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Michael McClure United States of America    PWF 2008

Beat poet, playwright and novelist, Michael McClure was born in 1932 in Marysville, Kansas. In 1955, he entered literary history, reading at the Gallery Six in San Francisco with Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg, who recited Howl for the first time.

For Robert Creeley, “McClure shares a place with the great William Blake, with the visionary Shelly, with the passionate D. H. Lawrence.”

Janis Joplin sang McClure’s “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?” on Pearl.

Michael McClure’s work includes: Dark Brown, Ghost Tantras, September Blackberries, The Adapt, The Beard, Meat Science Essays, Josephine the Mouse Singer, Scratching the Beat Surface, Huge Dreams, Plum Stones: Cartoons of No Heaven, an essential collection Of Indigo and Saffron, Mephistos & Other Poems, and Persian Pony.

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McClure currently performs with ex-Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek and Terry Riley.

Michael McClure lives in Oakland, California.