About the Author

Born on May 8, 1930, in San Francisco, Gary Snyder grew up in the rural Pacific Northwest. He graduated from Reed College in 1951 with degrees in anthropology and literature, and later studied Japanese and Chinese civilization at Berkeley, returning there to teach in the English Department. After participating in the San Francisco revival, the beginning of the beat poetry movement, Snyder went to Japan in 1955 where he stayed for eighteen months, living in a Zen monastery. He has lived and written and worked in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada since 1969.

Anthony Hunt is the author of Genesis, Structure, and Meaning in Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End (2004). Now retired as professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayag ez, and a former Fulbright scholar and Peace Corps worker, he lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jack Shoemaker is Founding Editor of Counterpoint Press, publishing the works of Wendell Berry, M.F.K. Fisher, Evan S. Connell, Robert Aitken, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and James Salter, among many others. He has worked with Snyder for over 50 years.

Reviews

"The book is a total treasure and catalogue of a life that clearly has been a work of art itself."—Lion's Roar Magazine

“The non-profit Library of America just published a handsome volume of Snyder’s collected poems. It contains every one of his books as well as numerous works which appeared in magazines, journals and obscure publications … The thing that makes this collection special is he was involved in the project and added commentaries on some of his work.” —Dayton Daily News