Reviews

Poet-essayist Rexroth (1905-1982)--high-school dropout, disillusioned ex-Communist, pacifist, anarchist, bigamist, rock-climber, critic and translator, the presiding spirit of San Francisco's Beat scene--is captured in all his flaws and greatness in this definitive, moving biography. Although he believed marriage was a sacrament and wrote exquisitely tender love poems to his wives, Rexroth had many affairs during his four marriages and subjected his wives to constant directives, jealous rages, verbal and intermittent physical abuse. Hamalian, professor of English at William Paterson College in New Jersey, portrays the poet as a spiritual seeker who explored monasticism, Eastern philosophy and communion with nature, a man who was wise in spite of himself and a writer who struggled to unite art and politics in a ``poetry of responsibility'' that would enlarge human experience. Photos not seen by PW . (Mar.)

In this first full-length biography, richly detailed and thoroughly documented, the self-taught Rexroth emerges as a major American poet. Rexroth, a prominent figure in San Francisco's literary renaissance, was also a jazz-poet performer, translator, mentor, critic, leftist commentator, pacifist, Catholic-Buddhist spiritualist, world traveler, wit, and iconoclast. Hamalian depicts the virtues and flaws of this fascinating man with cool, even-handed balance. Married four times, and father to two daughters, he yearned to understand and fulfill the lives of the women close to him. Longing for stable relationships, he sometimes abused, exploited, and alienated others, then accused them of deserting him. He bowed to no authority, but his bravado often shielded hidden insecurities. He took great delight in nature's beauty, but in his poems life and art often diverged. With its multifaceted portrait, rendered with photographic accuracy, this instructive book augments our appreciation of the man and his era. Highly recommended.-- Addie Lee Bracy, Beaver Coll. Lib., Glenside, Pa.