Jack Hirschman
Jack Hirschman
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| Born |
December 13, 1933 New York City |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, essayist, social activist |
Jack Hirschman (born December 13, 1933) is an American poet and social activist who has written more than 50 volumes of poetry and essays.
Born in New York City, Hirschman received a Bachelor of Arts from City College of New York in 1955, and an AM and PhD from Indiana University in 1957 and 1961, respectively. While attending City College, he worked as a copy boy for the Associated Press. When he was 19, he sent a story to Ernest Hemingway, who responded: "I can't help you, kid. You write better than I did when I was 19. But the hell of it is, you write like me. That is no sin. But you won't get anywhere with it." Hirschman left a copy of the letter with the Associated Press, and when Hemingway killed himself in 1961, the "Letter to a Young Writer" was distributed by the wire service and published all over the world.
Hirschman married Ruth Epstein, whom he'd met and dated when they were students at CCNY, in 1954. Following graduation, Ruth became a program director for National Public Radio and eventually general manager of Santa Monica public radio station KCRW. The couple had two children. In the 1950s and 60s, Jack Hirschman taught at Dartmouth College and University of California, Los Angeles. During his tenure as professor at UCLA one of the students enrolled in his class was Jim Morrison, later to be a cofounder and lead vocalist of the American band The Doors. The Vietnam War, however, put an end to Hirschman's academic career; he was fired from UCLA after encouraging his students to resist the draft. His marriage disintegrated, and he moved to San Francisco in 1973. Eventually, Ruth remarried and became Ruth Hirschman Seymour, continuing her long association with KCRW.
His first volume of poetry, published in 1960, included an introduction by Karl Shapiro: "What a relief to find a poet who is not afraid of the vulgar or the sentimental, who can burst out laughing or cry his head off in poetry – who can make love to language, or kick it in the pants."
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