Richard Brautigan's first poems were published early in the 1950s. He moved from his boyhood home in Eugene, Oregon, to San Francisco, California, midway through the decade where his first books of poetry were published. More information and resources about Brautigan, his life, and work during this decade are below.

Use the links above to access information and resources about Brautigan's life during other decades.
Brautigan's mother, Mary Lou, married William Folston, Jr., 12 June 1950, a month before her divorce from Robert Porterfield 12 July 1950. Folston worked as a tire changer at Wyatt's Tire Company. The family lived together at 1287 Hayes in Eugene, Oregon, in a house that Folston had owned since at least 1952 (Eugene City Directory). LEARN more >>>

Their marriage application stated "Mary Lou Porterfield" as previously married and her husband deceased. All Mary Lou's husbands by previous marriages were still very much alive, however: Bernard F. Brautigan, Jr. died in 1994, Robert Geoffrey Porterfield died in 1969, as did Arthur Martin Titland whom Mary Lou apparently never officially married. Note that when she married Folston her divorce from Porterfield was not final; that came a full month later.

As with his other stepfathers, abuse and neglect seemed a central theme. Jennifer Foote quoted Mary Lou Folston, Brautigan's mother, saying

"I don't think he was very fond of my husband," Folston ventured. "They went hunting once, and there was a rift." Young Brautigan came back from the trip and told his mother that Uncle Larry, her husband's brother, had poured cold water in his ear as he lay in his sleeping bag and then killed a deer and rubbed the blood all over him. "Richard was shocked," she said. "After that there was cold dead silence." (Foote D8.)

Brautigan fished and hunted frequently, bringing home his catch for the family table. Times were hard after World War II, and Brautigan and his sister Barbara pushed an old baby buggy along the roads looking for glass bottles to recycle for money, an experience he described in the poem "The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth's Beer Bottles" and recounted in So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away. Brautigan worked at odd jobs. He mowed lawns. With money earned picking string beans he bought a used bicycle so he could have a paper route. When he was old enough he started working in a cannery, and continued every season until he graduated from Eugene High School, 17th and Charnelton (Ianthe Brautigan 193, 199, 202).

Brautigan entered Eugene High School in Eugene, Oregon from Woodrow Wilson Junior High School on 12 September 1950. Eugene High School was located at 17th and Charnelton.

A new high school opened at 19th and Patterson in 1953, with the first class graduating the following year. This new high school was named Eugene High School and then renamed again, in 1957, as South Eugene High School, after North Eugene High School was built.

The original Eugene High School was renamed Woodrow Wilson Junior High, replacing the original junior high school of the same name at 12th and Madison.

Brautigan's Grade 10 courses included Speech and Language, Biology, Speech, Typing, and Physical Education.

Grade 11 at Eugene High School (17th and Charnelton). Courses included English, United States History, Algebra 1, Physics, Health, Physical Education, and Radio and Speech.

The poem "The Light" was published in the Eugene High School News, Brautigan's high school newspaper.

A self-portrait, circa 1953, the year of Brautigan's graduation from high school. Taken in a coin-operated photo booth. From the collection of Craig Showalter.

Grade 12 at Eugene High School (17th and Charnelton). Courses included English, Speech, Chemistry, Bookkeeping, Creative Writing, and Typing.

Brautigan learned that his real last name was "Brautigan" and not "Porterfield," the surname of his mother's second husband Robert Porterfield. Brautigan may have asked his mother for information about his real father and real last name, or she felt his high school diploma should bear the correct name (Ianthe Brautigan 197). Either way, she received a "true copy" of Brautigan's birth certificate from the Washington State Board of Health. It showed his last name as Brautigan. Nearing the end of high school, Brautigan changed his last name from "Porterfield" to "Brautigan."

Graduated 9 June 1953. The surname on his diploma read "Brautigan," as did his picture in the school yearbook. His senior picture showed him dressed in a jacket and tie, pale, and smiling. He was not listed as a member of any clubs, or having had participated in any school activities. His only extracurricular activity was the acceptance of his poem, "The Light" for publication in the school newspaper.

