Philip Whalen

Philip Whalen (October 20, 1923 ? June 26, 2002) was a poet and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat generation.

Related Topics:
October 20 - 1923 - June 26 - 2002 - San Francisco Renaissance - Beat generation

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Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen served in the US Army Air Corps during World War 2. He attended Reed College with Gary Snyder and Lew Welch and graduated with a BA in 1951. He read at the famous Six Gallery reading in 1955 that marked the launch of the West Coast beats into the public eye. He appears, in barely fictionalized form, as the character Warren Coughlin in Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, which includes an account of that reading.

Related Topics:
Portland, Oregon - US Army Air Corps - World War 2 - Reed College - Gary Snyder - Lew Welch - BA - 1951 - Six Gallery reading - 1955 - Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums

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Whalen became a Zen Buddhist monk in 1973 and was associated with the San Francisco Zen Center during the controversial tenure of Zentatsu Richard Baker. He became head monk, Dharma Sangha, in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1984, and in 1991, he returned to San Francsco to lead the Hartford Street Zen Center.

Related Topics:
Zen Buddhist - 1973 - San Francisco Zen Center - Zentatsu Richard Baker - Santa Fe, New Mexico - 1984 - 1991

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His books include Off the Wall: Interviews with Philip Whalen (1978), Enough Said: 1974-1979 (1980), Heavy Breathing: Poems, 1967-1980 (1983) Two Novels (1986), and Canoeing up Cabarga Creek: Buddhist Poems 1955-1986 (1995).

Related Topics:
1978 - 1980 - 1983 - 1986 - 1995

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