- Landis Everson
Landis Everson (
October 5 ,1926 –November 17 ,2007 ) was anAmerican poet . In the late 1940s, he was a member of theBerkeley Renaissance along with his friendsRobert Duncan ,Jack Spicer , andRobin Blaser . Everson was the inaugural recipient of the Emily Dickinson Award from thePoetry Foundation .Overview
Everson was born and grew up in
Coronado, California which at that time was still an island, connected toSan Diego by a ferry. He attended theUniversity of Redlands in Southern California.Everson, Spicer, and Blaser participated in a poetry group that met on Sundays up until 1960. Duncan was excluded from this group. Around this time James Herndon published Everson's pamphlet "Postcard from Eden". His work also appeared in
John Ashbery &Harry Mathews 's "Locus Solus" in 1962.Jack Spicer died in 1965; Robin Blaser moved to
Vancouver ; and Everson stopped writing poetry.The
Boston poet, Ben Mazer, came across Everson's work while he was putting together a special feature on the Berkeley Renaissance for "Fulcrum". Mazer's interest sparked Everson to start writing poetry again.His collection, "Everything Preserved: Poems 1955-2005" (ISBN 1555974538), edited by Mazer, was published in 2006. This volume collects the poems Everson wrote in his two periods of writing: between 1955 and 1960 and then his late poems written from 2003 to 2005. Toward the end of his life, Everson lived in
San Luis Obispo, California .Death and legacy
The initial reports of Landis's death were shrouded in mystery. It was reported by Marin County wire services that Landis's death was an apparent suicide using a World War Two standard issue service revolver. [ [http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_7494871 "Marin Independent Journal" website] ]
References
External links
* [http://jacketmagazine.com/26/ever-iv.html Interview] at
Jacket (magazine)
* [http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2007/11/photo-courtesy-of-jacket-landis-everson.html Landis Everson 1926-2007] A "cyber-tombeau " at "Silliman's Blog" by poetRon Silliman includes comments, tributes, and links
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