Overall, Brautigan was remembered by his classmates as being tall, blond, quiet, and a loner. His mother said Brautigan read a lot and often helped school mates with their homework (Ianthe Brautigan 198). Edna Webster recalled that Brautigan, over six feet tall, played basketball at the First Baptist Church in Eugene. Because of his height, Brautigan played center.

An influential person may have been one of Brautigan's English teachers, Juliet Gibson (Don Bishoff 1B). Possibly through her Brautigan discovered the poetry of Emily Dickinson and William Carlos Williams. Both influenced his own writing: Dickinson with her persona of the poet as an eccentric outsider writing telegrams from a parallel universe and Williams with his insistence on forgoing outdated poetic forms to write in vernacular about subjects that had an immediate impact on readers. Brautigan wrote throughout high school, and according to his half-sister, Barbara, often wrote all night (Lawrence Wright 40) in his unheated bedroom (Ianthe Brautigan 201).

His parents did not support Brautigan's writing efforts. "My folks rode him a lot," said Barbara.

They never listened to what he was writing. They didn't understand his writing was important to him. I know they asked him to get out of the house several times. (Lawrence Wright 59)

Others were more supportive. "He was a good poet even then and I loved the sound of his voice," said Peter Webster. Webster was Brautigan's best high school friend. They hunted and fished together at the Fern Ridge Resevoir near Eugene. To earn money, they sold earthworms and Christmas trees (Bob Keefer and Quail Dawning 2H).

Because his own home life was so unhappy, Brautigan spent a lot of time at the Webster home at 41 Madison Street. Peter's mother, Edna Webster, became Brautigan's surrogate mother. Peter's sister, Linda Webster, was Brautigan's first girlfriend. Brautigan gave many of his high school writing manuscripts to Edna when he left for San Francisco. They were published in three different books after his death. LEARN more >>>

After graduation, Brautigan worked in a pickle factory run by the Eugene Fruit Growers Association and at other odd jobs (Ianthe Brautigan 161). Lorna Webster, sister of Linda and Peter, does not recall the pickle factory. Instead,

Brautigan worked for the Eugene Fruit Growers Association from July through September, 1951 and 1952, from July to December in 1953, and from July to August 1954.

"Moonlight on a Cemetery," "Winter Sunset," and "The Ochoco" published. The author of each was stated as "Richard Brautigan."
The poem "The Ageless Ones" was published.

Brautigan worked for the Eugene Fruit Growers Association, July to August.

Brautigan was determined to be a writer of poetry, short stories, and novels. Attending a university would not help his career goals he felt, and money for tuition was not available. So Brautigan concentrated on writing poetry—"as inevitable perhaps for anyone caught up in the Beat generation as learning to play guitar would be for the generation a decade later." (Foster 7)

With a desire to be a writer, it is natural that Brautigan would consider going to the center of writing on the West Coast: San Francisco. Jennifer Foote says, "Brautigan had tried to leave home and live in San Francisco's North Beach four times before he actually had enough money to stay there. He circulated among the Beats and wrote constantly" (Foote D8). Foote provides no dates for these four attempts by Brautigan to leave Oregon and establish residency in San Francisco occurred, but several reports by other writers state that Brautigan tried to establish himself in San Francisco in 1954.

For example, Jay Acton, Alan le Mond, and Parker Hodges say Brautigan "moved to San Francisco in 1954" (Acton, et. al. 26).

Helen Donlon also said, "In 1954, Brautigan left his home, his mother and younger sister, Barbara, and headed for the city—arriving in San Francisco" (Helen Donlon 1).

Janusz K. Buda said "Brautigan moved to San Francisco in 1954, and was soon involved in the literary groups that were springing up in the area" (Buda 23).

