Rod McKuen

Rod McKuen was one of the best-selling poets in America during the late '60s, and also achieved considerable success as a songwriter, soundtrack composer, and singer. McKuen's recordings alternated between poetic pop songs and spoken word readings of his verse, and his more serious composition work earned him two Oscar nominations and one Pulitzer nomination. Additionally, his translations helped bring the work of legendary French songwriter Jacques Brel to prominence in English-speaking countries. His literary work often dealt with themes of love, nature, and spirituality, and critics didn't always accept it, some deriding it as simplistic and sentimental. However, even as his initial flower-child audience grew older, McKuen remained as popular as he was prolific, selling millions of copies of his books (having written upward of 30) and increasingly becoming the subject of academic study. Rodney Marvin McKuen was born on April 29, 1933, in Oakland, CA. He lived with his mother and stepfather, the latter a frequently violent alcoholic, and ran away from home at age 11. He drifted up and down the West Coast, working a succession of odd jobs -- ranch hand, surveyor, railroad worker, lumberjack, rodeo cowboy, stuntman, radio DJ, and more -- and sending some of the money home to his mother. Seeking to make up for his relative lack of formal education, he started keeping a journal, which grew into a regular writing habit and resulted in his first poetry and song lyrics. He found work as a newspaper columnist, and served in the Korean War as a propaganda script writer. Returning to the U.S. and settling in San Francisco, he read his poetry alongside Beat icons like Kerouac and Ginsberg, and began performing as a singer at the famed Purple Onion -- first folk songs, then...