John Barton Wolgamot

John Barton Wolgamot was an outsider American poet, primarily remembered for his experimental book-length poem "In Sarah, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Men and Women."

Life
Wolgamot was not a professional writer (he ran a movie theater for a living) but his work captured the imagination of several young poets and critics when the poem was discovered in a second-hand shop in the 1950s by then graduate student Keith Waldrop.

Recognition
Wolgamot’s status as a cult figure has been enhanced in recent decades by musical compositions by Robert Ashley and Tortoise in which his work, if not celebrated outright, is heavily referenced.