Warren Tallman

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Warren Tallman (born November 17, 1921 in Seattle , United States ; † July 1, 1994 ) was a US-born literature professor who influenced the Canadian poetry scene through his theoretical writings and experiments in the mid-20th century and for the theoretical basis of the Underground magazine TISH co-responsible.

Life

Born in Seattle, Tallman grew up in Turnwater , Washington . He attended the University of California , Berkeley after the end of World War II , in which he served, under the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, and wrote his dissertations on Henry James and Joseph Conrad . In California he also met his future wife, Ellen King, whom he married in 1951.

In 1956, both spouses accepted apprenticeships in English literature at the University of British Columbia , where they helped Earle Birney and Roy Daniells organize the creative writing department . In 1963 they hosted a poetry conference attended by Denise Levertov , Charles Olson , Allen Ginsberg , Robert Duncan , Margaret Avison and Philip Whalen , among others .

The home of the Tallmans has served as a poetry enclave for some local poets, and this is where the eccentric Jack Spicer gave some of his now legendary lectures on the theory of poetry. Two years later the Tallman couple organized another poetry conference in Berkeley, California.

Tallman was sometimes criticized in the episode for having turned the Vancouver poetry circle into a California offshoot. Tallmann's approach to poetry encompassed what is known as the Black Mountain School , but also showed the influence of the Beat Generation , New American Poets, and Language Poets . Among the Canadian poets, he had the greatest direct influence on Bill Bissett , Stan Persky and Howard White , as well as George Bowering , Frank Davey , Fred Wah and Jamie Reid pioneered the way to TISH.

Works

  • The Poetics of the New American Poetry New York: Grove, 1973. ISBN 0-394-17801-7 (ed. With Donald Allen)
  • Godawful Streets of Man Toronto: Coach House, 1978.
  • In the Midst Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1992.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Description of the Vancouver 1963 Poetry Conference ( Memento from September 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Tallman, Warren
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Seattle , Washington (State) , United States
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1994