Ed Dorn
Encyclopedia
Edward Merton Dorn was an American poet and teacher often associated with the Black Mountain poets
Black Mountain poets
The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College.-Background:...

. His most famous work is Gunslinger
Gunslinger (Ed Dorn poem)
Gunslinger is the title of a long poem in six parts by Ed Dorn. Book I was first published in 1968, Book II in 1969, The Cycle in 1971, The Winterbook in 1972, Bean News in 1972, and 'Book IIII' as part of the complete Slinger in 1975...

.

Overview

Edward Merton Dorn was born in Villa Grove, Illinois
Villa Grove, Illinois
Villa Grove is a city in Douglas County, Illinois, along the Embarras River. The population was 2,537 at the 2010 census.Villa Grove was chartered in 1903. It was first utilized by the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad for being exactly halfway between Chicago and St. Louis. It was also known...

. He grew up in rural poverty during the Great Depression. He attended a one-room schoolhouse for his first eight grades. He later studied at the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

 and at Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...

 (1950-1955). At Black Mountain he came into contact with Charles Olson
Charles Olson
Charles Olson , was a second generation American modernist poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance...

, who greatly influenced his literary worldview and his sense of himself as poet. Dorn's final examiner at Black Mountain was Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...

, with whom, along with the poet Robert Duncan
Robert Duncan (poet)
Robert Duncan was an American poet and a student of H.D. and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the poets of the New American Poetry and Black...

, Dorn became included as one of a trio of younger poets later associated with Black Mountain and with Charles Olson.

In 1951, Dorn left Black Mountain and traveled to the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

, where he did manual labor and met his first wife, Helene; they returned to the school in late 1954. After graduation and two years of travel, Dorn's family settled in Washington state, the setting for his autobiographical novel By the Sound (originally published as Rites of Passage), which describes the grinding poverty of life in "the basement stratum of society." In 1961 he accepted his first teaching job at the University of Idaho, where he published the magazine Wild Dog. His first book of poetry, The Newly Fallen, was published by LeRoi Jones's Totem Press in 1961.

In 1965, with the photographer Leroy Lucas, Dorn spent the summer visiting Indian reservations for a book commissioned by William Morrow & Co. Press, The Shoshoneans. That fall, British poet and scholar Donald Davie invited him to join the faculty at the Literature Department he was creating at the new University of Essex. He spent most of the next five years in England, where he published several collections of poems and wrote Book 1 of Gunslinger. He also started working with Gordon Brotherston on translations from Latin American texts, solidified his close friendship with British poet J.H. Prynne, and met his second wife, Jennifer Dunbar Dorn
Jennifer Dunbar Dorn
-Early life:Jenny Dunbar and her twin sister Margaret were born in Moscow and grew up in England. She was part of the swinging London scene in the 1960s...

.

On returning to the United States, Dorn spent the '70s as an academic migrant, teaching at over half a dozen universities across the country. In San Francisco, he collaborated with the printer and artist team Holbrook Teter and Michael Myers on a number of projects, including the newspaper Bean News, the comic book format of Recollections of Gran Apachería, and the typsetting of the complete Gunslinger in 1974. In 1977 Dorn accepted a professorship at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he taught for the rest of his life, directing the Creative Writing Program and editing the literary newspaper Rolling Stock (motto: “If It Moves Print It”) with Jennifer Dunbar Dorn. During the '90s, after a teaching exchange visit to Paul Valery University in Montpellier inspired an interest in the Cathars of Southern France, he started working on Languedoc Variorum: A Defense of Heresy and Heretics. He was also writing another long narrative poem Westward Haut. During the last two and a half years of his life, he wrote the poems for the posthumously published Chemo Sabe, reporting on his cancer treatments.

Dorn's main work, his magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....

, is Gunslinger
Gunslinger (Ed Dorn poem)
Gunslinger is the title of a long poem in six parts by Ed Dorn. Book I was first published in 1968, Book II in 1969, The Cycle in 1971, The Winterbook in 1972, Bean News in 1972, and 'Book IIII' as part of the complete Slinger in 1975...

. Gunslinger is a long poem in five sections. Part 1 was first published in 1968, and the final complete text appeared in 1974. Other important publications include The Collected Poems: 1956-1974 (1975), Recollections of Gran Apacheria (1975), Abhorrences (1989), High West Rendezvous: A Sampler (1997), and [Way More West: New and Selected Poems] (2008).

Popular horror novelist Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

 admired Dorn, describing his poetry as "talismans of perfect writing" and even naming the first novel of The Dark Tower series
The Dark Tower (series)
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...

, "The Gunslinger," in honor of Dorn's poem. King also opened both the prologue and epilogue of "The Stand" with Dorn's line, "We need help, the Poet reckoned."

Dorn died of pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...

 on December 10, 1999 in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

. His papers are collected at the University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...

 as well as at Indiana University at Bloomington.

