Patchen, Kenneth

Kenneth Patchen, a pioneer in avant-garde poetry, the picture poem, and poetry jazz, was born on December 13, 1911 in Niles, Ohio. Patchen seemed destined to a life of physical labor in the local steel mills before a scholarship to the University of Wisconsin took him away from the industrial Ohio valley and allowed him to take part in the Alexander Meikeljohn Experimental College. After completing a year at the University of Wisconsin and a few months at the Commonwealth College in Mena, Arkansas, he ended his university studies and began three years of traveling and working at odd jobs.

In December of 1933, Patchen met Miriam Oikemos, an anti-war organizer and college student from Smith College, whom he married on June 28, 1934. Miriam Patchen was an active participant in her husband's endeavors, working beside him writing bibliographies and biographical sketches under the assumed name Gail Eaton. Miriam also took care of her husband during his intervals of poor health, especially during physical the decline of his last twelve years.

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