(This collection, the first major one to appear since Perk...)
This collection, the first major one to appear since Perkoff's death at 44, should reestablish him as a major figure of the Beat Generation. Perkoff, a central figure in the West Coast Beat Scene, published several books and dozens of poems in leading avant-garde journals. Charles Olson said that Perkoff's "fineness of ear and touch makes it possible to reintroduce materials that so many others have torpedoed." This collection contains all of his books, his journal publications, and much-unpublished work, including the sequence "The Venice Poems."
Stuart Z. Perkoff was an American poet. He was a friend and mentor to a generation of wild, original bohemian words linger who were (mostly) accepted into the larger extended family of the Beat Generation, in the 1950s. Perkoff gave that movement a lot of its spirit, its sense of place, and its relevance.
Background
Stuart Z. Perkoff was born on July 29, 1930, in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. He was the son of Ann and Nat, a bookmaker, Perkoff. Stuart lived an itinerant life late in his adolescence, residing in New York and then on the West Coast, where he settled in Venice West, California, and took part in the city's thriving literary scene.
Career
In 1956 Perkoff published his first book "The Suicide Room," and his work was included in such anthologies as Donald M. Allen's seminal collection "The New American Poetry: 1945-1960." In its scope, originality, and audacity it has yet to be rivaled. Although many of the poets included were Stuart's good friends, he ended up changing the lives of his closest poet-companions, the painter/collagist Tony Scibella, New York gangster/poet-with-portfolio Frank T. Rios and poet/publisher James Ryan Morris.
Plagued by addiction, Perkoff had an erratic career, and many of his poems remained unpublished at the end of his life. After gaining recognition for his early work, he fell into drug addiction during the 1960s. In 1968 he was convicted of a narcotics offense and was imprisoned until 1971. After briefly undertaking a bookselling enterprise in San Francisco, he returned to Venice in 1973 and began a series of new poetic works.
Among Perkoff's published work, "Kowboy Pomes" - published in 1973, though written during 1959 and 1960 - is considered among his most successful poem sequences, and in "Alphabet" (1973) Perkoff explored his Jewish heritage in a series of works based on letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Stuart Z. Perkoff's "Voices of the Lady" was published posthumously by the National Poetry Foundation in 1998. That compilation contained all of his books, his journal publications, and much-unpublished work, including the sequence "The Venice Poems."
(This collection, the first major one to appear since Perk...)
1998
Religion
Stuart was a Judaist.
Politics
Stuart briefly joined the Communist Party but quit when the Party ordered him to write less personal poetry.
Connections
Perkoff married Suzan Blanchard in 1949. A decade later their marriage was over, and he married Jana Baragan. Later, when their shared husband was in prison, Jana and Suzan lived together for a time in Northern California, then Jana returned to Venice and succumbed to a drug overdose. Another important woman was Susan Berman, they ran away to Mexico and had a child. His last love was Philomene Long.