Ray Bremser (February 22, 1934 – November 3, 1998) was an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

married to Brenda Bremser (). Bremser was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. When he was 17 he went

AWOL Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or Military base, post without permission (a Pass (military), pass, Shore leave, liberty or Leave (U.S. military), leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with u ...

from the

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and was briefly imprisoned. The next year he was sent to Bordentown Reformatory for 6 years for armed robbery. He began writing poetry there and sent copies to

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 William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Genera ...

Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement. He was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burrough ...

and

Amiri Baraka 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 bo ...

(then LeRoi Jones), who published his poems in the poetry magazine, ''Yūgen''. In 1959, Ray met and married Brenda "Bonnie" Frazer, later a

soil scientist Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to the ...

and writer. In 1969, her memoir ''Troia: Mexican Memoirs'' was published in US from her prison letters to Ray, detailing her 1960s life on the road as a prostitute in Mexico, to support him and their child, Rachel, while Ray was on the lam or behind bars. Ronna Johnson's entry in BookForum writes: "After dropping out of Sweet Briar College in Virginia, Bonnie met and married the Beat poet Ray Bremser in 1959, having known him for three weeks. Two years later, they were on the lam in Mexico with their baby, Rachel, fugitives from the New Jersey prison authorities, which were pursuing Ray for violating parole. This flight, the manifest subject of ''Troia'', is recounted in the daily two-page letters Bonnie Bremser wrote to Ray from March to November 1963, during his second incarceration. She retrospectively details her life of prostitution on the road in Mexico and the couple’s desperate relinquishment of Rachel there." Ray Bremser read poetry in

The Gaslight Cafe The Gaslight Cafe was a coffeehouse in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. Also known as The Village Gaslight, it opened in 1958 and became notable as a venue for folk music and other musical acts.Al AronowitzThe Gaslight, ...

in the Greenwich Village neighborhood. He had five books of his poetry published and was featured in the 1987 film ''The Beat Generation: An American Dream''.. Accessed March 26, 2011. On November 3, 1998, Ray Bremser died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

in Faxton Hospital, Utica.

Bibliography

* ''Poems of Madness'' (1965), Paper Book Gallery * ''Angel'' (1967), Tompkins Square Press * ''Drive Suite'' (1968), Nova Broadcast Press * ''Black Is Black Blues'' (1971), Intrepid Press * ''Blowing Mouth: The Jazz Poems, 1938-1970'' (1978), Cherry Valley Editions * ''The'' ''Conquerors'' (1998), Water Row Press

References

External links

Conversation with Bonnie Bremser, circa 1997
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bremser 1934 births 1998 deaths Beat Generation writers 20th-century American poets United States Air Force airmen Deserters Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state)