Dorn's teaching career

During his life, Dorn taught at a number of institutions of higher learning, including Idaho State University
Idaho State University
Idaho State University is a public university located in Pocatello, Idaho. It has outreach programs in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Falls, Boise, and Twin Falls....

 at Pocatello
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello is the county seat and largest city of Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the principal city of the Pocatello metropolitan area, which encompasses all of Bannock...

 (1961-65); the University of Essex
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...

, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 (1965-1970) as a Fulbright lecturer; Northeastern Illinois University
Northeastern Illinois University
Northeastern Illinois University is a public state university located in Chicago, Illinois. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park with three additional campuses in the metropolitan area. Tracing its founding to 1867, it was first established as a separate branch of a...

 at Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 (1970-1971); Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...

, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 (1973-74); and the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

 (1977-1999). His second wife, Jennifer Dunbar Dorn
Jennifer Dunbar Dorn
-Early life:Jenny Dunbar and her twin sister Margaret were born in Moscow and grew up in England. She was part of the swinging London scene in the 1960s...

, is an Englishwoman he met during his Essex-years.

In the early 1970s, as a visiting poet at Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...

, Dorn, along with British poet and editor Eric Mottram
Eric Mottram
Eric Mottram was a teacher, critic, editor and poet who was one of the central figures in the British Poetry Revival.-Early life and education:...

, was a mentor and supporter of the musical group Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...

, and its founders Gerald Casale
Gerald Casale
Gerald Vincent Casale , often known as Jerry Casale, is a vocalist, bass guitar/synthesizer player, and a founding member of the new wave band Devo...

 and Bob Lewis
Bob Lewis (musician)
Robert Curtis Lewis was a founding member of the New Wave band Devo...

.

Poetry

  • 1961: The Newly Fallen, Totem Press, New York.
  • 1964: Hands Up!, Totem Press, New York.
  • 1964: From Gloucester Out, Matrix Press, London (U.K.).
  • 1965: Idaho Out, Fulcrum Press, London.
  • 1965: Geography, Fulcrum Press, London.
  • 1967: The North Atlantic Turbine, Fulcrum Press, London.
  • 1968: Gunslinger
    Gunslinger (Ed Dorn poem)
    Gunslinger is the title of a long poem in six parts by Ed Dorn. Book I was first published in 1968, Book II in 1969, The Cycle in 1971, The Winterbook in 1972, Bean News in 1972, and 'Book IIII' as part of the complete Slinger in 1975...

    , Black Sparrow Press
  • 1969: Gunslinger
    Gunslinger (Ed Dorn poem)
    Gunslinger is the title of a long poem in six parts by Ed Dorn. Book I was first published in 1968, Book II in 1969, The Cycle in 1971, The Winterbook in 1972, Bean News in 1972, and 'Book IIII' as part of the complete Slinger in 1975...

    : Book II, Black Sparrow Press
  • 1969: The Midwest Is That Space Between the Buffalo Statler and the Lawrence Eldridge, T. Williams
  • 1969: The Cosmology of Finding Your Spot, Cottonwood
  • 1969: Twenty-four Love Songs, Frontier Press
  • 1970: Gunslinger
    Gunslinger (Ed Dorn poem)
    Gunslinger is the title of a long poem in six parts by Ed Dorn. Book I was first published in 1968, Book II in 1969, The Cycle in 1971, The Winterbook in 1972, Bean News in 1972, and 'Book IIII' as part of the complete Slinger in 1975...

     I & II, Fulcrum Press, London.
  • 1970: Songs Set Two: A Short Count, Frontier Press, ISBN 978-0686050520
  • 1971: The Cycle, Frontier Press
  • 1971: A Poem Called Alexander Hamilton, Tansy/Peg Leg Press
  • 1971: Spectrum Breakdown: A Microbook, Athanor Books
  • 1972: The Hamadryas Baboon at the Lincoln Park Zoo, Wine Press
  • 1972: Gunslinger
    Gunslinger (Ed Dorn poem)
    Gunslinger is the title of a long poem in six parts by Ed Dorn. Book I was first published in 1968, Book II in 1969, The Cycle in 1971, The Winterbook in 1972, Bean News in 1972, and 'Book IIII' as part of the complete Slinger in 1975...

    , Book III: The Winterbook, Prologue to the Great Book IV Kornerstone, Frontier Press
  • 1974: Recollections of Gran Apacheria, Turtle Island
  • 1974: Slinger (contains Gunslinger
    Gunslinger (Ed Dorn poem)
    Gunslinger is the title of a long poem in six parts by Ed Dorn. Book I was first published in 1968, Book II in 1969, The Cycle in 1971, The Winterbook in 1972, Bean News in 1972, and 'Book IIII' as part of the complete Slinger in 1975...

    , Books I-IV and "The Cycle"), Wingbow Press
  • 1975: With Jennifer Dunbar, Manchester Square, Permanent Press
  • 1975: Collected Poems: 1956-1974, Four Seasons Foundation
  • 1978: Hello, La Jolla, Wingbow Press, ISBN 978-0914728245
  • 1978: Selected Poems, edited by Donald Allen
    Donald Allen
    Donald Merriam Allen , influential editor, publisher, and translator of contemporary American literature. He is perhaps best known for his project The New American Poetry 1945-1960 , among the several important anthologies of contemporary American innovative writing he made available to the public...

