Ron Loewinsohn

Ronald William Loewinsohn (December 15, 1937 – October 14, 2014) was an American poet and novelist who was associated with the poetry of the San Francisco Renaissance since his inclusion in Donald Allen's 1960 poetry anthology, The New American Poetry 1945–1960. He was professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley.

Education and career

Born in Iloilo, Philippines, Loewinsohn and his family relocated to Los Angeles in the United States in 1945. They later lived in The Bronx and then settled in San Francisco, where he lived until 1967. Loewinsohn credits this proximity to North Beach with his own development as a poet: "I graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1955, with the Beat generation happening all around me. I met all of the principals, heard Ginsberg, Snyder, Whalen and McClure read in Berkeley in April 1956, and continued to write, mostly poetry, in that vernacular and (I thought) oracular mode." Loewinsohn then traveled, married in 1957, and worked as a lithographer for 12 years. In 1959, he published his first collection of poetry, Watermelons, which contained an introduction by Allen Ginsberg and a prefatory letter by William Carlos Williams. He also co-edited the little magazine Change with Richard Brautigan. The poets who were most influential on his work included William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, Richard Brautigan, Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, and Denise Levertov.

In the early 1960s, Loewinsohn taught a poetry workshop at San Francisco State University Extension, an experience which made him realize that he wanted to be a teacher.