POET

Kenneth Patchen (1911 - 1972)

BIOGRAPHY

An inspiration for the Beat Generation and a true “people’s poet,” Kenneth Patchen (1911–1972) was a prolific writer, visual artist and performer whose exuberant, free-form productions celebrate spontaneity and attack injustices, materialism, and war. Born in Niles, Ohio, he was an avid reader as a child and kept a diary from an early age; later he traveled throughout the United States, meeting a wide range of people and having the experiences he would explore in his prose and poetry. Patchen was also one of the first poets to read his work to a background of jazz.