Whalen, Philip Glenn

▪ 2003

      American poet, writer, and Buddhist monk (b. Oct. 20, 1923, Portland, Ore.—d. June 26, 2002, San Francisco, Calif.), was a member of the Beat movement of the 1950s and '60s. With Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and others, he participated in the reading in 1955 at Six Gallery that came to be considered the beginning of the so-called San Francisco renaissance. Like the other Beats, Whalen favoured a free-flowing style and had an interest in Asian religions. His poetry was rarely political but rather dealt with aspects of everyday life, often with a light, whimsical touch. Whalen served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946 and then studied at Reed College, Portland, Ore., where he obtained a B.A. degree (1951) in literature and languages. At Reed he met the poets Gary Snyder and Lew Welch and began to pursue writing seriously. For much of the time between 1958 and 1971, Whalen lived in Japan, and in 1973 he was ordained a Zen Buddhist priest, taking the name Zenshin Ryufu. He spent most of the rest of his life in Buddhist centres in California and New Mexico, with his work including care for AIDS patients. By the late 1980s he had lost his eyesight and had stopped writing. Among his early volumes were Like I Say and Memoirs of an Interglacial Age, both published in 1960 and both reflecting Beat life. These were followed by Every Day (1965) and On Bear's Head (1969). Collections included Decompressions: Selected Poems (1978) and Enough Said: Fluctuat nec Mergitur: Poems 1974–1979 (1980). Among his other writings were the novels You Didn't Even Try (1967) and Imaginary Speeches for a Brazen Head (1972), published together in 1985 as Two Novels.

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