Customer Reviews

Kenneth Patchen: Rebel Poet in America

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This is a work of much labor that obviously went straight to the sources for information and really investigated the history that prompted such powerful poetry and fiction. Patchen is a heroic example of a person who maintained his pacifist stance when the world around him was exploding and brought his beautiful vision to Earth. This biography is written with a kind of tenderness and honesty that Patchen valued above all else. Thanks Larry Smith for this labor of love.

As I've written elsewhere (in Rain Taxi, a review of books, to be exact), Smith's biography hardly does justice to the memory of poet Kenneth Patchen. Besides claiming Baudelaire is a Spanish poet(!), Smith practically ignores Patchen's energetic, highly individual work in favor of detailing the poet's politics and undeniably painful medical history, which is not how any poet of Pathcen's talents would want to be remembered. What's more unfortunate than Patchen's record of ill health is that his poetry and novels and art continue to be overlooked after his death - just as they were during his difficult life. If ever an American poet deserved critical reconsideration, it's Mr. Kenneth Patchen. Before you spend your good money on this self-published socio-political diatribe, please purchase every Patchen book that remains in print. Then buy second copies to give as gifts. Fans of e.e. cummings, one of Patchen's many writerly pals, should really enjoy Patchen's work.

Despite what Brian Beatty says,and his review is full of factual inaccuracies and personal bias, this is a strong book, and an essential work of scholarship on an important American writer. Smith has done his homework and delivered a memorable biography. Read it and see.