Gary Snyder was born on May 8, 1930 in San Francisco, California. He was raised in Washington and Oregon. He attended Reed college with friends Philip Whalen and Lew Welch, who joined in San Francisco in the early 1950s. Snyder then entered the University of California in Berkeley to study Asian languages. He lived in a small cottage near the Young Buddhist Association, and saved his money to study Buddhism in Japan. His interest in Chinese and Japanese culture and poetry was also shared by Kenneth Rexroth, who introduced Snyder to the Beat Generation writers, which resulted in Snyder reading at the legendary Six Gallery Poetry reading in 1955. Here, wearing blue jeans (as opposed to Allen Ginsberg's suit and tie), he read his poem, "A Berry Feast," and singlehandedly inspired the Zen Buddhist craze that would affect nearly all of the Beats. His attitude, talent, and lifestyle impressed Jack Kerouac so much that Kerouac wrote an entire book, The Dharma Bums, about him.

Though he originally decided to go to Japan to become a Zen monk, he eventually wrote his friend Will Peterson with the realization that "I am firstmost a poet, doomed to be shamelessly silly, undignified, curious, cuntstruck, & considering (in the words of Rimbaud) the disorder of my own mind sacred. So I don't think I'll ever commit myself to the role of a Zen monk..."

Snyder's first book of poems, Riprap, was published by Origin Pres in 1959. I t reflected his experiences as a trail crew laborer in '55, laying rock pavement into an eroding trail. Some of the poems were inspired by his summer jobs as a lookout ranger in the Washington mountains, and others various hitch hiking adventures.

Snyder, along with Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, participated in many 1960s political activities. He was on stage during the first San Francisco Be-In in 1967, has since continued to fight for peace, environmental awareness and freedom from nuclear weaponry.

He is currently teaching at the University of California at Davis. He continues to publish poetry in volumes such as "No Nature," and won the Pulitzer Prize in the mid-70s. In 1996 he published a long poem, "Mountains and Rivers Without End."

Bibliography [coming soon]

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