Everson, William, 1912-1994

American poet, printer, and activist. Everson was a conscientious objector during the later years of World War II, and was associated with Kenneth Rexroth and his circle in San Francisco in the late 1940s. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1949, joined the Catholic Workers Movement, and eventually entered the Dominican Religious Order in 1950, taking the name Brother Antoninus. Everson was associated with the San Francisco Renaissance of the late 1950s. He left the Dominican order in 1971.

William Oliver Everson was born on Sept. 10, 1912 in Sacramento, CA; attended Fresno State College (1931, 1934-5); was cannery worker and laborer for Civilian Conservation Corps, 1932-3, later working as a farmer; was co-founder of Untide Press, Waldport, OR about 1944; after the war he joined an anarchopacifist group of poets surrounding Kenneth Rexroth in San Francisco; was active in the slums of Oakland in the Catholic Worker Movement before becoming a Roman Catholic monk in the Dominican order and taking the name Brother Antoninus in 1951; left the order to marry in 1969; in 1971 he became a master printer with the Lime Kiln Press, and a poet-in-residence at UC Santa Cruz; won a Pulitzer Prize nomination for The crooked lines of God (1959); his poetry, published under both Everson and Brother Antoninus, also includes These are the ravens (1935), The residual years (1944), The hazards of holiness (1962), The rose of solitude (1964), The blowing of the seed (1966), The veritable years (1978), and The masks of drought (1979); he died on June 3, 1994.

Everson was born in Sacramento, CA, on Sept. 10, 1912; attended Fresno State College, 1931, 1934-35; worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 1933-34; co-founder, Untide Press, Waldport, OR; staff member, Univ. of California Press, 1947-49; member, Catholic Worker Movement, 1950-51; Dominican lay brother (Brother Antoninus), 1951-69; poet in residence, Kresge College, UC Santa Cruz, 1971-82; founded the Lime Kiln Press at UC Santa Cruz; died June 3, 1994 in Davenport, CA.

Writer known as Brother Antoninus.

William Everson (September 10, 1912-June 3, 1994), also known as Brother Antoninus, was an American poet of the San Francisco Renaissance, literary critic, and small press printer. He was poet-in-residence at the University of California, Santa Cruz during the 1970s and 1980s.

Biography

William Everson was born in Sacramento, California on September 10, 1912. He grew up on a farm outside Fresno and later attended Fresno State College. Everson was a poet and author, literary critic, and small press printer. During World War II, he was relocated to Camp Waldport (or Camp Angel) located outside Waldport, Oregon -- one of the Civilian Public Service camps for conscientious objectors. While in the camp, he helped found the Untide Press with other objectors. The poetry inspired by his time at the camp, 'The Residual Years' helped start his career in writing. He joined the Dominican Order for a period of time, adopting the name 'Brother Antoninus' which he used as an alternate name throughout life. Everson lived the latter part of his life near Santa Cruz, California (where he was the poet in residence at the University of California, Santa Cruz), and later died on June 3, 1994.

Biography

William Oliver Everson was born on September 10, 1912 in Sacramento, California, to Louis Waldemar Everson and Francelia Marie Herber Everson. He was the second of three children; his siblings were Vera Louise Everson Shorey and Lloyd Waldemar Everson. Two years later, the family moved to Selma, Calif., where Everson spent the next seventeen years. He entered California State University, Fresno, following his high school sweetheart, Edwa Poulson. A year later, Everson withdrew from college and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, but eventually returned to CSU Fresno. It was in the fall of 1934 that he discovered the poetry of Robinson Jeffers and published his first book of poems the following spring. It was not until 1938 that Everson and Edwa were married, but their marriage did not survive World War II. Everson was drafted as a conscientious objector and sent to a camp at Waldport, Oregon. He continued to write poetry in Oregon and also became involved in Untide Press, the fine printing press at the camp.

After his release from CO camp, Everson settled in Berkeley and became associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. During this time, Everson started the Equinox Press and won a 1949 Guggenheim Fellowship. He also became interested in Catholicism and eventually was baptised into that faith. He began to work in the Catholic Worker Movement and eventually became a tertiary lay brother of the Dominican Order, taking the name Brother Antoninus. Everson remained a monk until 1969, continuing to write and to publicly read his poems across the U.S., as well as involving himself in the press of St. Albert's Priory. He became associated with the Beat poets at this time, and was known as the "Beat monk". It was as a counselor at St. Albert's Priory that he met Rose Moreno Tanlund, inspiration for "Canticle of the Rose", and Susanna Rickson. Everson left the Dominican Order to marry Rickson in 1969, and adopted her son, Jude, the following year.

In 1971, Everson became a lecturer at Kresge College at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He taught his "Birth of a Poet" course, and was master printer for the university's Lime Kiln Press. It was during this time that Everson was diagnosed with Parkinson's. In 1981, he won a NEA grant and retired from both UC Santa Cruz and fine printing. He began to compile the poems from The Residual Years, The Veritable Years, and his "integral years" into "The Crooked Lines of God", working with a local handprinter as The Kingfisher Press, but this project was never completed. Everson continued to write, but almost ceased to appear in public. After his separation from Rickson in 1992, Everson's friends began The William Everson Fund as a means of support for him, as his Parkinson's progressed. It was not until two years later, at the age of 81, that Everson passed away.