One of the most path-breaking and creatively radical poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, Philip Whalen was part of the 1955 Six Gallery reading where the West Coast Beat movement famously began. Working alongside Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Jack Kerouac, Whalen developed a conversational and visually unorthodox style that is unique in contemporary poetry. His lifelong engagement with the impermanent and sensuous, concerns deepened by his commitment to Zen Buddhism, are on rich display here, along with his warm humor and original illustrations. This Collected Poems rightfully places Whalen among the foremost poets of his time, offering readers a truly major body of American poetic work.

Author Biography

PHILIP WHALEN (1923-2002) was an influential Beat poet and the author of dozens of novels and books of poetry, including On Bear's Head, The Diamond Noodle, and Overtime. MICHAEL ROTHENBERG is one of the literary executors of Whalen's estate and the editor of www.bigbridge.org. Also the editor of major volumes of selected poetry by Philip Whalen, Joanne Kyger, David Meltzer, and Edward Dorn, he lives north of San Francisco.