Kenneth Rexroth

Rexroth, Kenneth (1905–82), U.S. poet. In the 1940s and 1950s he developed a style that broke with traditional forms of poetry and became the forerunner of what is now considered the “Beat generation” of San Francisco poets and writers. His best-known works are In What Hour (1940), The Dragon and the Unicorn (1952), and In Defense of the Earth (1956). The Collected Shorter Poems (1967) and The Collected Longer Poems (1968) further enhanced Rexroth's literary reputation, as did a collection of his essays, The World Outside the Window (1987). He was also a gifted painter and translator of Chinese, Latin, and Greek poetry.