Tom Clark (1) (1941–2018)

Author of Jack Kerouac: A Biography

For other authors named Tom Clark, see the disambiguation page.

About the Author

Tom Clark was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 1, 1941. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1963 where he received a Hopwood Award for poetry. He was a poet, biographer, novelist, dramatist, reviewer, and sportswriter. He contributed to Poetry magazine and was a former poetry editor show more of the Paris Review. His books included Junkets on a Sad Planet: Scenes from the Life of John Keats; Jack Kerouac: A Biography; Sleepwalkers Fate: New and Selected Poems, 1965-1991; Charles Olson: The Allegory of a Poet's Life; Light and Shade: New and Selected Poems; and Champagne and Baloney: The Rise and Fall of Finley's A's. He was fatally struck by motorist and died on August 18, 2018 at the age of 77. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Image credit: Poetry Foundation

Works by Tom Clark

Popular Recent

Jack Kerouac: A Biography (1984) 106 copies

Charles Olson: The Allegory of a Poet's Life (1991) 61 copies

Rock Hudson: Friend of Mine (1990) 30 copies

Queries & Submissions (Elements of Article Writing) (1995) 30 copies

Light and Shade: New and Selected Poems (2006) 24 copies

Champagne and baloney: The rise and fall of Finley's A's (1976) 19 copies

Junkets on a Sad Planet: Scenes from the Life of John Keats (1993) 17 copies

The great Naropa poetry wars (1980) 17 copies, 1 review

The Last Gas Station & Other Stories (1980) 17 copies

Sleepwalker's Fate: New and Selected Poems, 1965-1991 (1992) 16 copies

The Exile of Celine (1987) 16 copies

Edward Dorn: A World of Difference (2002) 14 copies

Easter Sunday (1987) 12 copies, 1 review

The World of Damon Runyon (1978) 11 copies

Stones (1969) 10 copies

Like Real People (1995) 10 copies

Paradise Resisted: Selected Poems 1978-1984 (1984) 10 copies

Fractured Karma (1990) 9 copies

The Spell: A Romance (2000) 9 copies

Late Returns, a Memoir of Ted Berrigan (1985) 9 copies

Robert Creeley and the Genius of the American Common Place (1993) 8 copies

When Things Get Tough on Easy Street: Selected Poems, 1963-1978 (1978) 8 copies

Blue (1974) 7 copies, 1 review

Kerouac's Last Word: Jack Kerouac in Escapade (1987) 6 copies

One last round for the Shuffler (1979) 6 copies

Fan poems (1976) 5 copies

Poetry Beat: Reviewing the Eighties (Poets on Poetry) (1990) 5 copies

Who Is Sylvia? (1979) 5 copies

All Stars (1972) 5 copies

Re-active Anthology: The Tempers of Hazard No. 3 (Paladin re/active anthology) (1993) 5 copies

Empire of Skin (1997) 5 copies

White Thought (Lingo Books) (Lingo Books) (1995) 4 copies

Threnody 4 copies

Air (1970) 4 copies

Worldmaking : literature, language, culture (2017) 3 copies

Cold Spring : A Diary (2000) 3 copies

Disordered Ideas (1987) 3 copies

Heartbreak Hotel (1981) 3 copies

At the Fair (2010) 3 copies

Baseball (1976) 2 copies

Zombie Dawn (2003) 2 copies

Painter Among Poets: The Collaborative Art Of George Schneeman (2004) 2 copies

Feeling for the Ground (2010) 2 copies

Smack (1972) 2 copies

A Short Guide to The High Plains. With an introduction by Ed Dorn. (1981) 2 copies

Neil Young 2 copies

John's Heart (1972) 2 copies

Back in Boston again 2 copies

The End of the Line 2 copies

Ginsberg (intervista) 2 copies

Jack Kerouac in San Francisco ( Midnight Ghost Chapbook Series # 1 ) 2 copies

The Master (1979) 2 copies

The gang of eight 1 copy

Sonnet 1 copy

Am Here Books, In the Beginning Was The Word, Catalogue Five 1981/82, A Collection of Post-Modern Poetry Books, Manuscripts & Letters 1 copy

Jim Carroll 1 copy

The Writer's Handbook of Novel Writing 1 copy

Truth Game (2013) 1 copy

Car wash 1 copy

Bun 1 copy

Somewhere in the West - A Riddle 1 copy

How I Broke In and Six Modern Masters (1977) 1 copy

The sand burg: poems 1 copy

SPARROW 27: Chicago (1974) 1 copy

The Rodent Who Came to Dinner. 1 copy

The New World (2010) 1 copy

Apocalyptic Talkshow 1 copy

Something in the Air (2010) 1 copy

Altered Steaks - A Colloquium on the Cattle Mutilation Question 1 copy

SPARROW 17: Suite (1974) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day (2005) — Contributor — 402 copies, 9 reviews

The Best American Poetry 2002 (2002) — Contributor — 191 copies, 1 review

The Best American Poetry 1993 (1993) — Contributor — 137 copies, 1 review

The Best American Poetry 2010 (2010) — Contributor — 132 copies, 4 reviews

Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader, 1988-1998: Volume 2 - Fictions, Travels & Translations (1999) — Contributor — 45 copies

Poetry Magazine Vol. 205 No. 3, December 2014 (2014) — Contributor — 8 copies, 1 review

Stooge Thirteen, Spring 1975 — Contributor — 1 copy

Poetry (2 dics) Audiobook Children (1962) — Contributor — 1 copy

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Main Associated

20th century (4) @LR-po-2 (4) America (7) American fiction (4) American literature (6) American poetry (12) baseball (9) beat (11) Beat Generation (14) biography (58) Black Sparrow Press (4) fiction (8) First Edition (3) goodreads (4) history (5) Jack Kerouac (4) Kerouac (5) literary biography (4) literary criticism (4) literature (6) memoir (5) non-fiction (8) poetry (100) read (5) short stories (4) signed (3) tclark (5) to-read (7) USA (4) writing (3)

Common Knowledge

Legal name: Clark, Thomas Willard
Birthdate: 1941-03-01
Date of death: 2018-08-17
Gender: male
Education: University of Michigan
Occupations: poet
biographer
editor
sportswriter
blogger
Organizations: The Paris Review
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Oak Park, Illinois, USA
Places of residence: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Manhattan, New York, USA
Berkeley, California, USA
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Place of death: Oakland, California, USA
Associated Place (for map): USA

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Reviews

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3 reviews

Tsoys 25 reviews

The great Naropa poetry wars : with a copious collection of germane documents assembled by the author by Tom Clark

Scandalous goings-on by the great and not-so-great in religion and poetry at the Naropa Poetic Institute: in particular Buddhist Lama Chogyam Trugpa vs. W. S. Merwin. If this had been a bar fight on Saturday night in a California oil town, it would have been more understandable.

Aug 9, 2013

ostrom 154 reviews

Easter Sunday by Tom Clark

As I wrote in a print review (for the SF Chronicle, if memory serves), this is Clark's best book. His baseball poems are terrific.

Dec 5, 2007

antiquary 3,543 reviews

Blue by Tom Clark

Very much poetry of its time. A lot of sports refeernces (the title rfers to Vida Blue), occasional vulgarity, some nice nature descriptions. All te poems are very shoprt an interspersed with some nice line drawings. I like the one of a woman sitting with a cat.

Jul 22, 2011 (Edited)