Warren French said Brautigan moved to San Francisco

from the state of Washington [actually, Oregon] in 1954, when he was nineteen and the Beats were just gathering. He quickly became associated with them and lived for a time with Philip Whalen. (Warren French 84)

French also said "In 1955, he [Brautigan] was included in the book Four New Poets from a local press" but that book was not published until the fall of 1957. This was Brautigan's first inclusion in a poetry anthology.

Craig Thompson said Brautigan moved to San Francisco in 1954 and "at one time, shared an apartment with Philip Whalen" (Thompson 286).

Ingrid Sterner said,

Brautigan, in 1954 moved to San Francisco, the destination of many of the disaffected youth of his generation, and became involved in the Beat literary movement. (Sterner 97)

Finally, Edward Halsey Foster said

In 1954, he [Brautigan] moved to San Francisco, then on the verge of becoming the literary center of the Beat generation. . . . Brautigan had not been drawn to San Francisco by the Beat movement, but we was soon involved with it. He became friendly with Lawrence Ferlinghetti poet, publisher, and owner of City Lights Books, poet Michael McClure, and Beat poet Philip Whalen, a fellow Northwesterner with whom he shared an apartment, reportedly south of Market Street. (Foster 7)

Each of these reports seems to be a case of writers repeating mistaken information. No reports of Brautigan being in or living in San Francisco prior to 1956 have been substantiated.
The poems "So Many Twilights," "First Star on the Twilight River," "Butterfly's Breath," and "Someplace in the World a Man is Screaming in Pain" were published.

Brautigan gave Edna Webster several manuscripts written in the mid-1950s, as well as several photographs and personal items. Several of the writings were for Edna and/or Linda. Clearly, some of the items were written prior to this date, and several more were written later, during Brautigan's stay in the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon (24 December 1955-19 February 1956, see below).

As to why Brautigan assigned his writings to Edna, it is possible that he was panicked by his parents' discussion of finding him psychiatric help. He said that after hearing their plans he took his writings to Edna and gave them to her. See below for more information.

Webster sold the materials in October 1992 and many of the items were later published. One manuscript was published as Would you like to saddle up a couple of goldfish and swim to Alaska? in 1995. Another was published as I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye and Other Pieces in 1996. A third portion was published as The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings in 1999, which included both the previous publications.

Brautigan was arrested for disorderly conduct after breaking the window in the door of the Eugene Police Station inside Old City Hall, corner of 11th Avenue and Willamette, with a rock. The next day, Thursday, December 15, a front page story in The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon read:

A Eugene man who said he wanted to go to jail got his wish Wednesday night.

Police say Richard G. Brautigan, 20, of 467 W. 17th Ave., went in the city hall police station and announced, "I am a criminal. I am going to break the law."

Then he hurled a rock through a window in the station and asked police to lock him up.

Brautigan was jailed on a disorderly conduct charge. He pleaded guilty to the charge Thursday morning in municipal court and the case was continued to Saturday. (Anonymous. "Eugenean's Wish Granted." The Register-Guard 15 Dec. 1955: 1)

Actually, Brautigan's case was continued to Friday, not Saturday, and then continued again to the following Monday. He was fined $25.00 and sentenced to ten days in jail.

There are differing answers to why Brautigan threw the rock. His daughter, Ianthe, said Brautigan told her he did so purposefully, in order to be arrested. In jail, he thought, he would be given meals. He was hungry, a starving writer in Eugene, Oregon (Ianthe Brautigan 155, 162).

Another answer was suggested by James Sullivan who wrote that "Brautigan threw a tantrum and got arrested" over a disagreement about money loaned to him by his friend Peter Webster (Sullivan E6).

An often heard explanation begins with Lawrence Wright who said Brautigan showed his poetry to a girl on whom he had a crush. When she criticized his writing he was deeply affected. He turned himself into the police, asking to be arrested. When told there was no cause for his arrest, Brautigan threw rocks at a police station window. He was arrested and spent a week in jail (Wright 59).

By his own account, Brautigan's actions were deliberate: he filled his pockets with rocks, walked to the Police Station, and once inside threw the rocks through the window.

