Included in this vast correspondence with 20th century artist and writers and publishers are brief bios and photos.
"Patchen was "a rebel all down the line." Cummings, Miller, Rexroth and others hailed this "poet of anger and light" as the quintessential countercultural hero. Frost illuminates Patchen marching to the beat of his passionate heart, pursuing his vocation by fiercely protecting his integrity and exploring innovative directions despite the vicissitudes of illness, chronic pain, and poverty, and despite the Establishment critics? wall of silence. These fascinating and poignant letters map out rich chapters of cultural history and reveal the difficult dance between art and practicalities, and the magnanimous spirit of Laughlin and others who rallied for Patchen." ?Rachelle Lerner, biographer of forthcoming "A Rage to Order: Kenneth Rexroth."
Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972) was a poet, playwright, fiction and fable
writer, artist, and performer of poetry-jazz, working in the tradition
of engaged writing which he helped to forge in America. Producing
almost a book a year for 36 years, his work stands as an exposed girder
in the structure of American character and art. His friendships with
such writers as Amos Wilder, Lewis Mumford, James Laughlin, Henry
Miller, Kenneth Rexroth, Dylan Thomas, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and
others place him at the center of dissident writing in America. Rising
from his native grounds in working-class Ohio, he became a leading
figure among Leftist thinkers and artists in Greenwich Village�s 1930s
and 40s. In the 1950s he moved to the West Coast where he created
artistic blends of poetry and art, and poetry and jazz. Finally crippled
with back pain during the last decade of his life, he created the
wonderful picture-poems. For four decades, on East and West Coast,
by the force of his own will and his native genius, Patchen molded a
life and art as one. With the loving support of his wife Miriam he
endured the pain and travail of years of struggle to recast an art based
on truth and striking beauty. His is one of the great stories of American
literature.
Allen Frost lives in Bellingham, Washington, with wife Laura, daughter Rosa and son Rustle. He was born in La Jolla, California, and graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine. He has lived and worked in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Huron, Ohio. He works in the library at Western Washington University. His Ohio Trio: Fictions appeared in 2001 from Bottom Dog Press, followed by Bowl of Water written between 1989-2002. Another Life is drawn from limited edition poetry chapbooks written 2002-2007. Home Recordings appeared from Bird Dog Publishing in 2010. He contributed an article to the collection d.a.levy and the mimeograph revolution (2008). He is an associate editor of Bottom Dog Press.
