Among the rash of self-proclaimed and self-taught poets given prominence by the Beat Generation. Jack Micheline is one of the few who continued to produce vital poetry and to inspire younger writers throughout the two succeeding decades. A beloved friend and respected contemporary of such artists as James T. Farrell, William Saroyan, Franz Kline, and Charles Mingus, and the recipient of accolades from such fellow writers as Seymour Krim, Fielding Dawson, Charles Bukowski, and Andrei Voznesensky, Micheline has nevertheless remained "underground" and virtually unknown to the American critical and academic establishment. His life in what he calls "Siberia in the United States"--the loveless hell of people who have spent their lives struggling to make a living--has provided Micheline with material to portray a world bankrupt in both money and spirit and gives his work the authoritative quality common to his literary mentors, who include Baudelaire, Whitman, and...