Dark God of Eros: A William Everson Reader

by William Everson, William Everson

William Everson, aka brother Antoninus, was a poet, Dominican Friar, letterpress printer, and quintessential Californian. Originally from the San Joaquin Valley, Everson was part of the Beat poetry movement in San Francisco during the 1950s and was closely tied to Robert Duncan, Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Creeley, and Denise Levertov. A critically acclaimed visionary poet, he was also an important and challenging theologian of his time, as well as being a highly acclaimed printer and book designer of great originality. Dark God of A William Everson Reader , offers, for the first time, in a single volume, the most comprehensive retrospective view of the life and work of William Everson. The book offers a vast selection of poetry and autobiographical writing, as well as essays and it explores the great influence of poet Robinson Jeffers in Everson's own writing and life; it highlights essays on poetry and poetics, including a discussion of what it means to be a poet; commentary on Everson's poetry by ten contemporary poets, along with portfolio items from Everson's hand press. Everson was a poet with a deeply religious vision of life whose evolution from agnosticism to Catholicism eventually culminated in a 20-year commitment as a Dominican lay brother from 1951 to 1969. Theology would shape his poetry and his conception of the poet's role and function, as well as his exploration of ''erotic mysticism,'' for much of his prose is infused with themes of flesh and consummation. Everson was also one of the best hand press printers in the history of the book in the U.S. and holds a permanent place in the history of American fine printing. Dark God of Eros features a selection of color reproductions of pages and broadsides that he designed and printed, along with his essays on the history of printing and working with his Washington hand press. Dark God of Eros will be of great value to anyone interested in American poetry, California culture, Catholic arts and letters, and in fine printing. It is an authoritative, skillfully executed and intelligent treatise of the life and work of a complex man who was both a great poet and an extraordinary influence on others.

Genres: Poetry

400 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Also known as Brother Antoninus, William Everson was an American poet of the Beat Generation, San Francisco Renaissance and was also a literary critic and small press printer.
Everson registered as an anarchist and a pacifist with his draft board, in compliance with the 1940 draft bill. In 1943, he was sent to a Civilian Public Service (CPS) work camp for conscientious objectors in Oregon. In the camp at Waldport, Oregon, with other poets, artists and actors, he founded a fine-arts program, in which the CPS men staged plays and poetry-readings and learned the craft of fine printing. During his time as a conscientious objector, Everson completed The Residual Years, a volume of poems that launched him to national fame.
Everson joined the Catholic Church in 1948 and soon became involved with the Catholic Worker Movement in Oakland, California. He took the name "Brother Antoninus" when he joined the Dominican Order in 1951 in Oakland. A colorful literary and counterculture figure, he was subsequently nicknamed the "Beat Friar." He left the Dominicans in 1969 to embrace a growing sexual awakening, and married a woman many years his junior. The 1974 poem Man-Fate explores this transformation. Everson was stricken by Parkinson's Disease in 1972, and its effects on him became a powerful element in his public readings.