Gary Snyder

Gary (Sherman) Snyder was born in San Francisco on May 8 in 1930 to the parents of Harold Alton and Lois (Wilkie) Snyder. When Gary Snyder was growing up, he lived in west part of the United States surrounded by nature. While he was living there, the destruction of the Pacific Northwestern forests began, even at such a young age it still caused him sorrow (“Gary Snyder”). While growing up in such a rural area, where Snyder had a farm with chickens and cows and even an outhouse as a bathroom; he thought that this was just another way of living. Gary Snyder is okay with living in the city as well, even though he prefers living in a highly rural area (Martin). He started to examine and appreciate the American Indian culture around him. He felt that the Indians lived a harmonious life with nature; how everyone should live in his eyes. As Gary Snyder grew older the wilder a place was, the more it fascinated him. Snyder soon became a proficient mountain climber and started to gain knowledge of survival techniques for the outdoors. One time his family moved to Oregon and he spend most of his time in the nature breathing the fresh air. He would go camping and hiking throughout the woods and be able to do this all single-handedly (“Snyder, Gary”).

Before Gary Snyder was a Poet he had numerous manual labor jobs, which he did on the side as he received his education. In 1951 he received his B.A. from Reed College in Anthropology and Literature and continued for another year at Indiana University. Studying Anthropology and learning about the environment in college helped curve what Gary Snyder wrote about in the future. While in Literature he gained more knowledge to become a better writer. Snyder started to get his name out i...

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Works Cited

"Gary Snyder." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Gale. University at Buffalo Libraries - SUNY. 10 Feb. 2011 .

Martin, Julie. "Coyote-Mind: An Interview with Gary Snyder." TriQuarterly. 79.(Fall 1990): 148-172. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Carol T. Gaffke and Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 21. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Gale. University at Buffalo Libraries - SUNY. 09 Feb. 2011 .

McKibben, Bill, and Albert Gore. American Earth: environmental writing since Thoreau. New York, NY: Literary Classics of the United States :, 2008. Print.

"Snyder, Gary." Current Biography. 1978. Biographies. Web. 11 Feb. 2011.