Biographical or Historical Note
Robin Blaser was born in Denver, Colorado, 18th May, 1925 and educated at the University of California, Berkeley where he received his B.A., M.A., and M.L.S. Blaser says, ""The influence of one professor seems endless: Ernest Kantorowicz. True education was largely outside the university in the company of Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, and Rosario Jimeniz."" Blaser was associated with Jack Spicer, Brother Antoninus, and others in The San Francisco Renaissance of the late 1940's and has continued to exert an influence in the field of avant-garde poetry. In addition to his own writing and professional career, he is cited by Donald Allen for ""much needed and deeply appreciated advice and assistance"" with the Grove anthology of New American Poets, 1945-1960. The anthology, edited by Allen, marked an important milestone in the avant-garde poetry of recent decades. Blaser has travelled in Europe and North America. He was a librarian at Harvard University Library, 1955-59; California Historical Society, 1960; and San Francisco State College Library, 1961-65. He is currently a professor emeritus of the English Department at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. He was a recipient of the Poetry Society Award, New York, 1965; and of a Canada Council Grant to Study in Glastonbury, 1968. He was unable to accept the latter award.