These explanations speak to a larger story. Probably Brautigan was a starving writer, literally and figuratively. He had lived alone in a boarding house run by Hal Barton, a Quaker, at 467 West 17th Avenue, near Lawrence Street, since leaving the family home on Hayes Street in the summer of 1954. He was a loner, belonged to no clubs or social groups, and had few friends. He worked at odd jobs to earn a meager existence. Money was tight. He often could not afford to buy enough food. Still, he stuck with his dream of becoming a writer. He wrote in his boarding house room. Pete Webster recalled staying up late in that room, talking with Brautigan (Bob Keefer and Quail Dawning 2H).

As for the girl, she was Linda Webster, Brautigan's first love. Linda was fourteen years old, just beginning high school. She was the daughter of Edna Webster, Brautigan's surrogate mother and sister to Pete Webster, his best friend.

"Richard was madly in love with my daugther," recalled Edna Webster. "But she was only 14 then. He thought he was crazy to love my daughter so much. I said, 'I don't think so, especially at your age.'" (Bob Keefer and Quail Dawning 2H)

Their relationship was innocent and proper. Brautigan enjoyed the companionship and the opportunity to share writing with Linda. Brautigan wrote stories and sent them to magazines in Linda's name. None were ever accepted or published.

But, by his own statement, Brautigan knew Linda was too young, that he would have to wait quite awhile before they could truly and rightly become involved in a relationship. Brautigan struggled with confused emotions, often feeling them improper, especially when they took on sexual overtones which he expressed in his writing.

Both Linda and Edna Webster read Brautigan's writing. Neither admitted to any criticism of Brautigan's poetry although Edna did object to his vernacular references to sexual intercourse, saying it would not be understand or appreciated by readers. So it was not rejection that sent him to the police station. Instead, in his confused, chaste love for Linda, Brautigan pined so hard that he began to fall apart.

His parents' probably did not help. They were confused, perhaps angered by his moody silence, his refusal to pursue a lifestyle other than bohemian, and a career other than writing. As Barbara said, they rode Brautigan hard, even attempted to get him psychiatric care (See note, below). This may have pushed Brautigan to action. If everyone thought he was crazy, maybe he should be.

"He decided he was crazy," Webster said. "He went down to the police station. They said, 'You're not crazy.' So he threw a rock through the police station window." (Bob Keefer and Quail Dawning 2H)

[Note: Brautigan stated that his parents' discussion of finding him psychiatric care panicked him. In response, he took his writings to Edna Webster and gave them to her. This may be the context for the 3 November 1955 signing of his writings to Edna. See above.]

So, in the end, Brautigan's actions were deliberate, an act of rebellion, anger, frustration. He broke a window at the Eugene Police Station. He was arrested and placed in the Lane County Jail. The next day he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. He was fined $25.00 and given a ten-day jail sentence. After serving seven of the ten days he was given a court hearing and ordered committed to the state hospital for observation and treatment.

Brautigan was committed to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, the same hospital used for filming Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. While in the hospital Brautigan received electric shock therapy treatments (Wright 59; Ianthe Brautigan 155-156, 162; Don Bishoff 1B) and was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic (Wright 59).

Brautigan was given a total of twelve electric shock treatments and medication. He wrote letters to Linda and Edna Webster, asking both not to think him crazy. He wrote letters to himself, describing what he was thinking and feeling, mostly as a way to judge whether he was suffering memory loss from the shock therapy. And he corresponded with Lilith Lorraine, editor of Flame. She had published "Someplace in the World a Man is Screaming in Pain" in the Autumn 1955 issue of her journal and wrote asking to see more work. She also forwarded a letter from D. Vincent Smith who wanted to republish the poem in the first issue of his own literary magazine, Olivant. Brautigan sent Smith a manuscript titled The God of the Martians but the book was never published. LEARN more >>>
Brautigan was released from the Oregon State Hospital. He said,

