William Oliver Everson, American Roman Catholic poet, was born on Sept. 10, 1912, in Sacramento , Calif. During his studies at Fresno State College, Everson read the works of Robinson Jeffers and decided to become a poet. In 1935, he published his first book, These are the ravens. Drafted during World War II, he chose conscientious objector status and served at a work camp in Waldport, Or. Already divorced from his first wife, Edwa Poulson, he married his second wife, poet and writer Mary Fabilli, in 1947. An agnostic raised in Christian Science, Everson converted to Roman Catholicism in 1949. His conversion precipitated his separation from his wife; their union considered invalid by the church due to prior marriage and divorce. Upon becoming a Dominican lay brother he took the name in religion, Brother Antoninus. Everson subsequently lived in monastic withdrawal for seven years unitil returning to writing in 1957 with the composition of the long erotic poem, River-root. In the same year he was included by Kenneth Rexroth in a letter to Evergreen review describing the San Francisco Renaissance poets, a group which came to be called the "Beats." In 1964 Brother Antoninus took his first vows. A year later he met Susanna Rickson and began writing a long poem to her. That poem, Tendril in the marsh, was first read publicly on Dec. 7, 1969, an occasion marked by Everson's announcement that he was returning to secular life. The following week he took Susanna Rickson as his third wife. He continued to teach poetry and letterpress printing until his retirement in 1982. Everson's works include The residual years: poems 1934-1948 (1968), The veritable years: poems 1949-1966 (1978), In medias res (1984), and The blood of the poet (1994). He died on June 3, 1994 in Santa Cruz, Calif.
From the description of The William Everson-Murray J. Smith collection, 1980-1981. (Georgetown University). WorldCat record id: 137224397
