Lew Welch

Lew Welch

Lewis Barrett "Lew" Welch, Jr. (August 16, 1926 – May 1971) was an American poet associated with the Beat generation literary movement.

Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s. He taught a poetry workshop as part of the University of California Extension in San Francisco from 1965 to 1970.

He is believed to have committed suicide, after leaving a note on May 23, 1971. His body was never found.

Early life

Welch was born in Phoenix, Arizona and moved with his mother and sister to California in 1929. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1944 but never saw active service. He worked for a period before attending Stockton Junior College, where he developed an interest in the works of Gertrude Stein.

In 1948, Welch moved to Portland, Oregon to attend Reed College. There he roomed with poets Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen. Welch decided to become a writer after reading Gertrude Stein's long story "Melanctha." Welch wrote his thesis on Stein and published poems in student magazines. William Carlos Williams visited the college and met the three poets. He admired Welch's early poems and tried to get his Stein thesis published.

The world of advertising

After college, Welch moved to New York City, where he worked writing copy in the advertising industry. Welch was said to have come up with the advertising slogan,"Raid Kills Bugs Dead", but others have questioned this claim. During this time, Welch started to display emotional and mental problems and went to Florida to take a course of therapy.

He then went to the University of Chicago, where he studied philosophy and English. In Chicago, he joined the advertising department of Montgomery Ward. He was working there at the time of the famous poetry reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco that launched what was to become known as the San Francisco Renaissance.

Later life and work

Wanting to get back to poetry, Welch applied for a transfer to Montgomery Ward's Oakland headquarters. After the return to California, he started to get involved in the San Francisco literary scene. He soon gave up advertising and earned a living driving a cab while devoting more time to writing. He became an active participant in Beat culture, living at various times with Snyder and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In 1960, poet Lenore Kandel met Welch and Snyder, who introduced her to many people in the Beat movement.

Jack Kerouac based his character Dave Wain in his novel Big Sur (1962) on Welch. In 1968, Welch signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

Marriage and family

Welch had a common-law relationship with Polish refugee Magda Cregg. He acted as the stepfather to her son Hugh Anthony Cregg, III, better known by his stage-name Huey Lewis.

Death

On May 23, 1971, Welch walked out of poet Gary Snyder's house in the mountains of California, leaving behind a suicide note. He had carried a stainless steel Smith & Wesson .22 caliber revolver. His body was never found.

Bibliography

Note: Before committing suicide in 1971, Lew Welch left a note naming Donald Allen his literary executor. Donald Allen published much of Welch's work posthumously via Grey Fox Press.

• Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road (1973) (ISBN 0912516046) Jack Kerouac, Albert Saijo, and Lew Welch
• How I Work as a Poet (1973) (ISBN 0-912516-06-2)
• Selected Poems, with a preface by Gary Snyder (1976) (ISBN 0-912516-20-8)
• On Bread and Poetry: A Panel Discussion Between Gary Snyder, Lew Welch, and Philip Whalen (1977) (ISBN 0-912516-27-5)
• I, Leo: An Unfinished Novel (1977) (ISBN 0-912516-24-0)
• Ring of Bone: Collected Poems (1979) (ISBN 0-912516-03-8)
• I Remain - The Letters of Lew Welch & the Correspondence of His Friends (Volume 1: 1949-1960) (1980) (ISBN 0-912516-08-9)
• I Remain - The Letters of Lew Welch & the Correspondence of His Friends (Volume 2: 1960-1971) (1980) (ISBN 0-912516-42-9)
• How I Read Gertrude Stein (1995, originally written late-1940's) (ISBN 0-912516-23-2)
• Ring of Bone: Collected Poems (New & Expanded Edition) (2012) (ISBN 0-872865-79-7)

References

• Lew Welch: Ring of Bone: Collected Poems 1950-1970 has a preface by the poet and a useful chronology, not to mention 200+ pages of poetry.
• Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk)

External links

• Works by or about Lew Welch in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Lew Welch at The Beat Page
• Lew Welch at Beat Museum
• Poems and Directory
• Lew Welch Papers MSS 13. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.