Background
The son of a wealthy family with extensive holdings in rental properties in the beach communities of Southern California, Richmond attended University of California, Los Angeles, where he was pledged to the Phi Lambda Phi fraternity.
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Steve Richmond
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He is also associated with the "Meat School" of American poetry, known for a direct, tough and masculine style of writing. Other "Meat School" poets were Bukowski and William Wantling. Bukowski helped mentor Richmond early in his career.
After graduating, he earned a juris doctor degree from University of California, Los Angeles Law School but failed to pass the Barometer
He wound up as a rent collector for the family"s properties, many of which were located in Santa Monica. So close was his tie to the city, that one of his collections would be entitled Santa Monica Richmond began publishing poetry in 1964, when Wormwood Review accepted eight of his poems.
Many of his books of poetry were self-published as he was a difficult and contentious person to deal with, as he was a serious user of narcotics. Addicted to heroin for 40 years, he finally kicked the habit three years before his death.
One of his proposed prose books was about his relationship with Jim Morrison (Richmond"s style influenced the poetry written by the front man of The Doors), but the publisher backed out.
Richmond heard gagaku music on records at University of California, Los Angeles"s Department of Ethnomusicology. In a 2009 interview with writer Ben Pleasants, Richmond claimed he had written an estimated 8,000-9,000 gagaku poems. Richmond eventually inherited $2 million, which he lived on, eventually spending all the money after a dozen years in which he nursed his heroin addiction.
He eventually wound up in Santa Monica’s homeless shelter, which combined with a hospital stay, helped him kick his habit.
