“Over and over again she stressed the importance of never allowing anyone to deter me from becoming an artist and a writer”, and of never permitting “other people to determine my life for me”. Thus almost half a century later in An Autobiographical Novel did Rexroth recall his mother’s deathbed gift of unconditional encouragement to her only child, the ten-year old boy who watched at her bedside during her final days and hours. It was a trust he would not betray, and they were words which would set the pattern for his future life and character: he became, from the 1920s through the 1970s, one of the most continuously energetic, resolutely independent, and subversively influential writers and cultural commentators in …
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Citation: Butterfield, Herbie. "Kenneth Rexroth". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3752, accessed 22 November 2024.]
