American poet, novelist, and essayist.
Spicer was associated with the Beat Generation primarily because of his social activities and attitudes, his friendships with Bay-area poets, and his involvement with several small presses and magazines developed by counterculture writers as an alternative means of publishing their works. Although Spicer and the Beats espoused similar ideals and sensibilities, he repeatedly accused financially successful Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg of “selling out” to what he termed the “English department” establishment of commercial publishing. In addition, Spicer disputed the Beats’ belief that poetry is primarily a means of personal expression; instead, he asserted his theory that writing poetry is a form of dictation in which the poet derived mysterious codes or messages from an external source. According to Spicer, the poet’s role was similar to that of a radio, receiving and transmitting signals with minimal interference.
Spicer was born in 1925 in Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of Redlands in 1943 and the following year transferred to the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1947 and his master’s degree in 1950. While at Berkeley, Spicer established strong friendships with poets Robert Duncan and Robin Blaser, and together they envisioned forming a literary circle which, in emulation of the Georgekreis (“George Circle”) of the twentieth-century German poet Stefan George, would inspire a poetic revival.
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