Kenneth Patchen

Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972) in 1950s. Courtesy Tracing the Places of Kenneth Patchen.

Kenneth Patchen, Before the Brave, 1936. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911 - January 8, 1972) was an American poet and novelist.

Life

Overview

Though he denied any direct connection, Patchen's work and ideas regarding the role of artists paralleled those of the Dadaists, the Beats, and Surrealists. Patchen's ambitious body of work also foreshadowed literary art-forms ranging from reading poetry to jazz accompaniment to his late experiments with visual poetry (which he called his "picture poems").

Youth and education

Patchen was born in Niles, Ohio. His father made his living in the nearby steel mills of Youngstown, Ohio. Those mills would later be referenced in poems like "The Orange Bears" and "May I Ask You A Question, Mr. Youngstown Sheet & Tube?".

In 1926, when he was a teenager, his younger sister Kathleen was struck and killed by an automobile. Her death deeply affected him, and he would later pay tribute to her in a poem entitled "In Memory of Kathleen."

He began to develop his interest in literature and poetry while he was in high school, and the New York Times published a poem of his while he was still in college. He attended Alexander Meiklejohn's Experimental College in Madison for a year, starting in 1929. He then left school, attended a Commonwealth labor college in Arkansas for a semester, then traveled across the country, working itinerant jobs in places like Arkansas, Louisiana, and Georgia.

Private life

Patchen then moved to the East Coast, living in such places as New York City and Boston. While he was in Boston, in 1933, he met Miriam Oikemus at a friend's Christmas party. At the time, Miriam was a college freshman at Massachusetts State College in Amherst, Massachusetts. But the two kept in touch, and Patchen started sending her the first of many love poems. They soon fell in love and decided to get married. First Patchen took her to meet his parents in Youngstown, Ohio, then they got married on June 28, 1934 in nearby Sharon, Pennsylvania.

During the 1930s the couple moved frequently between New York City's Greenwich Village and California, as Patchen struggled to make a living as a writer. However, despite his constant struggle, his strong relationship with Miriam supported him and would continue to support him through the hardships that plagued him for most of his adult life.

One of these tribulations began in 1937, when he suffered a permanent spinal-cord injury while trying to fix a friend's car. The injury gave him extreme pain and required multiple surgeries. It was relieved somewhat by an operation in 1950, at which point he and Miriam moved to San Francisco. Although the first two surgeries eased some of his pain, a final botched third surgery left him in considerable pain and disabled him for life.

Throughout his life-time, he was a fervent pacifist (as he made clear in much of his work) and was against U.S. involvement in World War II. This controversial view, coupled with his immobilization, kept him from ever achieving wide recognition or success outside of a cult following.

In Patchen's final years, he and his wife moved to a modest house in Palo Alto, California, where Patchen created many of his distinctive painted poems (which he painted while he was confined to his bed). He died in Palo Alto on January 8, 1972.

Career

Patchen's early books of poetry were his most political and caused him to be championed, early on, as a Proletariat Poet. This title, which Patchen rejected, never stuck, since his work varied widely in subject, style, and form. As his career progressed, Patchen continued to push himself into more and more experimental styles and forms, developing, along with writers like Langston Hughes and Kenneth Rexroth, what came to be known as jazz poetry. He also experimented with his child-like "painted poems," many of which are collected in the book What Shall We Do Without Us.

His debut collection, Before The Brave, was published by Random House in 1936. The Patchens then traveled to the Southwest on a Guggenheim fellowship, moving on to Hollywood in 1938 where he tried writing film scripts and worked for the WPA. His manuscript for Last Will and Testament won the attention of James Laughlin, then launching New Directions Publishing as a student at Harvard. This started a relationship that would last throughout the remainder of his career. Patchen and Laughlin also became good friends.

During the course of his career, Patchen tried his hand at writing experimental novels such as The Journal of Albion Moonlight and The Memoirs of A Shy Pornographer, as well as the radio play The City Wears A Slouch Hat.

A big Patchen literary supporter was novelist Henry Miller who wrote a long essay on Patchen, entitled Patchen: Man of anger and light, in 1946. Patchen also had a close, lifelong friendship with the poet E.E. Cummings that began when they were both living in Greenwich Village in the 1940's. Later, in the 1950s, Patchen became a major influence on the younger Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Dick McBride who visited Patchen when they were in California, participating in the West Coast literary scene.

Music and recordings

In 1942 Patchen collaborated with composer John Cage on a radio play, The City Wears A Slouch Hat.

In the 1950s, Patchen collaborated with Charles Mingus, reading his poetry with Mingus' jazz combo. No known recording of their collaboration exists.

Moe Asch of Folkways Records made some recordings of Patchen reading his poetry and excerpts from a novel. These recordings were released as Kenneth Patchen Reads with Jazz in Canada (1959), Selected Poems of Kenneth Patchen (1960), and Kenneth Patchen Reads His Love Poems (1961). From Albion Moonlight was recorded later at Patchen's home but not released until 1972 by Folkways.

The Jazz in Canada album was recorded in Vancouver and was recorded the same week as a live performance done for CBC Radio. The LP was also released on Folkways and included a mimeographed pamphlet featuring poems and the jazz musicians credits. The group playing on the recording was the Allan Neil Quartet. It was released on CD by the label Locust Music in 2004.

On January 21, 2008, El Records released a recording entitled Rebel Poets in America that includes classic poetry readings with jazz accompaniment by both Kenneth Patchen and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, including Patchen classics like "The Murder of Two Men by a Young Kid Wearing Lemon Colored Gloves" and "I Went To The City." These Patchen recordings were made in collaboration with musician Allyn Ferguson, who composed and arranged jazz accompaniment for each individual poem and also led the jazz ensemble.

