Gary Snyder

Patrick D. Murphy (University of Central Florida)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
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 8 May 1930
Activity 1950-ongoing

Places

Born in United States
Active in Japan; United States

Activities

Primary

Anthropologist
Essayist
Poet
Scholar
Translator
Travel writer

Other

Revolutionary, Activist
Teacher/ Professor

Resources

Snyder's Works

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Gary Snyder was born in San Francisco on May 8th, 1930. His parents, Harold and Lois, moved the family to Washington State in 1932 as his father looked for work during the Great Depression. The family lived on some logged-off land near Puget Sound where they raised cows to sell milk locally and cut shake shingles from stumps. Gary raised chickens to sell the eggs. On a trip to Seattle at around the age of ten or eleven Gary discovered the “mountains and rivers” scroll-landscape painting in the Seattle Art Museum and was overwhelmed by the similarity between the mountains of China and those of his home. In 1942, after his parents had separated, Lois moved with Gary and his sister Thea to Portland, Oregon, where he attended Lincoln High School. He worked at various jobs, including being…

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2222 words

Citation: Murphy, Patrick D.. "Gary Snyder". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4139, accessed 21 November 2024.]