Camp Angel was

Civilian Public Service The Civilian Public Service (CPS) was a program of the United States government that provided conscientious objectors with an alternative to military service during World War II. From 1941 to 1947, nearly 12,000 draftees, willing to serve their ...

(CPS) camp number 56, located from 1942 to 1945 near Waldport and the coast in the

Siuslaw National Forest The Siuslaw National Forest ( ) is a national forest in western Oregon in the United States. Established in 1908, the Siuslaw is made up of a wide variety of ecosystems, ranging from coastal forests to sand dunes. Geography The Siuslaw Nati ...

and Lincoln County, in western

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. It was one of many CPS camps across the United States where

conscientious objectors A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objecti ...

(COs) were given unpaid jobs of "national importance" as a substitute for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

military service. Camp Angel was unique as the only Fine Arts Program camp in the CPS system. Between 1942 and 1945, Camp Angel's Fine Arts Program sponsored production of original plays and publication of books by the COs. When the war was over, notable objectors including poet William Everson, actor/writer Kermit Sheets and dramatist Martin Ponch relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and launched what became known as the

San Francisco Renaissance The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco, which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetry avant-garde in the 1950s. However, others (e.g., Alan Watt ...

, profoundly influencing the Beat Generation.

History

For many of the COs, their time at the camp was a period of great creativity. William Everson, architect and printer

Kemper Nomland Kemper Nomland Jr. (May 8, 1919 - December 25, 2009) was a modernist architect in Los Angeles, California and part of a father-son architectural team with his father Kemper Nomland, Sr. He was also a painter and printer of poetry and arts publica ...

, Kermit Sheets and William R. Eshelman founded the

Untide Press The Untide Press, founded in 1943, attempted to bring poetry to the public in an inexpensive but attractive format. It was founded by writer William Everson, architect and printer Kemper Nomland, actor Kermit Sheets and editor / librarian William ...

at the camp in 1943, with the aim of bringing poetry to the public in an inexpensive but attractive format. The name was a challenge to the official camp magazine the ''Tide Press''. The Untide Press developed a reputation for high-quality writing and innovative design. Writers included William Everson,

Glen Coffield Glenn Stemmons Coffield (June 5, 1917 – June 16, 1981) was an American poet and conscientious objector. He was born in Prescott, Arizona, and received a B.S. degree in education from Central Missouri State Teachers College in 1940. During Worl ...

, Jacob Sloan,

George Woodcock George Woodcock (; May 8, 1912 – January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, a philosopher, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel wri ...

, John Walker, and

Kenneth Patchen Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911January 8, 1972) was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of Will ...

. William Everson said that "those of us of Untide rank among our biggest moments in CPS the completion of a book, and the very real sense of achievement it occasions." Kemper Nomland created portraits of others at the camp including Glen Coffield, Windsor Utley, and Bill Webb, several of which are held in a collection at

Lewis and Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & C ...

. One of his paintings was published in two of Coffield's books as well as ''The Illiterati'' camp magazine. Nomland also provided the illustrations for William Everson's ''War elegies'', published by

in 1944. Kermit Sheets wrote the satirical plays ''Mikado in CPS'' and ''Stalingrad Stalemate'' while in the camp. Glen Coffield published his first collection of poems ''Ultimatum'' (1943), a one-man operation since he was author, typist, designer and illustrator. His anthology ''Horned Moon'' was published by the Untide Press in 1944, and several of his poems were also published in ''The Illiterati''.

History

See also

References

Further reading