A biography of the American poet traces his life and follows his transformation from high school dropout into a successful newspaper columnist, activist, and poet In this first full-length biography, richly detailed and thoroughly documented, the self-taught Rexroth emerges as a major American poet. Rexroth, a prominent figure in San Francisco's literary renaissance, was also a jazz-poet performer, translator, mentor, critic, leftist commentator, pacifist, Catholic-Buddhist spiritualist, world traveler, wit, and iconoclast. Hamalian depicts the virtues and flaws of this fascinating man with cool, even-handed balance. Married four times, and father to two daughters, he yearned to understand and fulfill the lives of the women close to him. Longing for stable relationships, he sometimes abused, exploited, and alienated others, then accused them of deserting him. He bowed to no authority, but his bravado often shielded hidden insecurities. He took great delight in nature's beauty, but in his poems life and art often diverged. With its multifaceted portrait, rendered with photographic accuracy, this instructive book augments our appreciation of the man and his era. Highly recommended. - Addie Lee Bracy, Beaver Coll. Lib., Glenside, Pa. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.