Gary Snyder (1930- )

A selective list of online literary criticism for Gary Snyder, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Sites

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Literary Criticism

Alpers, Paul. A review of What Is Pastoral? (University of Chicago Press, 1996). Reviewed in Comparative Literature, Spring 1998 by Cheney, Donald

Beach, Christopher. "Pound's Words in Their Pockets: Denise Levertov and Gary Snyder." In ABC of Influence: Ezra Pound and the Remaking of American Poetic Tradition (Univ. of California Press, 1992)

Bryson, J. Scott, ed. Ecopoetry: A Critical Introduction (Univ. of Utah Press, 2002). Brief blurb on chapters covering Snyder's poetry of the environment.

Campbell, James. "High peak haikus," a profile of Gary Snyder and review of Danger On Peaks (2004). The Observer, July 16, 2005

Gray, Timothy G. "Semiotic Shepherds: Gary Snyder, Frank O'Hara, and the Embodiment of an Urban Pastoral." First page of article only. In Contemporary Literature, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 523-559

Gray, Timothy. Gary Snyder and the Pacific Rim: Creating Countercultural Community (Univ. of Iowa Press, 2006). Publisher's blurb

Hunt, Anthony. "Singing The Dyads: The Chinese Landscape Scroll and Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End." Journal of Modern Literature, Volume 23, Number 1 (Fall 1999), pp. 7-34

Murphy, Patrick D. A substantial introduction to Gary Snyder from the Literary Encyclopedia, 21 March 2002

Phillips, Rod. Review of "Forest Beatniks" and "Urban Thoreaus": Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Lew Welch, and Michael McClure (Peter Lang Publishing, 2000). Reviewed by Mary Sands in Jack Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2

Selby, Nick. "Poem as Work-Place: Gary Snyder's Ecological Poetics." Sycamore 1:4 (Winter 1997); rpt. at Modern American Poetry

Snyder, Gary. The Practice of the Wild. Essays by Gary Snyder on political and spiritual matters, the environment, and the art of becoming native to this continent (Shoemaker & Hoard Publishers, 2003). Preview at Google Books.

Snyder, Gary. Turtle Island (New Directions Publishing, 1974). Preview at Google Books.

Snyder, Gary. Gary Snyder speaks about his study of haiku, on receiving in Japan a grand prize for his haiku. In Modern Haiku, Vol. 36, 2, Summer 2005.

Suiter, John. An essay about John Suiter's Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalem & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades, "Gary Snyder on Crater Mountain, 1952, " by Noel V. Bourasaw. Skagit River Journal

Suiter, John. A web site for John Suiter's Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalem & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades, provides excerpts from the book, some photos, and information about purchasing it

An introduction to Gary Snyder from Modern American Poetry with the following articles: About Gary Snyder; Chronology; On "Riprap"; On "Straight-Creek--Great Burn" ; On "Beneath My Hand and Eye the Distant Hills, Your Body" ; On "I Went Into the Maverick Bar" ; On "Axe Handles" ; A Postmodern Perspective on Gary Snyder--An Essay by Todd Ensign ; Snyder's Ecological Poetics--An Essay by Nick Selby, from the Modern American Poetry Site (Univ. of Illinois)

Gary Snyder A comprehensive, reliable introduction to Gary Snyder, covers his interest in Buddhism, from the Poetry Foundation, with links to some of his best known poems.

"Nature Poems in a Post-Natural Age." A talk with Gary Snyder, 3/25/08, from the Poetry Foundation

A voice in the wilderness - writer Gary Snyder. "Writer Gary Snyder has established a reputation as a poet and ecological philosopher with books such as 'Riprap,' 'Myths and Texts,' 'Earth House Hold.'" In The Progressive, Nov, 1995 by Bob Blanchard

Prague Writers' Festival director Michael March interviews Gary Snyder about environmental and social responsibility, in The Guardian, May 30, 2007

Inventory of the Gary Snyder papers, Special Collections at the Univ. of Calif., Davis

A very brief introduction to Gary Snyder from the Academy of American Poets

Selby, Nick. "America as Poem in Gary Snyder's 'Mountains and Rivers Without End' and Susan Howe's 'Secret History of the Dividing Line.'" Journal of American Studies 39 (2005) (removed)

A brief biography from Gary Snyder's UC Davis faculty page. In awarding Gary Snyder the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the judges wrote, "Gary Snyder, throughout a long and distinguished career, has been doing what he refers to in one poem as 'the real work.' 'The real work' refers to writing poetry, an unprecedented kind of poetry, in which the most adventurous technique is put at the service of the great themes of nature and love. He has brought together the physical life and the inward life of the spirit to write poetry as solid and yet as constantly changing as the mountains and rivers of his American--and universal--landscape." (moved or removed)

"Reading Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End." Stanford Humanities Conference, 1998 (moved or removed)

Whitaker, Thomas R. Suggestions for teaching Gary Snyder's poetry include comparing it to William Carlos Williams, for their similar interest in particulars and how they suggest a pattern and link with the universal. From Heath guides (moved or removed)

The Beats and San Francisco Renaissance

"The Houseboat Summit," transcript of a 1967 conversation about spiritual change, zen buddhism, the peace movement, the hippy days in San Francisco, and the beats, with Gary Snyder, Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, and Timothy Leary, which took place on Watts's houseboat in Sausilito, Calif

A non-traditional syllabus, from Naropa, for a class focusing on "Philip Zenshin Whalen and Gary Snyder's early processes of artistic synthesis and fusion along with their Buddhist appropriations and assimilations." Contains archival audio clips

Fields, Rick. How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (Shambhala Publications). Publisher's web site

The history of Circle magazine, an experimental San Francisco publication started in 1944

A site from the Naropa Institute contains audio files of lectures given at Naropa by Beat writers. The Naropa Archive Project is preserving and providing access to over 3500 recordings made at Naropa since 1974

Hayward, Michael. The publishing history of Beat writers, MA thesis (1991)

Details on the reading "6 Poets at 6 Gallery" in San Francisco, 1955

Book Collecting: Beat Literature, article by a book collector, Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD

Excerpt from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980, by Steve Clay & Rodney Phillips. Based on the acclaimed 1998 exhibition at The NY Public Library documenting experimental literary publishing in this period. Courtesy of Granary Books (now blocked)

"A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980." Underground Publications Document Poetry's 'Mimeo Revolution' in Exhibition at The NY Public Library, featuring the handmade, experimental publications of work by poets and artists of the period. Press release about a 1998 exhibition at the NY Public Library (removed)

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