Gary Snyder and the Pacific Rim: Creating Countercultural Community

Acknowledgments

I began this book on the shores of the Pacific Rim nearly ten years ago. Mapping out a project of this scope has been a tremendous challenge, to put it mildly. Fortunately, I have benefited from the support of many along the way. I must first thank Herb Levine, Tony Ugolnik, and Joe Voelker, who introduced me to the complexities of American poetry during my undergraduate years at Franklin and Marshall College. At the University of California , Santa Barbara, I wish to thank Julie Carlson, Aranye Fradenburg, and Christopher Newfield. Special thanks are reserved for Victoria Harrison, my kind and insightful dissertation director. I also wish to thank my student friends from those days, especially Rachel Adams, Jon Connolly, Michael Holley, and Tim Wager. Michael Davidson, of the University of California, San Diego, advised me at an early stage, and he has become a trusted mentor and friend. At the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, I have benefited from the support of my colleagues in the Department of English and from financial assistance provided by Dean Francisco Soto and Provost David Podell. I am grateful as well for fellowships funded by PSCCUNY and the Mellon Foundation at the CUNY Graduate Center. I am particularly indebted to friends outside academia who have influenced my thinking about literature and community: Jayne Aquilina, Jeni A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S xvi | A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S Armesan, Chris and Marcy Betts, Jason Bott, Dana Brigham, Greg Campbell, Laura Cook, Stephen Druckman, Jackie Esteban, Doug Goewey, Dave Hebb, Rafael Lopez, Sue Roberts, Dava Silvia, Ann Stedronsky, Alan (Fortunate) Sun, Ann Whalen, and Kathleen Winter, as well as Brian Campolattaro, Robert Ruth, and Stephen Sikking (“like brothers”). I am also appreciative of the family support I have received from Richard Ball, the Barnetts (Don, Grace, and John), the Cummingses (Beth, Caroline, Chris, Matthew, and Milton), George Dunne, Susan Dunne-Lederhaas, Irene Gammon, the Grays (Cathy, Cherylanne , Megan, Melissa, and Scott Allen), and June and Lee Sheridan. It is safe to say that this book would never have come into existence without the support provided by Gary Snyder. From the time I met him in 1996, Gary has been extremely patient and generous while answering my questions and granting me access to his archives. Though I was just a naive graduate student when I began this study, Gary never made me feel intimidated . I am especially grateful for his permission to quote liberally from his private journals and unpublished letters. The following persons also graciously allowed me to quote from unpublished correspondence: Cynthia Archer (for the Will Petersen Estate), Joanne Kyger, Howard McCord, Bob Rosenthal (for the Allen Ginsberg Estate), Michael Rothenberg (for the Philip Whalen Estate), and Masa Uehara. For their assistance with these archival papers, I want to thank librarians Daryl Morrison and John Skarstad at UC–Davis and Marilyn Kirstead and Gay Walker at Reed College. I gratefully acknowledge the following, who gave me permission to quote specific material from Snyder’s published writings. “First Landfall on Turtle Island,” from Left Out in the Rain: New Poems 1947–1985. Copyright © 1986 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of Gary Snyder and Shoemaker and Hoard, Publishers. “Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout,” “Riprap,” “Nooksack Valley,” “Water,” “Cold Mountain Poems #1, 8, 10, 19, 24,” and excerpts from “Piute Creek,” “Milton by Firelight,” “Migration of Birds,” and “Cold Mountain Poems #6, 7” from Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems. Copyright © 2004 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of Gary Snyder and Shoemaker and Hoard, Publishers. “August on Sourdough, A Visit from Dick Brewer,” by Gary Snyder, from The Back Country. Copyright © 1966 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Acknowledgments | xvii “After Work,” “Beneath My Hand and Eye the Distant Hills, Your Body,” “For the Boy Who Was Dodger Point Lookout Fifteen Years Ago,” “Kyoto Footnote,” “Nanao Knows,” “Six Years: September,” “This Tokyo,” and “To Hell with Your Fertility Cult,” by Gary Snyder, from The Back Country. Copyright © 1968 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Meeting the Mountains,” “Song of the Slip,” “Song of the Tangle,” and “Song of the View,” by Gary Snyder, from Regarding Wave. Copyright © 1970 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of...