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A Termite Memoir
The memoir chronicles poet Saltman's life from 1930s Pittsburgh and his travels and time spent in Chicago, New Orleans, Denver, where he lived for four years, San Francisco during the 1950s when Ferlinghetti was charged with selling pornography through his City Lights Bookstore when he published Allen Ginsburg's "Howl," and Saltman's college experience teaching at Sierra College in Auburn, California; at Emerson's "Kookie College," in Pacific Grove, California, an early experimental college during the early to mid-1960s, and Saltman's time spent at Claremont University Graduate School where he earned his P.h.D and befriended poet Bert Meyers. The work also chronicles his tenure at California State University, Northridge, where he taught Verse Writing and Contemporary American Literature for over 25 years, and commentary on his own work as a poet. Saltman was the recipient of two NEA Fellowships and many other awards for excellence. W.S. Merwin has this to say about Saltman's work as a "Benjamin Saltman is a fine poet, a genuine one, which is saying a great deal, because I think that at anytime there is a lot of showy performance and not so much of always rather surprising welling up of the source itself. Lovely plainness, apparent plainess, with that depth beyond it."Praise for "The Book of Moss," published also by Phoenix "[Saltman's] poems are wonderfully restless, always in a hurry. Benjamin Saltman can make waxing the car or just sitting in a 'cool place' a sort of sports event for the mind. Yet the poems close firmly, some about the Poet Self, some with humor and sadness about Us. Here are the lonely but warm observations of an exceptional a fine collection."Reed Whittemore
380 pages, Paperback
Published May 22, 2018
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April 3, 2020
An autobiographical journey by one of America's great poets. Ben Saltman died in 1999 of leukemia, but before he died he sent me a copy of his memoir and asked me to read it. I held onto the book for twenty-one years. One day I called his wife, Helen, and asked her if I could publish the book and she said, "Would you do that?" I sent her chapters as I entered the book into a file. I discovered I had the only finished manuscript. It took me four months to complete the book and ready it for publishing. I published it in 2018.
The book chronicles Saltman's life beginning in Pittsburgh where he was raised, his time in a U.S. Naval hospital where for two years he fought for his life recovering from tuberculosis that was the result of his having developed pleurisy got worse until he passed out one day during training. He was in boot camp at the time.
After being released from Samson Naval Hospital in 1947, he returned to Pittsburgh and attended the University of Pittsburgh from which he graduated with honors. He then left Pittsburgh to get away from the chronic angers of his home, and moved to Chicago.
The book tells the story of his time in Chicago as he worked on short stories with the intention of becoming a short story writer. He then moved to New Orleans, then to Denver, where he lived for four years before moving to San Francisco. He attended San Francisco State University from 1957 to 1959 and met a number of very interesting people, including his first wife.
The memoir also tells the story of his first marriage which was very complicated, his first job teaching at an Auburn, California, community college, an experimental college near Monterey, California, before matriculating to Claremont University in Claremont, California, where he received his P.hd. in English Literature and met poet Bert Meyers, who convinced Saltman he should try his hand at poetry. During that time he taught at Harvey Mudd before accepting a full-time teaching job at California State University, Northridge, then San Fernando State College. It was where I met Saltman in 1983 while studying American Literature and Poetry.
In 1992, I started a small press and published Ben Saltman's collection of poems titled, "The Book of Moss." It was perhaps because of my publishing efforts and my close friendship with Saltman that he sent me the manuscript of his memoir.
The book also chronicles his meeting his second wife, Helen, and his involvement with Vedanta Center in Hollywood, California. It was his involvement with the church that helped center him. Though he would father three daughters and teach for many years at CSUN, he writes little about his experiences there, except for the first five or so years.
The memoir is a kind of rite for anyone who wishes to be a writer. Some of his poems are included as well as a pictorial at the end of the memoir.
I have tried to interest some film company of making a movie of the book but so far I've had no luck. I sent it to a number of people. Everyone returned it except for Clint Eastwood.
I have also considered sending it to Netflix but I'm uncertain of how to do that.
The book would serve well in a poetry writing class or seminar. It's one man's story about how difficult life can be and the long journey of a poet.
The book chronicles Saltman's life beginning in Pittsburgh where he was raised, his time in a U.S. Naval hospital where for two years he fought for his life recovering from tuberculosis that was the result of his having developed pleurisy got worse until he passed out one day during training. He was in boot camp at the time.
After being released from Samson Naval Hospital in 1947, he returned to Pittsburgh and attended the University of Pittsburgh from which he graduated with honors. He then left Pittsburgh to get away from the chronic angers of his home, and moved to Chicago.
The book tells the story of his time in Chicago as he worked on short stories with the intention of becoming a short story writer. He then moved to New Orleans, then to Denver, where he lived for four years before moving to San Francisco. He attended San Francisco State University from 1957 to 1959 and met a number of very interesting people, including his first wife.
The memoir also tells the story of his first marriage which was very complicated, his first job teaching at an Auburn, California, community college, an experimental college near Monterey, California, before matriculating to Claremont University in Claremont, California, where he received his P.hd. in English Literature and met poet Bert Meyers, who convinced Saltman he should try his hand at poetry. During that time he taught at Harvey Mudd before accepting a full-time teaching job at California State University, Northridge, then San Fernando State College. It was where I met Saltman in 1983 while studying American Literature and Poetry.
In 1992, I started a small press and published Ben Saltman's collection of poems titled, "The Book of Moss." It was perhaps because of my publishing efforts and my close friendship with Saltman that he sent me the manuscript of his memoir.
The book also chronicles his meeting his second wife, Helen, and his involvement with Vedanta Center in Hollywood, California. It was his involvement with the church that helped center him. Though he would father three daughters and teach for many years at CSUN, he writes little about his experiences there, except for the first five or so years.
The memoir is a kind of rite for anyone who wishes to be a writer. Some of his poems are included as well as a pictorial at the end of the memoir.
I have tried to interest some film company of making a movie of the book but so far I've had no luck. I sent it to a number of people. Everyone returned it except for Clint Eastwood.
I have also considered sending it to Netflix but I'm uncertain of how to do that.
The book would serve well in a poetry writing class or seminar. It's one man's story about how difficult life can be and the long journey of a poet.
Displaying 1 of 1 review