Edward Dorn: A World of Difference

After initiating a critical involvement with new poetics in dialogue with his mentor Charles Olson at Black Mountain College in the 1950s, Dorn wandered the trans-mountain West following the variable winds of writing and casual employment until the mid-1960s, when a time of trial and change resulted in the beginnings of the groundbreaking long poem Gunslinger. This first biography by his longtime friend and fellow poet Tom Clark—author of previous biographies of Jack Kerouac, Ted Berrigan, Charles Olson and Robert Creeley—offers a record of Dorn's life and work drawing upon fresh testimony, letters and unpublished manuscript material provided by surviving family members.

Publishers Weekly

A protege of Charles Olson, Dorn, author of the landmark poem Gunslinger, is usually associated with the Black Mountain School. An autodidact with a hunger for knowledge, Dorn struggled to support his family by working odd jobs, ranging from lumberjack to assistant librarian, while he dedicated himself to the writer's craft. Relying heavily on letters from family and friends, as well as on Dorn's published and unpublished work, Clark paints a sympathetic and detailed portrait of his friend and fellow poet. In addition to being a gifted storyteller, Clark is an astute critic, and his analysis of Dorn's poetry helps the reader understand both man and artist. The epilog is a gut-wrenching account of Dorn's two-year battle with cancer, effectively pieced together from fragments of letters, journals, poems, and other sources. Academic and larger public libraries will want to place this volume alongside Clark's earlier biographies of Charles Olson and Jack Kerouac. William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Edward Dorn was born in 1929 in Villa Grove, Illinois and died in 1999 in Denver, Colorado. He is the author of more than thirty books of poetry. His writing enacts a deep respect for and attention to the diverse landforms of his native country.