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| Jack Hirschman | |
Jack Hirschman, "former San Francisco poet laureate, activist and famed proponent of the Beat Generation," died August 22, the Chronicle reported. He was 87. Speaking on behalf of the World Poetry Movement, which Hirschman helped found, Ataol Behramoglu observed that the organization learned of Hirschman's death just minutes before he was scheduled to speak in the last of their regular online interviews as the WPM coordinator board, adding that it "is a big shock to us close friends and fellow activists. It has been a great loss to American and world poetry."
City Lights Books tweeted: "Farewell to our poet & friend, Jack Hirschman. Jack made regular visits to our store and publishing office before the pandemic, brightening our day with a joke or a story. His presence in North Beach will be missed so much. He was steadily reading poetry up until today at various virtual events. We love you, Jack."
In a tribute, Chris Mahin, manager of Barbara's Bookstore's State Street location in Chicago, wrote: "The world has lost a great poet. Independent bookselling in the United States has lost a great friend.... Everyone at Barbara's Bookstore would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and compatriots. His passing is a huge loss to all book lovers. He was a brilliant poet, scholar, translator, and advocate for the rights of the dispossessed. He visited Chicago many times, often doing readings at some of our finest independent bookstores. No one who ever heard him read forgot his impassioned delivery.... Above all else, Jack Hirschman had a warrior's spirit and a fierce determination to oppose injustice anywhere in the world."
A New York City native, Hirschman worked as a copy editor for the Associated Press "and later taught at UCLA in the 1970s before he was fired for encouraging his students to resist the draft during the Vietnam War," the Chronicle noted. After moving to North Beach, he wrote and published his first volume of poetry, A Correspondence of Americans, "and was deeply involved in the literary scenes at Caffe Trieste and City Lights." His other books include Lyripol, All That's Left, Endless Threshold, The Viet Arcane and Front Lines.
Hirschman was an assistant editor for the journal Left Curve, formed the Union of Left Writers of San Francisco, and translated dozens of international works into English, the Chronicle wrote. He was named San Francisco poet laureate in 2006 and created the San Francisco International Poetry Festival in the same year. He later became the poet in residence at the San Francisco Public Library.
From Hirschman's poem "All That's Left":
This is not a cynical or pessimist
or nihilist poem. Join death
to your life and you will live
as if there were no drum to march to.
There is no march at all.
You're done. All will be well for all.