William Everson

Robert Brophy (California State University, Long Beach)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 10 Sep 1912
Died 3 Jun 1994
Activity 1932-1994

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Monk
Poet
Printer
Religious writer
Teacher/ Professor

Resources

Everson's Works

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William Everson led three distinct lives in three very different California landscapes—as farmer in the Central Valley, as monk in the San Francisco Bay Area, and as shaman in the Santa Cruz Mountains.. His beginnings were in the vast farm country of the San Joaquin Valley. Born September 10th, 1912, he grew through young adulthood in Selma just south of Fresno amidst granges, orchards, and grape fields, where his father was a printer and town bandmaster. While irregularly attending Fresno State College, he came upon a volume of Robinson Jeffers’ poetry. Thunderstruck and inspired, he began writing his own poems. In time he married his childhood sweetheart, Edwa Poulson, and bought a farm to grow Muscat grapes. Predictably here his poetry was about the rich earth, the turn of seasons,…

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2071 words

Citation: Brophy, Robert. "William Everson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 July 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1464, accessed 22 November 2024.]