Louis Kermit Sheets (14 August 1915 – 6 April 2006) was an actor, director, playwright and an artistic partner with poet

James Broughton James Broughton (November 10, 1913 – May 17, 1999) was an American poet and poetic filmmaker. He was part of the San Francisco Renaissance, a precursor to the Beat poets. He was an early bard of the Radical Faeries, as well as a member of ...

World War II

During World War II, Sheets served as a

conscientious objector 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 object ...

for four years, first in

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 ...

Camp no. 21 at

Wyeth, Oregon Wyeth is an unincorporated locale in Hood River County, Oregon, United States. It is the site of a campground area in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area off Interstate 84 (I-84). It was a railway station and had a post office between ...

, and then in

Camp Angel Camp Angel was Civilian Public Service (CPS) camp number 56, located from 1942 to 1945 near Waldport and the coast in the Siuslaw National Forest and Lincoln County, in western Oregon. It was one of many CPS camps across the United States where c ...

near

Waldport, Oregon Waldport is a city in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States. The population was 2,033 at the 2010 census. The city is located on the Alsea River and Alsea Bay, south of Newport and north of Yachats. History Settlement of Waldport began in ...

, where he became part of a gifted group of artists, writers, and performers. In 1943 he was one of the founders of 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 ...

'', which attempted to bring poetry to the public in an inexpensive but attractive format. Co-founders were writer William Everson, editor William Eshelman and 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 ...

. He became a close friend of Kemper Nomland. Both men shared interest in graphical design, illustration and publication layout, although Sheets was primarily interested in theater and Norland in architecture. Some members of this group formed a repertory known as the Interplayers after the war. Led by Sheets, the group produced and performed plays in various theaters until they obtained a home in a champagne warehouse in North Beach, San Francisco.

Centaur Press

Sheets founded Centaur Press in San Francisco in 1949 working with James Broughton. The press published and distributed poetry and drama by Broughton,

Anaïs Nin Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...

Madeline Gleason Madeline Gleason (January 26, 1903 – April 22, 1979) was a United States poet and dramatist. She was the founder of the San Francisco Poetry Guild. In 1947, she became the director of the first poetry festival in the United States, laying the ...

and

Muriel Rukeyser Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "e ...

. Robert Duncan was one of the founders of the San Francisco Renaissance along with

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider h ...

. His ''Medieval Scenes'' linked sequence of poems is a classic. The Centaur Press volume was designed by Kermit Sheets, who created the title page woodcut, and was hand set in Centaur Roman and

Frederic Goudy Frederic William Goudy (, March 8, 1865 – May 11, 1947) was an American printer, artist and type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Goudy Old Style and Kennerley. He was one of the most prolific of American type designers and ...

's Deepdene italic. Sheets commissioned Adrian Wilson to print

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 ...

's ''The Night is Where you Fly'', illustrated by Lee Mullican.

Film and theater

Kermit Sheets acted in the short films ''Loony Tom'' (1951), '' The Pleasure Garden'' (1953) and ''The Bed'' (1968), all directed by James Broughton. ''The Pleasure Garden '' was nominated for a BAFTA award and won the Best Fantastic-Poetic Film award at Cannes. British actor and later director

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for h ...

was among the cast members. Returning from Europe in 1955, Sheets became managing director of the San Francisco Playhouse, a position he held until the early 1960s. In 1965 Kermit married Jane Steckle, who was to be his partner for the next 34 years. Sheets was director of the Center at the Lighthouse for the Blind from 1970 to 1980. Sheets and Broughton co-directed the experimental short film ''The Golden Positions'' (1971), a meditation on and catalog of the human body in all its positions and activities. He continued to write novels and short stories after retiring. Kermit Sheets died on 6 April 2006. A collections of his work and memorabilia is preserved by the

Lewis & 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 & Cl ...

in Portland, Oregon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheets, Kermit 1915 births 2006 deaths American experimental filmmakers American conscientious objectors Members of the Civilian Public Service