I realized I made a big fucking mistake. So I did my best to get out of there as fast as I could. I became a model patient. [I was there] three months. (Ianthe Brautigan 155)

Mary Lou said that she and her husband, William Folston, Jr., visited Brautigan each week while he was in the hospital (Ianthe Brautigan 202). Lawrence Wright portrayed a different scenario when he quoted Brautigan's half-sister, Barbara, saying

I didn't know he was there until after they let him out. I know he had shock therapy. After that he seemed real quiet. The only thing he told me about it was that he learned to dance in there. But he would never open up to me again. (Wright 59)

Brautigan left home soon after his release from the hospital. This was the last time he saw his mother who said,

I guess he hated us. Or maybe he had a disappointed love affair. Whatever. Richard practically abandoned the family when he left here. I haven't the slightest idea why. (Lawrence Wright 59)

Brautigan also cut off most contact with his sisters Barbara and Sandra Jean. They both wrote him over the years, attempting to reestablish contact. Finally, in July 1970, Brautigan sent this curt reply:

San Francisco
July 18, 1970

Dear Sandra,

I appreciate your feelings toward me but many years have passed and all I can do is wish you a happy and rewarding life. I am sorry if this seems blunt and I am sorry if it causes you any pain. Again: thank you for your interest in me and I wish you good luck.

Best wishes.
Richard

This photograph, included in a letter from Sandra shows her and Richard's half-brother, William David Folston.

Potential reasons for Brautigan's leaving might include extreme poverty and parental abuse. There are reports that Brautigan, his sister, and mother were, on more than one occasion, moved into welfare hotels or motor courts by state agencies (Abbott 82, 101).

Abuse by both parents: beatings by his "stepfathers" and abandonment by his mother are often often cited by friends and family.

My father told me that during the Depression he and his sister were boarded out to a family for awhile. She was beaten every morning for wetting the bed. One of his drunken stepfathers came to visit and wrestled with him, almost breaking my father's arm. Luckily, the people he was boarding with stepped in and stopped the stepfather. (Ianthe Brautigan 128)

Keith Abbott, quoting Brautigan, said one of his stepfathers "would just thrash him and thrash him" and once tried to break his arm. Brautigan remembered being "rented out" with his sister to do household chores and once watched a neighbor whip his sister (Abbott 101).

Brautigan's mother, Lulu Mary, known as Mary Lou, was married to several "stepfathers." LEARN more >>>

Abbott also said Brautigan claimed his mother loved young children but "ignored and feared them as they got older" (Abbott 101). And there was his mother's drinking. "The only two concrete things he mentioned about her was that she drank a lot and smoked cigarettes" (Ianthe Brautigan 94).

"He just left is all," Folston said. "Didn't say where he was going. He just disappeared, like people do." Still, she never wondered about Brautigan after he left home. "When you know your child is famous, you don't worry, do you?" (Jennifer Foote D8)

Brautigan hitch-hiked his way to San Francisco, stopping along the way in Reno, Nevada. While there he visited Barney Mergen, who wrote about the experience following Brautigan's death. Mergen said Brautigan was on his way to San Francisco from Portland, Oregon. He and Brautigan spent a lot of time together talking about writing. Then, said Mergen, Brautigan found work in Fallon, a town east of Reno (Mergen 20).

Keith Abbott also recounted Brautigan visiting Reno "one spring" in the late 1950s. Brautigan, said Abbott was "totally broke in San Francisco and a friend had called and promised him a job in Reno as a laborer on a construction project." Brautigan borrowed money to travel to Reno, but once there had to wait three days for the job to start. With an advance against his wages, Brautigan rented a motel room (Abbott 89-90).

Abbott's account possibly hints at another visit by Brautigan to Reno. Or, it overlays Mergen's account of a construction job in Fallon, near Reno. There, Brautigan made contact with the publisher of the local newspaper, The Fallon Standard, and published two poems.

Published the poems "Storm Over Fallon" and "The Breeze".

