Gary Snyder is one of the most important American poets of the second half of the twentieth century. He has written with eloquence, intellectual power, and mythopoeic grandeur in celebration and defense of the natural world. In his With Eye and Ear (1970) the poet Kenneth Rexroth describes Snyder as "a master of challenge and confrontation, not because he seeks controversy but because his values are so conspicuous, so plainly stated in the context of simple, sensuous, impassioned fact that they cannot be dodged." Although Snyder has achieved renown for his role in introducing American readers to the literature and spirit of Asia, he is first and foremost a writer of the American West.

Gary Sherman Snyder was born in San Francisco on 8 May 1930, during the early months of the Great Depression. His mother, Lois Wilkey Snyder, was a Texan, some of whose ancestors had lived in Kansas; his...