall Not Strike: Poems of Protest and Rebellion'' (1999). Glad Day. *''Complete Poems'' (2003). Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press. *''In the Sierra: Mountain Writings'' (2012). New York: New Directions (poems and prose). *''K. Rexroth: World Poems #17'' (2017). Tokyo: Shichōsha (poems and prose in Japanese translation).

As translator

(in chronological order) *''Fourteen Poems'' by O. V. de L.-Milosz. (1952), San Francisco: Peregrine Press. Translated by Kenneth Rexroth, with illustrations by Edward Hagedorn. Second edition. (Port Townsend, WA): Copper Canyon Press, (1983). Paperbound. Issued without the Hagedorn illustrations. *''30 Spanish Poems of Love and Exile'' (1956), San Francisco: City Lights Books. *''One Hundred Poems from the Japanese'' (1955), New York: New Directions. *'' One Hundred Poems From the Chinese'' (1956), New York: New Directions. *''Poems from the Greek Anthology''. (1962), Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Paperbacks: University of Michigan Press. *'' Pierre Reverdy: Selected Poems'' (1969), New York: New Directions *'' Love and the Turning Year: One Hundred More Poems from the Chinese'' (1970), New York: New Directions. *''100 Poems from the French'' (1972), Pym-Randall. *''Orchid Boat'' (1972), Seabury Press. with Ling Chung; reprinted as ''Women Poets of China'', New York: New Directions *''100 More Poems from the Japanese'' (1976), New York: New Directions. *''The Burning Heart'' (1977), Seabury Press. with Ikuko Atsumi; reprinted as ''Women Poets of Japan'', New York: New Directions *''Seasons of Sacred Lust: Selected Poems of Kazuko Shiraishi''. (1978), (New York): New Directions. *''Complete Poems of Li Ch'ing-Chao''. (1979), (New York): New Directions.

Discography

* ''Poetry Readings in the Cellar (with the Cellar Jazz Quintet): Kenneth Rexroth & Lawrence Ferlinghetti'' (1957) Fantasy #7002 LP (

Spoken Word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

) * ''Rexroth: Poetry and Jazz at the Blackhawk'' (1958) Fantasy #7008 LP (Spoken Word)

Notes

References

*Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Beat Reader''.

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

. New York. 1992. (hc); (Paperback) * *Hartzell, James and Zumwinkle, Richard. "Kenneth Rexroth. A Checklist of His Published Writings". Los Angeles: Friends of the UCLA Library, 1967. (Hardcopy and paper) * *Perron, Lee. Kenneth Rexroth. "A Bibliographic Checklist". Bennett Valley, CA: Sun Moon Bear Editions, 2009. (Paper) *Suiter, John. "Poets on the Peaks" (2002)

Counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

. ; (Paper) *Weinberger, Eliot. ''Works of Paper, 1980-1986'' (1986) New Directions.

External links

Kenneth Rexroth Archive
a collection of works by and about Rexroth, part of Ken Knabb's ''Bureau of Public Secrets'' site. *In fall 2006, the literary journa
Chicago Review
published a special issue on Rexroth that includes a large collection of his correspondence, an interview conducted by Bradford Morrow, and several essays and poems in his honor.
Introduction to Sacramental Acts: The Love Poems of Kenneth Rexroth

A biography of Kenneth Rexroth
- focussing on his anarchist and working-class politics
Kenneth Rexroth Film: The Signature of All Things
- Los Angeles poets read Rexroth to celebrate his 100th birthday.

from the Anarchist Encyclopedia

Seabury 1972, e-text

Rexroth blog.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927141145/http://www.zinkle.com/p/articles/mi_m2078/is_n1_v37/ai_14766065 A Life of Kenneth Rexroth - R book review

Fall, 1993; Review of Linda Hamalian, ''A life of Kenneth Rexroth'', by Donald Gutierrez (Literary Review).
On Rexroth's Poetry
; 1999; Donald K. Gutierrez essay, from Kenneth Rexroth's ''Modern American Poetry'' page; Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. *

Tribute on 100th birthday
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rexroth, Kenneth 1905 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American poets American anarchists American conscientious objectors Burials at Santa Barbara Cemetery English-language haiku poets Industrial Workers of the World members Objectivist poets Poets from California Poets from Indiana School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Writers from South Bend, Indiana Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area