More than 20 years before his death, Beat poet Bob Kaufman (1925 - 1986) took a vow of silence that he honored for all but a handful of his remaining years. Unfortunately, this silence has seemingly made it easy to dismiss Kaufman in favor of self-promoting Beats such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. A growing number of scholars, however, are taking the time to reexamine the poetry of Bob Kaufman. As they do, they propose various explanations for his silence, which infects both his poetry and his biography. This book offers a new theory. It argues for a historical reading. It posits that...
More than 20 years before his death, Beat poet Bob Kaufman (1925 - 1986) took a vow of silence that he honored for all but a handful of his remaining ...
