Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet,

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, and a key figure in 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 ...

and close to the Beat generation.

Biography

Born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, Whalen grew up in

The Dalles The Dalles is the largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,010 at the 2020 census, and it is the largest city on the Oregon side of the Columbia River between the Portland Metropolitan Area, and Hermiston ...

from age four until he returned to Portland in 1941. He served in the

US Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

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 ...

. He attended

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

on the GI Bill. There, he met Gary Snyder and

Lew Welch Lewis Barrett 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 C ...

, and graduated with a BA in 1951. He read at the famous

Six Gallery reading The Six Gallery reading (also known as the ''Gallery Six reading'' or ''Six Angels in the Same Performance'') was an important poetry event that took place on Friday, October 7, 1955, at 3119 Fillmore Street in San Francisco. History Conceive ...

in 1955 that marked the launch of the West Coast Beats into the public eye. He appears, in barely fictionalized form, as the character "Warren Coughlin" in Jack Kerouac's ''

The Dharma Bums ''The Dharma Bums'' is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of ''On the Road''. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on ...

'', which includes an account of that reading. In '' Big Sur'' he is called "Ben Fagan". Whalen's poetry was featured in

Donald Allen Donald Merriam Allen (Iowa, 1912 – San Francisco, August 29, 2004) was an American editor, publisher and translator of American literature. He is best known for his project '' The New American Poetry 1945-1960'' (1960), one of the anthologi ...

's anthology ''

The New American Poetry 1945-1960 ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. Whalen's first interest in

Eastern religion The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western, African and Iranian religions. This includes the East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese ...

s centered on

Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...

. Upon release from the army in 1946, he visited the Vedanta Society in Portland, but did not pursue this very far, because of the expense of attending their countryside ashram.

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

also attracted him, but he found it "unnecessarily complicated." In 1952, Gary Snyder lent him books on

D. T. Suzuki , self-rendered in 1894 as "Daisetz", was a Japanese-American Buddhist monk, essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, translator, and writer. He was a scholar and author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in s ...

. With Snyder, Whalen attended a study group at the Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist Church in Berkeley. Ultimately, Zen became his chosen path.Suiter 2002, pp. 68-70 Whalen spent 1966 and 1967 in

Kyoto, Japan Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the cit ...

, assisted by a grant from

the American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

and a job teaching English. There, he practiced

zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...

daily, and wrote some forty poems and a second novel.Suiter 2002, pg. 251-4 He moved into the San Francisco Zen Center and became a student of

Zentatsu Richard Baker Richard Dudley Baker (born March 30, 1936) is an American Soto Zen master (or roshi), the founder and guiding teacher of Dharma Sangha—which consists of Crestone Mountain Zen Center located in Crestone, Colorado and the ''Buddhistisches Studie ...

in 1972. The following year, he became a monk. He became head monk of Dharma Sangha, in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1984. In 1987, he received transmission from Baker, and in 1991, he returned to San Francisco to lead the Hartford Street Zen Center until ill health forced him to retire.

Poetry

* ''The Calendar, a Book of Poems.'' Reed College, thesis (B.A.), Portland, Ore. 1951. * ''Self Portrait from Another Direction.'' (Broadside), Auerhahn Press, San Francisco 1959. * ''Memoirs of an Interglacial Age.'' Auerhahn Press, San Francisco 1960. * ''Like I Say.'' Totem Press/Corinth Books, New York 1960 * ''Monday in the Evening, 21:VII:61.'' Pezzoli, Milan 1964 * ''Every Day.'' Coyote's Journal, Eugene, Oregon 1965 * ''Highgrade: Doodles, Poems.'' Coyote's Journal, San Francisco 1966 * ''On Bear's Head.'' Harcourt, Brace & World/Coyote, New York 1969 * ''Scenes of Life at the Capital.'' Maya, San Francisco 1970 * ''Enough Said: Fluctuat Nec Mergitur: Poems 1974-1979.'' Grey Fox Press, San Francisco 1980. * ''Heavy Breathing: Poems 1967-1980.'' Grey Fox Press, San Francisco 1983 * ''Canoeing up Cabarga Creek: Buddhist Poems 1955-1986.'' Parallax Press, Berkeley 1996. * ''Overtime: Selected Poems by Philip Whalen.'' Penguin, New York 1999. * ''The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen.'' Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut 2007. Both the Collected and Selected Poems were edited by Michael Rothenberg.

Prose

* ''You Didn't Even Try.'' Coyote, San Francisco 1967. (novel) * ''Imaginary Speeches for a Brazen Head.'' Black Sparrow Press, Los Angeles 1972. (novel) * ''Off the Wall: Interviews with Philip Whalen.'' Donald Allen, editor. Grey Fox Press, Bolinas, California 1978. * ''The Diamond Noodle.'' Poltroon Press, Berkeley 1980. (memoirs) * ''Winning His Way, or, the Rise of William Johnson: a diverting history for the instruction & improvement of the breed.'' Free Print Shop, San Francisco, California, 1983. * ''Two Novels.'' Zephyr Press, Somerville, Mass. 1985. * ''Goof Book (for Jack Kerouac).'' Big Bridge Press, Guerneville, Calif. 2001. (journal)

Notes

References

* *Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Beat Reader''. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. (hc); (pbk) *Suiter, John. Poets on the Peaks (2002) Counterpoint. ; (pbk)

External links

*
Philip Whalen Papers
at the

Rare Book & Manuscript Library The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is principal repository for special collections of Columbia University. Located in New York City on the university's Morningside Heights campus, its collections span more than 4,000 years, from early Mesopotam ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Whalen homepage at the EPCGuide to the Philip Whalen Papers
at

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

Transcription of extensive biographical interview with Phillip Whalen by David Meltzer, Jacket MagazineRecords of Philip Whalen are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whalen, Philip American Zen Buddhists Poets from Oregon Beat Generation writers Converts to Buddhism Writers from Portland, Oregon Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico People from The Dalles, Oregon Reed College alumni San Francisco Zen Center Zen Buddhist monks 1923 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American poets Religious leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area Writers from San Francisco American Book Award winners United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century Buddhist monks