Writing

"Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972) was the closest thing America had to a William Blake. He was, in the words of biographer Larry Smith, the ‘Rebel Poet of America,” influencing the likes of Henry Miller, young Beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure and Gary Snyder and, later, Jim Morrison and Richard Brautigan.... Patchen may have wielded more influence on two generations’ worth of our counterculture than any other poet you’ve never heard of."

Jimmy Buffett - Death of An Unpopular Poet - Directed by Delaney

Recognition

In popular culture

In 1976, folksinger Jimmy Buffett told High Times magazine that his song, "Death of an Unpopular Poet," on his 1973 album A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, was inspired by the death of Patchen, who was a favorite poet of Buffett's.

Publications

Poetry

• Before the Brave. New York: Random House, 1936.
• First Will and Testament. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1939.
• The Teeth Of The Lion. New York: New Directions, 1942.
• The Dark Kingdom. New York: Harriss & Givens, 1942.
• Cloth of the Tempest. New York: Harper, 1943.
• An Astonished Eye Looks Out of the Air. Untide Press, 1945.
• Outlaw of the Lowest Planet. Grey Walls Press, 1946.
• Selected Poems. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1946; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946.
• Pictures of Life and Death. Max Padell, 1947.
• They Keep Riding Down All the Time Max Padell, 1947.
• Panels for the Walls of Heaven. Bern Porter, 1947.
• CCCLXXIV Poems. Max Padell, 1948.
• Red Wine and Yellow Hair. New York: New Directions, 1949.
• Orchards, Thrones and Caravans. Print Workshop, 1952.
• Fables and Other Little Tales. Highlands, NC: Jonathan Williams, 1953.
• The Famous Boating Party, and other poems in prose. New York: New Directions, 1954.
• Glory Never Guesses. privately published, 1955.
• Surprise for the Bagpipe Player. privately published, 1956.
• When We Were Here Together. New York: New Directions, 1957.
• Hurrah for Anything: Poems and drawings. Highlands, NC: J. Williams, 1957.
• Poemscapes. Highlands, NC: Jonathan Williams, 1958.
• To Say If You Love Someone. Decker Press, 1959.
• Because It Is: Poems and drawings. New York: New Directions, 1960.
• Love Poems. San Francisco: City Lights, 1960.
• Poems of Humor and Protest. San Francisco: City Lights, 1960.
• Selected Love Poems. Highlands, NC: Jargon, 1965.
• Like Fun I'll Tell You. Highlands, NC: Jonathan Williams, 1966.
• Hallelujah Anyway. New York: New Directions, 1966.
• But Even So.New York: New Directions, 1968.
• Love and War Poems. Whisper & Shout, 1968.
• Collected Poems. New York: New Directions, 1969.
• Aflame and Afun of Walking Faces. New York: New Directions, 1970.
• Wonderings. New York: New Directions, 1971.
• In Quest of Candlelighters. New York: New Diretions, 1972.
• A Poem for Christmas. Artichoke, 1976.
• The Argument of Innocence. Scrimshaw Press, 1977.
• Still Another Pelican in the Breadbox (edited by Richard J. Morgan). Youngstown, OH: Pig Iron Press, 1980.
• What Shall We Do Without Us? The voice and vision of Kenneth Patchen. Sierra Book Club, 1984.
• Awash with Roses: The collected love poems(edited by Larry R. Smith & Laura Smith). Huron, OH: Bottom Dog Press, 1991.
• We Meet. New York: New Directions, 2008.
• The Walking-Away World. New York: New Directions, 2008.

Plays

• Now You See It (Don't Look Now) (produced Off-Off-Broadway at Thresholds Theatre, December, 1966).
• Patchen's Lost Plays (edited by Richard Morgan). Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1977.

Novels

• The Journals of Albion Moonlight. Mount Vernon, NY: Walpole Printing Office, 1941.
• The Memoirs of a Shy Pornographer: An amusement. New York: New Directions, 1945.
• Sleepers Awake. Max Padell, 1946.
• See You in the Morning. Max Padell, 1948.

Collected editions

• Doubleheader (contains Poemscapes, Hurrah for Anything, & A Letter to God). New York: New Directions, 1966.
• Out of the World of Patchen. New York: New Directions, 1970. (Volume 1: Because It Is, Volume 2: But Even So, Volume 3: Doubleheader, Volume 4: Hallelujah Anyway).

Letters

• Selected Correspondence (edited by Allen Frost & Larry R. Smith). Huron, OH: Bottom Dog Press, 2012.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

Audio / video

Beautiful You Are (poem by Kenneth Patchen)

Kenneth Patchen Two Poems.wmv

• Selected Poems of Kenneth Patchen: Read by Kenneth Patchen (LP). New York: Folkways, 1959.
• Kenneth Patchen Reads with Jazz in Canada (LP). New York: Folkways, 1959.
• Kenneth Patchen Reads His Love Poems (LP). New York: Folkways, 1961.

Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• Poem by Patchen protesting war
• 2 poems by Patchen: "The Snow Is Deep on the Ground," "At the New Year"
• Kenneth Patchen profile & 2 poems at the Academy of American Poets
• Kenneth Patchen 1911-1972 at the Poetry Foundation
• Picture Poem Examples

Audio / video

• Kenneth Patchen at YouTube

About

• Kenneth Patchen in the Encyclopedia of World Biography
• Tracing the Places of Kenneth Patchen
• Kenneth Patchen: Poetry and jazz days, 1957-1959 at Jacket
• Kenneth Patchen Official website.
• Rebel Poets in America- Kenneth Patchen: Rebel Poet in America (2000) by Larry Smith
• Obituary of Miriam Patchen by Marcus Williamson in The Independent (UK)