    , Grey Fox Press
  • 1981: Yellow Lola, Cadmus Editions
  • 1983: Captain Jack's Chaps—Houston/MLA, Black Mesa Press
  • 1989: Abhorrences, Black Sparrow Press
  • 1993: The Denver Landing, Uprising Press
  • 1996: High West Rendezvous: A Sampler
  • 2001: Chemo Sábe, Limberlost Press
  • 2007: Way More West: New & Selected Poems, edited by Michael Rothenberg, Penguin Books ISBN 978-0143038696 (posthumous)

Translations

  • 1968: With Gordon Brotherston, Our Word: Guerilla Poems From Latin America, Grossman
  • 1969: With Gordon Brotherston, Jose Emilio Pacheco
    José Emilio Pacheco
    José Emilio Pacheco Berny is a Mexican essayist, novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the major Mexican poets of the second half of the 20th century....

    , Tree Between Two Walls, Black Sparrow Press
  • 1976: With Gordon Brotherston, Selected Poems of Cesar Vallejo
    César Vallejo
    César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante"...

    , Penguin
  • 1979: With Gordon Brotherston, Image of the New World Thames & Hudson
  • 1999: With Gordon Brotherston, Sun Unwound: Original Texts from Occupied America, North Atlantic Books,[4] anthology

Prose, Fiction & Essay

  • 1960: What I See in the Maximum Poems, Migrant Press (criticism)
  • 1964: Michael Rumaker
    Michael Rumaker
    Michael Rumaker is an American author , to Michael Joseph and Winifred Marvel Rumaker. He is a graduate of Black Mountain College and Columbia University ....

     and Warren Tallman
    Warren Tallman
    Warren Tallman was an American-born poetry professor who inspired the Canadian Tish movement and influenced the mid-20th century poetry scene in Canada.- History :...

    , Prose 1, Four Seasons Foundation
  • 1965: The Rites of Passage: A Brief History, Frontier Press
  • 1966: The Shoshoneans: The People of the Basin-Plateau, Morrow, 66 pages
  • 1969: Author of introduction, The Book of Daniel Drew [written in 1910 by Bouck White
    Bouck White
    Bouck White , born Charles Browning White, was a Congregational minister, an American socialist, a Jesusist, an author, a potter, and a recluse.-Early years:...

    ], Frontier Press
  • 1969: By the Sound, Frontier Press; republished with a new preface by the author, Black Sparrow Press, 1991
  • 1971: Some Business Recently Transacted in the White World (short stories), Frontier Press
  • 1972: Bean News (newspaper, various authors, the 'secret book' of Gunslinger), Zephyrus Image
  • 1976: The Poet, the People, the Spirit, Talonbooks
  • 1978: Roadtesting the Language: An Interview with Ed Dorn,UC, San Diego
  • 1980: Interviews, Four Seasons Press
  • 1980: Views, Four Seasons Press
  • 1993: Way West: Stories, Essays and Verse accounts, 1963-1993, Black Sparrow Press, includes the previously published (1974), Recollections of Gran Apacheria
  • 2007: Ed Dorn Live: Lectures, Interviews, and Outtakes, edited by Joseph Richey, University of Michigan Press ISBN 978-0472068623 (posthumous)

Further reading

  • Beach, Christopher (1992) ABC of Influence: Ezra Pound and the Remaking of American Poetic Tradition, University of California Press.
  • Clark Tom (2002) Edward Dorn: A World of Difference. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
  • Elmborg, James K (1998) A Pageant of Its Time: Edward Dorn's Slinger and the Sixties. Studies in Modern Poetry, Vol. 6, Peter Lang Publishing, New York.
  • Levy, William (20 January 2000) "Death of a Gunslinger: An Obituary on Ed Dorn for America." Exquisite Corpse, Issue 4.
  • McPheron, William (1989) Edward Dorn. Western Writers Series #85, Boise State University.
  • Paul, Sherman (1981) The Lost America of Love: Rereading Robert Creeley, Edward Dorn, and Robert Duncan. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
  • Spitzer, Mark (1996) Dinner with Slinger, in Thus Spake the Corpse, An Exquisite Corpse Reader 1988-1998, Vol. 2 - Fictions, Travels & Translations (Codrescu, A
    Andrei Codrescu
    Andrei Codrescu is a Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009....

     and Rosenthal, L, eds.) Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press.
  • Spitzer, Mark (1999) "Transcript of an Ed Dorn Rant" Jack Magazine, Issue 4.
  • Streeter, David ed. (1973) A Bibliography of Ed Dorn. New York: The Phoenix Bookshop.
  • Wesling, Donald, ed. (1985)Internal Resistances: The Poetry of Ed Dorn. University of California Press

External links

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