Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet (often associated with the Beat Generation); and an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist who is frequently described as the 'laureate of Deep Ecology — roles reflecting his studies of both Buddhist spirituality and nature. As a social critic, Snyder's views share something in common with Lewis Mumford, Aldous Huxley, Karl Hess, Aldo Leopold, and Karl Polanyi.

Japan

Independently, a number of the Beats such as Philip Whalen had become interested in Zen, but Snyder was one of the more serious scholars of the subject among them. He, in fact, became a trainee, spending most of the period between 1956 and 1968 in Japan, studying Zen first at Shokoku-ji and later in the Daitoku-ji monastery in Kyoto, then finally living for a while with a group of other people on a small, volcanic island. His previous study of written Chinese assisted his immersion in the Zen tradition (with its roots in Tang Dynasty China) and enabled him to take on certain professional projects while he was living in Japan.

Related Topics:
Philip Whalen - 1956 - 1968 - Tang Dynasty

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Snyder decided not to become a monk and planned eventually to return to the United States to 'turn the wheel of the dharma'. He was married for a few years to another American poet, Joanne Kyger, who lived with him in Japan.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During this time, he published a collection of his poems from the early to mid '50s, Myths & Texts (1960), and Six Sections from Mountains and Rivers Without End (1965). (This last was the beginning of a project that he was to continue working on until the late 1990s.) Much of Snyder’s poetry expresses experiences, environments, and insights involved with the work he has done for a living: logging, fire lookout, steam-freighter laboring, translation of texts, carpentry, and life on-the-road presenting his poetry, among other such subjects.

Related Topics:
1960 - 1965

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ever the participant-observer, during his years in Japan Snyder not only immersed himself in Zen practice in monasteries but also was initiated into Shugendo, a form of ancient Japanese animism. (See also Yamabushi.) As well, in the early '60s he travelled for some months through India with wife Joanne and Allen Ginsberg. Snyder and Joanne Kyger separated soon after the travel in India, and were later divorced.

Related Topics:
Shugendo - Animism - Yamabushi - Allen Ginsberg

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He continued to educate himself - on subjects like geomorphology and forestry. These sorts of interests have probably surfaced as much or more in his essays and interviews as in his poetry.

Related Topics:
Geomorphology - Forestry

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Snyder lived for a time with a group of Japanese back-to-the-land drop-outs on Suwanose (a small Japanese island in the East China Sea), where they beachcombed, gathered edible plants, and fished. On the Island, he married Masa Uehara, the mother of Snyder's two sons.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1968 his book The Back Country appeared, again a collection of poems stretching back over a couple decades. Toward the end of the '60s, Snyder and his wife moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where their first son was born. Shortly thereafter, they moved onto rural land in the Sierra-Nevada mountains of Northern California.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~