Degnan, June Oppen

Biography

June Oppen Degnan was born in New York City on June 7, 1918, the daughter of George August and Seville Shainwald Oppen. June's brother was George Oppen (1908-1984), who became a well-known poet and exponent of the Objectivist school. For her higher education, Degnan attended the University of California at Berkeley, the Sorbonne, and the University of San Francisco Law School. She was married at least twice: once to a Mr. McKeen (a relationship which ended around 1959), and once to George Degnan, a marriage which took place around 1960. From her first marriage, June had one daughter, Aubrey, who subsequently married Orly Lindgren.

Beginning in 1959, Degnan served as publisher, along with George Hitchcock and Roy Miller, of the San Francisco Review, a journal of poetry and prose published in close cooperation with New Directions book publishers of New York City. New Directions often published (with Degnan's guidance and encouragement) books by writers who Degnan admired strongly -- writers who she published in the San Francisco Review. These writers included George Oppen, Charles Reznikoff, William Bronk and James Hall.

Degnan appeared to have a very close but occasionally difficult relationship with her brother. George dedicated his 1965 book This In Which to her with the inscription, "For June/ Who first welcomed/ me home." With New Directions, June assisted him in publishing the major works of his later career: The Materials (1962), This In Which (1965), Of Being Numerous (1968) and The Collected Poems of George Oppen (1975). However, Degnan and Oppen had several disagreements about financial matters. George often wrote to June urging her to seek happiness beyond materialism and monetary wealth.

Like George, June is avidly concerned with political, social and environmental issues. For a short period she was editor and publisher of Oceans magazine. She was an active member of the Oceanic Society and of Conservation International. In 1968 she served on the board of directors of the New School for Social Research, and she was president of the International Child Art Center in San Francisco from 1971-1972. Starting in 1956, she regularly assisted the finance committee of the California Democratic Central Committee, and she actively involved herself in the presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern.

Degnan has a reputation as a competent, dedicated and assertive businessperson who is deeply concerned with both literary and political issues.

From the guide to the June Oppen Degnan Papers, 1959-1973, (University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.)