Kermit Sheets

Louis Kermit Sheets
Kermit Sheets in the CPS days
Born	14 August 1915
Died	6 April 2006
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Writer and actor
Known for	The Pleasure Garden

Louis Kermit Sheets (14 August 1915 – 6 April 2006) was an actor, director, playwright and an artistic partner with poet James Broughton.

During World War II, Sheets served as a conscientious objector for four years, first in Civilian Public Service Camp no. 21 at Cascade Locks, and then in Camp Angel near Waldport, Oregon, where he became part of a gifted group of artists, writers, and performers. In 1943 he was one of the founders of the Untide Press, which attempted to bring poetry to the public in an inexpensive but attractive format. Co-founders were writer William Everson, editor William Eshelman and architect and printer Kemper Nomland. He became a close friend of Kemper Nomland. Both men shared interest in graphical design, illustration and publication layout, although Sheets was primarily interested in theater and Norland in architecture.

Some members of this group formed a repertory known as the Interplayers after the war. Led by Sheets, the group produced and performed plays in various theaters until they obtained a home in a champagne warehouse in North Beach, San Francisco.

Sheets founded Centaur Press in San Francisco in 1949 working with James Broughton. The press published and distributed poetry and drama by Broughton, Anaïs Nin, Madeline Gleason and Muriel Rukeyser. Robert Duncan was one of the founders of the San Francisco Renaissance along with Kenneth Rexroth. His Medieval Scenes linked sequence of poems is a classic. The Centaur Press volume was designed by Kermit Sheets, who created the title page woodcut, and was hand set in Centaur Roman and Frederic Goudy's Deepdene italic. Sheets commissioned Adrian Wilson to print Glen Coffield's The Night is Where you Fly, illustrated by Lee Mullican.