On the recommendation of D. Vincent Smith, Brautigan sent a 600-word, 20 chapter manuscript for a novel titled The God of the Martians to Harry Hooton, a Sydney, Australia poet, for possible publication in Hooton's magazine 21st Century: The Magazine of a Creative Civilization. LEARN more >>>

A collection of poems titled The Smallest Book of Poetry submitted earlier to New Directions for publication was rejected and returned to Edna Webster (per Brautigan's addressing of the return envelope). The manuscript dedication read:

James Dean.
An American genius.
Dead at twenty-four.

Brautigan gave many of his high school writing manuscripts to Edna when he left for San Francisco. They were published in three different books after his death. LEARN more >>>

Brautigan established in San Francisco. "His life began in 1956 in San Francisco" (Ianthe Brautigan 95).

San Francisco was a rich network of streams to "trout about" in. Richard must have loved it all as much as I did. Vibrancy of thought was in the air. Consciousness of California landscape and Oriental thought were in the air we breathed, and it was made dark and moist by the Pacific beating on the coast of Monterey. Steinbeck country was nearby, Henry Miller lived down on Partingdon Ridge, Robinson Jeffers was in his tower in Carmel. (Michael McClure 44)

Right in San Francisco were philosopher Alan Watts and poets Kenneth Rexroth, Kenneth Patchen, Robert Duncan (who had a class in poetics at San Francisco State University), Jack Spicer, Joe Dunn, Brother Antoninus, Philip Lamantia, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Robert Creeley.

Brautigan supported himself with odd jobs like delivering telegrams for Western-Union. He slept in parked cars, bus terminals, and cheap hotels, like the Hotel Jesse.

Brautigan met Virginia Dionne Alder (also called Ginny; Brautigan's first wife) whom he married the following year. He moved to her apartment at 557A Greenwich Street, above North Beach. Ginny worked at secretarial jobs, supporting them both (Abbott 44) while Brautigan wrote poetry and spent time at several North Beach bars and coffeeshops where other unknown writers gathered.

One popular gathering spot for poets and artists was "The Place" at 546 Grant Avenue where Brautigan read his poetry at the weekly "Blabbermouth Night," an extemporaneous public speaking event started by bartenders, John Alley Ryan (director of the Six Gallery) and John Gibbons ("Jack") Langan. The Place was a bohemian bar where works by artists like Jay De Feo, Wally Hedrick, Robert LaVigne, and others were shown. Blabbermouth Night provided an opportunity for artists, poets, and others to make a statement or to entertain in hopes of winning the night's prize: a magnum of champagne. A yellow soapbox on a balcony was the lectern for the readings.

Despite his conversations around tables of poets, participation at Blabbermouth Night, and public readings, Brautigan's shyness or desire kept him an outsider. Nicholas von Hoffman said,

. . . he stood to one side like a nineteenth-century statue without a pedestal, an objet d'art neglected, put in the back of the barn like a rusty threshing machine. (Nicholas von Hoffman 129).

Other comments were less poetic. Poet Ron Loewinsohn said Brautigan "almost never spoke, and walked around with his hands in his pockets, like he was hiding from everybody" (Peter Manso and Michael McClure 64, 65). Still other comments were less kind. Allen Ginsberg called Brautigan "Bunthorne" after the winsome poet in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "Patience" (Lawrence Wright 34).

Other meeting places included Mr. Otis's, Vesuvio (255 Columbus Avenue; the most popular North Beach bar; Brautigan often sat at a table there and wrote), across Alder Alley (renamed Kerouac Alley 31 March 2007) from City Lights Books, Gino and Carlo's bar on Green Street, and the Co-Existence Bagel Shop, a former Jewish deli, (1398 Grant Avenue; at the corner of Grant Avenue and Green Street). The Co-Existence Bagel Shop was a social center for the North Beach Beats until it closed in 1960. Jack Kerouac mentions the place in his novel, Desolation Angels.

