Larry Eigner, whose spare, dense and impassioned poetry carried on the tradition, it has been said, of William Carlos Williams, died February 3, 1996 at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley Hospital, Berkeley, California, from complications of pneumonia. He was 68 years old.
Larry, the first of three sons, was born on 7 August 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts to Israel and Bessie Eigner and grew up in the neighboring seaside town of Swampscott. His given name was Lawrence Joel Eigner but he chose to publish under his nickname and was also known to his family and friends as Larry.
At birth he sustained an injury resulting in cerebral palsy which confined him to a wheelchair and severely effected his mobility and speech. Larry was, however, never at a loss for words.
His disability had quite an influence on his poetry which often presented itself in fleeting bursts on emotional bursts of language, fleeting impressions received by a passing car, children playing in the street or out the window of a train or airplane. I lived near him in Swampscott and would see him all summer long out on his front porch typing one letter at a time on his typewriter, slowly describing his world to you and to me. He once said ,"It seems I feel the world as a neighborhood, or two dozen miles of it anyway. My eyes are still big for my head; most things were always tantalizingly beyond or almost beyond sight and hearing, out of reach."
Larry was educated at home and also took correspondence courses. He developed a correspondence with Sid Corman who had a magazine called 'Origin' and brought his work to the attention of various poets of the time ; Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Denise Leverton and Robert Creeley whose work he published.
Larry's first mature book of poetry was "From The Sustaining Air" won him some praise but it was in 1960 when "The New American Poetry" expanded his name to wider audiences. His other works include ; 1967
"Another Time In Fragments", 1974 "Things Stirring Together or Far Away", 1981 "Waters/Places/A Time and 1994 "Windows Walls Yards Ways."
Also by Larry are; 1972 "Selected Poems", 1989 "1954-1989 Areas Lights Heights; Selected Writings"
and at the time of his death he had finished 1996 " Rediness /Enough/Depends/On".
Larry, the first of three sons, was born on 7 August 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts to Israel and Bessie Eigner and grew up in the neighboring seaside town of Swampscott. His given name was Lawrence Joel Eigner but he chose to publish under his nickname and was also known to his family and friends as Larry.
At birth he sustained an injury resulting in cerebral palsy which confined him to a wheelchair and severely effected his mobility and speech. Larry was, however, never at a loss for words.
His disability had quite an influence on his poetry which often presented itself in fleeting bursts on emotional bursts of language, fleeting impressions received by a passing car, children playing in the street or out the window of a train or airplane. I lived near him in Swampscott and would see him all summer long out on his front porch typing one letter at a time on his typewriter, slowly describing his world to you and to me. He once said ,"It seems I feel the world as a neighborhood, or two dozen miles of it anyway. My eyes are still big for my head; most things were always tantalizingly beyond or almost beyond sight and hearing, out of reach."
Larry was educated at home and also took correspondence courses. He developed a correspondence with Sid Corman who had a magazine called 'Origin' and brought his work to the attention of various poets of the time ; Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Denise Leverton and Robert Creeley whose work he published.
Larry's first mature book of poetry was "From The Sustaining Air" won him some praise but it was in 1960 when "The New American Poetry" expanded his name to wider audiences. His other works include ; 1967
"Another Time In Fragments", 1974 "Things Stirring Together or Far Away", 1981 "Waters/Places/A Time and 1994 "Windows Walls Yards Ways."
Also by Larry are; 1972 "Selected Poems", 1989 "1954-1989 Areas Lights Heights; Selected Writings"
and at the time of his death he had finished 1996 " Rediness /Enough/Depends/On".
Larry Eigner, whose spare, dense and impassioned poetry carried on the tradition, it has been said, of William Carlos Williams, died February 3, 1996 at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley Hospital, Berkeley, California, from complications of pneumonia. He was 68 years old.
Larry, the first of three sons, was born on 7 August 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts to Israel and Bessie Eigner and grew up in the neighboring seaside town of Swampscott. His given name was Lawrence Joel Eigner but he chose to publish under his nickname and was also known to his family and friends as Larry.
At birth he sustained an injury resulting in cerebral palsy which confined him to a wheelchair and severely effected his mobility and speech. Larry was, however, never at a loss for words.
His disability had quite an influence on his poetry which often presented itself in fleeting bursts on emotional bursts of language, fleeting impressions received by a passing car, children playing in the street or out the window of a train or airplane. I lived near him in Swampscott and would see him all summer long out on his front porch typing one letter at a time on his typewriter, slowly describing his world to you and to me. He once said ,"It seems I feel the world as a neighborhood, or two dozen miles of it anyway. My eyes are still big for my head; most things were always tantalizingly beyond or almost beyond sight and hearing, out of reach."
Larry was educated at home and also took correspondence courses. He developed a correspondence with Sid Corman who had a magazine called 'Origin' and brought his work to the attention of various poets of the time ; Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Denise Leverton and Robert Creeley whose work he published.
Larry's first mature book of poetry was "From The Sustaining Air" won him some praise but it was in 1960 when "The New American Poetry" expanded his name to wider audiences. His other works include ; 1967
"Another Time In Fragments", 1974 "Things Stirring Together or Far Away", 1981 "Waters/Places/A Time and 1994 "Windows Walls Yards Ways."
Also by Larry are; 1972 "Selected Poems", 1989 "1954-1989 Areas Lights Heights; Selected Writings"
and at the time of his death he had finished 1996 " Rediness /Enough/Depends/On".
Larry, the first of three sons, was born on 7 August 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts to Israel and Bessie Eigner and grew up in the neighboring seaside town of Swampscott. His given name was Lawrence Joel Eigner but he chose to publish under his nickname and was also known to his family and friends as Larry.
At birth he sustained an injury resulting in cerebral palsy which confined him to a wheelchair and severely effected his mobility and speech. Larry was, however, never at a loss for words.
His disability had quite an influence on his poetry which often presented itself in fleeting bursts on emotional bursts of language, fleeting impressions received by a passing car, children playing in the street or out the window of a train or airplane. I lived near him in Swampscott and would see him all summer long out on his front porch typing one letter at a time on his typewriter, slowly describing his world to you and to me. He once said ,"It seems I feel the world as a neighborhood, or two dozen miles of it anyway. My eyes are still big for my head; most things were always tantalizingly beyond or almost beyond sight and hearing, out of reach."
Larry was educated at home and also took correspondence courses. He developed a correspondence with Sid Corman who had a magazine called 'Origin' and brought his work to the attention of various poets of the time ; Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Denise Leverton and Robert Creeley whose work he published.
Larry's first mature book of poetry was "From The Sustaining Air" won him some praise but it was in 1960 when "The New American Poetry" expanded his name to wider audiences. His other works include ; 1967
"Another Time In Fragments", 1974 "Things Stirring Together or Far Away", 1981 "Waters/Places/A Time and 1994 "Windows Walls Yards Ways."
Also by Larry are; 1972 "Selected Poems", 1989 "1954-1989 Areas Lights Heights; Selected Writings"
and at the time of his death he had finished 1996 " Rediness /Enough/Depends/On".
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