In Memory of Tom Clark (1941-2018)

The poet Tom Clark passed away unexpectedly on Friday after being struck by a car while crossing the street in North Berkeley, according to Berkeleyside. It reported on the collision before Clark was identified as the victim, then posted additional information in a separate article: "The Berkeley man who died after being struck by a car while crossing The Alameda at 8:40 p.m. on Friday has been identified by friends as the poet Tom Clark. Clark was a poet, editor, sportswriter and biographer, according to his Wikipedia entry which had been updated with his death, including a link to Berkeleyside’s afternoon story, on Saturday. He was born in Chicago and attended the University of Michigan. He married Angelica Heinegg in 1968 in New York. Clark wrote dozens of books of poetry. His recent books include Light & Shade: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House, 2006) and Threnody (effing press, 2006)." More from there: 

Clark wrote many poems about sports figures, including poems about the baseball players Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue and Bert Campaneris, as well as a history of the Oakland A’s baseball team, according to Poetry Review. Clark developed a love for sports early in his life as he served as an usher at Wrigley Field in Chicago “where he saw such renowned figures of the era as Joe DiMaggio, Bobby Hull, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Harry S. Truman,” said poets.org. “His experiences among these figures are reflected in his poems, which frequently feature these and other prominent figures from the 1950s and ’60s.”

Clark studied in England and while there became friends with many poets who came to define the Beat generation. He hitchhiked around the country with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (whom he later disagreed with publicly) and read his poetry with other writers such as Robert Graves, Gregory Corso, Andrei Voznesensky and Adrian Mitchell. Clark also wrote a biography of the Beat writer Jack Kerouac, as well as ones on Charles Olson, Robert Creeley and Ed Dorn, according to the Poetry Foundation.

Clark was the poetry editor for the prestigious Paris Review from 1963-1973. He had been recommended by his former teacher Donald Hall, also a poet.

Learn more at Berkeleyside.