Michael McClure

Michael McClure: (October 20, 1932 – May 4, 2020), beat poet, playwright, novelist, and documentary filmmaker born in Marysville, Kansas, and raised there and in Seattle. He gave his first poetry reading in 1955 alongside Allen Ginsberg, who gave his first public reading of “Howl,” when McClure organized the famous Six Gallery readings which would launch the legend of the Beat Poets and the San Francisco Renaissance. He was the author of numerous collections of poetry, recorded several CDs with Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, wrote more than 20 plays and musicals, and the song “Mercedes Benz,” which was made famous by singer Janis Joplin. His honors included a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Alfred Jarry Award, as well as a Rockefeller grant for playwriting and an Obie Award for Best Play. He taught poetry at California College of the Arts for over 40 years and lived in Oakland with his wife, the sculptor Amy Evans McClure, before his death in 2020. A selection of his papers is held at the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley and at the Special Collections & Rare Books at Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.