Bill Edmondson was born seven miles south of Bandon, Oregon; dropped out of high school; had many jobs (among them working as a traveling salesman peddling vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, and encyclopedias); served twelve years in the U.S. Navy-mostly on destroyers-then abandoned his Navy career after having participated in the bombardment of the ancient Vietnamese city of Hue during the Tet offensive. He went back to school, received his M.A. in English Literature from San Francisco State during the seventies, and taught for many years at City College of San Francisco. His poetry has appear...