Biography
Born on January 2, 1922, Richard Rubenstein began his literary career in a local prep school when he won a poetry contest. Associated with the Beat Poets in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rubenstein worked to found and edit several small press poetry journals--NEUROTICA, first published in spring of 1948; INFERNO, in late 1949; and GRYPHON, in spring of 1950. In GRYPHON he published early works of Robert Creeley and Denise Levertov, as well as the established authors Henry Treece, D.H. Emblem. e.e. cummings, and Cid Corman. He himself published a small chapbook, BEER AND ANGELS, and produced a long manuscript of collected poems which went unpublished. Rubenstein's health deteriorated because of his long-standing nervous condition and the alcohol he drank to combat it. He died there on Yom Kippur in 1958.
From the guide to the Richard Rubenstein Papers, 1950 - 1959, (University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.)