Brautigan always maintained he was not a Beat, or a member of their movement. He knew many of them, however. He was good friends with Michael McClure. Brautigan shared an apartment south of Market Street with Philip Whalen and Lew Welch at one point. He frequented some of the Beat coffeehouses, like The Place (546 Grant Avenue) and the Co-Existence Bagel Shop and often participated in their poetry readings.

Brautigan's writing style was out of fashion with the Beats although they did appreciate his occasional use of shocking humor. His early poetry was published in Beat publications like City Lights Journal. Brautigan was included in the historic photograph "The Last Gathering of the Beats" by Larry Keenan, taken in 1965 in front of City Lights Books owned and run by poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ferlinghetti later published some of Brautigan's poetry, and chapters from his novel Trout Fishing in America despite the fact that he never felt Brautigan developed fully as a writer.

As an editor I was always waiting for Richard to grow up as a writer. It seems to me he was essentially a naif, and I don't think he cultivated that childishness, I think it came naturally (Peter Manso and Michael McClure 65).

Conger Beasley, Jr. agreed:

He was a close to being a genuine naif as contemporary American culture is likely to produce. He relied on his marvelous instincts to propel him through a story; that, plus his droll humor and off-beat characters, gave his novels a funky rhythm. (Conger Beasely 3)

Poet Robert Duncan wrote a letter to Brautigan, criticizing his early poetry and urged him to attend the "Magic Workshop" to be offered by poet Jack Spicer in Spring 1957. "I suggest that before you think of reading you go into the open Forum of your contemporaries" (Duncan, Robert. "Letter to Richard Brautigan." 6 December 1956. Poetry Center files, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley).

Brautigan submitted a manuscript titled Why Unknown Poets Stay Unknown to Random House and another titled Little Children Should Not Wear Beads to Scribners. Neither were accepted for publication but 43 of the original 53 poems in Why Unknown Poets Stay Unknown were collected in The Edna Webster of Undiscovered Writings in 1999.

The poem "The Second Kingdom" was published.

Brautigan (left) at the Co-Existence Bagel Shop, sometime in the 1950s. Copyright © Lisa Law. Used by permission.

Brautigan was not among the initial participants selected by poet Jack Spicer to participate in his Poetry as Magic Workshop but he attended sessions informally. Ron Loewinshon said

There was a circle of people led by Jack Spicer who were literary, college-educated, and gay. Spicer and that crowd were really very suspect to Richard and me, although Richard went to their meetings (Peter Manso and Michael McClure 65).

Poet and friend Michael McClure also commented on Brautigan's relationship with Spicer saying,

Richard was a disciple to some extent, or more aptly a pupil, of Jack Spicer. He must have met Jo Anne [sic] Kyger through Spicer, and maybe Joe Dunn that way too. (Dunn published Richard's first book in his White Rabbit Press series.) (Michael McClure 36)

Following a 9 June 1957 Poetry as Magic Workshop reading, Spicer suggested to Joe Dunn, one of the original members, that he start a press to publish the writing of workshop members. Soon afterwards, Dunn founded the White Rabbit Press and began publishing chapbooks from author's typescripts. The eighth chapbook published was Brautigan's The Galilee Hitch-Hiker, published the following year, in 1958. LEARN more >>>

Brautigan married Virginia (Ginny) Dionne Alder in Reno, Nevada. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Stephen C. Thomas, a Methodist minister. Witnesses were Ace W. Williams and Agnes Thomas. Neither Brautigan or Alder had been married previously. Both were twenty two years of age. Both gave San Francisco as their place of residence. They lived in a North Beach apartment, near the top of Lombard Street and Coit Tower (Ianthe Brautigan 6). Virginia supported them through office work as Brautigan continued to write.

Before they were married, Brautigan and Ginny lived in an upstairs apartment on Filbert Street in the North Beach section of San Francisco. Caroling Geary (then Lind), an artist, lived in the basement apartment, below.

