Edward Merton Dorn (April 2, 1929 — December 10, 1999) was an American poet and teacher often associated with the Black Mountain poets. His most famous work is Gunslinger.
Edward Merton Dorn was born in Villa Grove, Illinois and grew up in rural poverty during the Great Depression, attending a one-room schoolhouse for his first eight grades. He studied at the University of Illinois and at Black Mountain College (1950-1955). At Black Mountain he c...
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Edward Merton Dorn (April 2, 1929 — December 10, 1999) was an American poet and teacher often associated with the Black Mountain poets. His most famous work is Gunslinger.
Edward Merton Dorn was born in Villa Grove, Illinois and grew up in rural poverty during the Great Depression, attending a one-room schoolhouse for his first eight grades. He studied at the University of Illinois and at Black Mountain College (1950-1955). At Black Mountain he came into contact with Charles Olson, who greatly influenced his literary worldview and his sense of himself as poet. Dorn's final examiner at Black Mountain was Robert Creeley, with whom, along with the poet Robert Duncan, Dorn became included as one of a trio of younger poets later associated with Black Mountain and with Charles Olson.
In 1951, Dorn left Black Mountain and travelled to the Pacific Northwest, where he did manual work and met his first wife, Helene; they returned to the school in late 1954. After graduation and two years of...
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