Donald Merriam Allen (b. Iowa, 1912 — d. San Francisco, August 29, 2004), infuential editor, publisher, and translator of contemporary American literature. He is perhaps best known for his project The New American Poetry 1945-1960 (1960), among the several important anthologies of contemporary American innovative writing he made available to the public. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... August 29 is the 241st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (242nd in leap years), with 124 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... An Editor is a person who prepares text—typically language, but also images and sounds—for publication by correcting, condensing, or otherwise modifying it. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language—the source text—and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language—the target text, also called the translation. ... The New American Poetry 1945-1960 was a poetry anthology edited by Donald Allen, and published in 1960. ...

Allen's impact as a editor, publisher, and friend to poets continued to be felt well into the 21st century. Along with editing work by Lew Welch, Allen edited Frank O'Hara, including the seminal Collected Poems (1971; 1991) and a Selected Poems(1974). He served as the CEO of Grey Fox Press, publishing important work by Jack Spicer along with such volumes as Enough Said (1980) by Philip Whalen and I Remain (1980), a collection of Welch's letters. Lewis Barrett Welch, Jr. ... Francis Russell OHara (June 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American poet who, along with John Ashbery, James Schuyler and Kenneth Koch, was a key member of what was known as the New York School of poetry. ... Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ... This page is about the poet. ... Philip Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was a poet and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat generation. ...

While working with the Four Seasons Foundation, he assisted in the publication of (among others): Interviews (1980) by Edward Dorn, A Quick Graph: Collected Notes and Essays (1970) by Robert Creeley, and The Graces (1983) by Aaron Shurin. In 1997, he helped edit (along with Benjamin Friedlander) the Collected Prose of Charles Olson (University of California Press). . Allen began his career, in part, as a translator. He most recently translated the volume: Four Plays of Eugène Ionesco. Robert Creeley (May 21, 1926 - March 30, 2005) was an American poet, author of more than sixty books, and usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that schools. ... Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was an important 2nd generation American modernist poet who was a crucial link between earlier figures like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, a rubric which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat... Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco, born Eugen Ionescu, (November 26, 1909 – March 29, 1994) was one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the absurd. ...

External links

• Great Anthology: The New American Poetry: 1945-1960 article at "The Academy of American Poets" website
• Whose New American Poetry? article by Marjorie Perloff
• Tribute to Donald M. Allen at Empty Mirror Books website
• Jacket Magazine tribute by Kevin Killian