In the early spring of 1957 (January or February), Geary (then Lind), a student in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota, moved to San Francisco, where she lived until April or May.

While in San Francisco, Geary lived first in the YWCA before renting a tiny apartment in the bottom of a house on Filbert Street in the North Beach section of San Francisco for $30.00 a month.

In an apartment above lived Brautigan, Ginger (childhood nickname for Virginia Dionne Alder), and Lenore Yanoff.

Brautigan, says Geary, had a constant energy about him.

Brautigan introduced Caroling to Beat poets and she bought their books at City Lights Books and listened to Brautigan and others reading their poetry at The Place, just up the hill from the apartment. Such readings were the inspiration for "Which Poet?" a painting of Brautigan and other poets at The Place by Geary.

Brautigan participated in the 11th Annual Arts Festival in North Beach held in Fugazi Hall. He participated in the daytime readings "by young poets" with Ron Loewinsohn and Ebbe Borregaard (Ellingham and Killian 109-110).

Brautigan published the poems "A Young Poet," "The Final Ride".

Four New Poets. Ed. Leslie Woolf Hedley. San Francisco: Inferno Press, 1957. 3-9.
34 pages; printed and stapled wrappers; Published Fall 1957.

Brautigan apparently signed this copy 24 August 1971, well after the book was first published.

Four New Poets was an anthology featuring poetry by four poets the editor described as "representing an articulate segment of a sometime-called 'silent generation'."

Of Brautigan the introduction said,

Richard Brautigan is a young poet who was born January 30, 1935 in Tacoma, Washington. He now lives in San Francisco where he is working on a book of poems, The Horse That Had A Flat Tire.

Four poems by Brautigan were included: "The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth's Beer Bottles," "The Mortuary Bush," "Twelve Roman Soldiers and an Oatmeal Cookie," and "Gifts". This was Brautigan's first book appearance prior to his own solely authored book, The Return of the Rivers.

The other three poets were: Martin Hoberman, Carl Larsen, and James M. Singer. At the time of publication, none of the poets was over the age of 25. Larsen edited Existaria, a Journal of Existant Hysteria, in which, also in 1957, Brautigan published two poems: "The Daring Little Guy on the Burma Shave Sign" and "The World Will Never End".
Brautigan and Virginia lived at 1470 Washington Street (Polk County Directory)

Brautigan joined the Dharma Committee, an ad hoc group of writers and poets. They sometimes met at the Bread and Wine Mission, on the corner of Grant Avenue and Greenwich Street, in San Francisco's North Beach area, for the free spaghetti dinners and poetry readings. The Mission was led by a young minister, Pierre Delattre, and was a center for discussion of and participation in the evolving literary scene during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Brautigan read his poetry at these meetings, along with Joanne Kyger, Gary Snyder, and Ebbe Borregaard (Ellingham and Killian 144-145).

Brautigan published more poetry in small magazines: "15 Stories in One Poem" and "Kingdom Come".

The Return of the Rivers published in May. A single poem, printed as a broadside in black construction paper wrappers. Because of the wrappers, this is generally considered Brautigan's first published "book" of poetry. Published by Leslie Woolf Hedley of Inferno Press, who in the fall of this year published Four New Poets which included four poems by Brautigan.

The Galilee Hitch-Hiker, a single poem in nine parts, published. A theme was the changing presence of Charles Baudelaire in each part.

Brautigan and Virginia lived at 461 Mississippi Street (Polk County Directory and Morgan, Bill. The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2003.)

Brautigan in San Francisco, 1959
Photograph by Virginia Dionne Alder, Brautigan's first wife.

Another photograph of Brautigan, taken probably at the same time as the one above, by Virginia Alder.

The poems "Psalm," "The Whorehouse at the Top of Mount Rainier," "The American Submarine," "A Postcard from the Bridge," "That Girl," "The Sink," and "Swandragons" were published.

Lay The Marble Tea, a collection of 24 poems, published. These poems, as did most of his subsequent work, blurred the boundaries between poetry and prose.