Letters from poet Gary Snyder to Sally “Shandel” Parks, friend and prominent member of the local San Francisco Bohemian scene, written during the period from June 1953 to April 1966. Collection contains letters, postcards, poems, and ephemera - including one photograph, sea glass, and a hand-drawn map.

Born May 8, 1930, in San Francisco, Gary Snyder spent most of his youth in Washington State and Oregon, where he received his BA in anthropology at Reed College, Portland, in 1951. He studied Oriental languages at U.C. Berkeley from 1953 to 1956; while at Berkeley, Shandel Parks introduced him to poets Kenneth Rexroth, Shunryon Suzuki and Philip Whalen, among others. During this time he also associated with Beat writers including Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Snyder left Berkeley in 1956 for Japan where he studied Zen Bhuddism. For the next twelve years Snyder alternated between California and Japan before settling back in California in 1968.

0.2 Linear feet 1 archives box

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