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Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet (often associated with the Beat movement) and an environmental activist who is frequently described as the 'laureate of Deep Ecology'; both reflecting his studies of Buddhist spirituality and nature.1 Early life
Snyder was born in San Francisco, California, but his family, impoverished by the Great Depression, moved to Washington State when he was two and to Portland, Oregon ten years later. During the ten childhood years in Washington, Snyder become aware of the presence of Coast Salish people and developed an interest in American Native peoples in general and their traditional relationship with nature.
In 1947, he started attending Reed College as a scholarship student. Here he met, and for a time roomed with, Philip Whalen and Lew Welch. At Reed, Snyder published his first poems in a student journal. He also spent at least one summer working as a seaman. In 1951Events January events January 9 United Nations headquarters officially opens ( New York City). January 15 Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald," wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in We, he graduated with a BAA bachelor's degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course that generally lasts three or four years. Note that some postgraduate degrees are entitled Bachelor of. the University of Oxford Bachelor of Civil Law. Honours degrees In in AnthropologyAnthropology (from the Greek word ANTHROPOLOGIA consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo . It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times, and with all dimensions of humanity. Central to anthropology is the concept of and literature and spent the summer working in forestry in Yosemite, experiences which formed the basis for his earliest published poems, later collected in the book Riprap. Snyder had also encountered the basic ideas of Buddhism and, through its arts, some of the Far EastFar East is a term often used for East Asia and Southeast Asia combined, sometimes including also the easternmost territories of Russia, i. Russian Far East, and the western Pacific Ocean region. See also Near East, Orient.'s traditional attitudes toward nature. Going on to Indiana University to study anthropology (where Snyder also practiced self-taught Zen meditation), he left after a single semester to return to San Francisco and to 'sink or swim as a poet'.
2 The Beats
Back in San Francisco, Snyder lived with Whalen, who shared his growing interest in Zen Buddhism. In 19531953 is a common year starting on Thursday (click on link for the calendar). Events January events January 7 President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. January 13 Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugosl, he enrolled with the University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal Berkeley UCB or UC Berkeley is a public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. to study Oriental culture and languages. Snyder continued to spend summers working in the forests, as a lumberjack or as lookout in forest parks and spent some months in 1955 living in a cabin in Mill Valley with Jack Kerouac. This period provided the materials for Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums.
That same year, after a meeting with Allen Ginsberg, engineered by Kenneth Rexroth, Snyder performed at the famous poetry reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco on October 13 1955 that heralded what was to become known as the San Francisco Renaissance. This also marked Snyder's first involvement with the Beats, although he was not a member of the original New York circle, but rather entered the scene through an association with Kenneth Rexroth. His first book, Riprap, which drew on his experiences as a forest lookout and on the trail crews in Yosemite, was published in 1959.
