Robert Duncan

Robert Edward Duncan (January 7, 1919 – February 3, 1988) was an American poet.

Duncan was born in Oakland, California. His mother died at his birth. He was adopted by a couple who taught him the occult religion of theosophy which believes in reincarnation and spiritual oneness. He decided to be a poet when he was in high school.^[1][2]

He had two years of college at the University of California-Berkeley. Then he tried Black Mountain College in North Carolina.^[2] In 1938, he moved to New York City. He met abstract expressionist artists. He started a magazine that printed writing by Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Kenneth Patchen, Lawrence Durrell and others.^[1]

Duncan was drafted into the U. S. Army in 1941, but he was rejected because he came out as being gay.^[2] In 1944, his essay called “The Homosexual in Society” was an early statement about the difficulty of living as a gay writer in that time.^[3] In 1951 he met his lifelong partner, the artist Jess Collins.^[2]

He went back to the University of California at Berkeley in 1947. He studied medieval and renaissance literature.^[2] In 1956, the poet Charles Olson asked Duncan to teach at Black Mountain College. During his year there he wrote most of the poems that were collected in his important book The Opening of the Field.^[1]

Duncan returned to San Francisco where he lived until he died of kidney disease in 1988.^[4]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} "About Robert Duncan | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} "Robert Duncan". Poetry Foundation. 2023-02-17. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
3. ↑ "Robert Duncan's "The Homosexual in Society"". Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist. 2009-05-02. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
4. ↑ Mitgang, Herbert (1988-02-04). "Robert Duncan, Poet and Author Of Works on the Creative Process". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-17.