Rexroth, Kenneth, 1905–82, American poet, critic, and translator, b. South Bend, Ind. A resident of San Francisco, he was briefly associated with the beat generation, beat generation, term applied to certain American artists and writers who were popular during the 1950s. Essentially anarchic, members of the beat generation rejected traditional social and artistic forms.
..... Click the link for more information. although he disdained their lack of discipline. Self-educated, he taught himself several languages; his translations include One Hundred Poems from the Japanese (1956) and The Orchid Boat: Women Poets of China (with Ling Chung, 1973). He is best known, however, for his own poetry. Modernist in his early life, simple and Zenlike in his later years, his verse is unified by autobiographical content, a mingling of the personal with the political, and a concern with the transience of life and the transcendent joys of nature and eros. His verse collections include In What Hour (1940), The Phoenix and the Tortoise (1944), In Defense of the Earth (1956), and New Poems (1974). He also wrote one volume of verse plays, Beyond the Mountains (1951), and several volumes of essays, including Bird in the Bush (1959), Alternative Society: Essays from the Other World (1970), and Communalism: From Its Origins to the 20th Century (1975).

Bibliography

See S. Hamill and B. Morrow, ed., The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth (2003); biography by L. Hamalian (1991); studies by M. Gibson (1972 and 1986), L. Bartlett (1988), K. Knabb (1990), and D. Gutierrez (1996).

Rexroth, Kenneth

(born Dec. 22, 1905, South Bend, Ind., U.S.—died June 6, 1982, Santa Barbara, Calif.) U.S. painter, essayist, poet, and translator. The largely self-educated Rexroth spent much of his youth traveling in the West, organizing and speaking for unions. His early poems were experimental, influenced by Surrealism; his later work was praised for its tight form and its wit and humanistic passion. He was an early champion of the Beat movement. His works include essays in Assays (1962) and With Eye and Ear (1970); and many translations of Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Spanish poetry.

Rexroth, Kenneth (1905–82) poet, writer, painter; born in South Bend, Ind. He moved to Chicago (1917), studied at the Art Institute there, then at the New School of Social Research and the Art Students League in New York City. He moved to Santa Barbara, Calif. (1958). Although he had several occupations, including journalism, he is best known for his critical essays and his naturalistic erotic poetry.