High Poet: The Life and Work of Philip Lamantia

Philip Lamantia drafted fragments of a memoir titled *High Poet*, regarding himself as a visionary poet who sought intellectual understanding, spiritual transcendence, and poetic essence from sciences, philosophy, and history. He welcomed visions through meditation, religious ceremony, and psychotropic substances. In 1944, at age sixteen, he left high school in San Francisco to join war-exiled Parisian surrealists in New York, and later lived and wrote in Mexico, Morocco, France, Italy, Spain, and Greece.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Late in life, Philip Lamantia drafted fragments of a memoir under the working title High Poet. He regarded himself as a "high poet" in more than one sense: he was a visionary poet who ascended the heights of pure imagination, one who sought both intellectual understanding and spiritual transcendence. He was also a poet of vast erudition, one for whom learning was equivalent to gnosis; in his wide-ranging reading, he drew out the poetic essence of the sciences, philosophy, and history, which he then infused into his own writing. He welcomed (and sometimes provoked) visions, through such vehicles as meditation, religious ceremony, and psychotropic substances. His quest led outward as well as inward: in 1944, at age sixteen, Lamantia left high school in his native San Francisco to join the company of war-exiled Parisian surrealists in New York; and through the 1950s and 1960s, he lived and wrote in Mexico, Morocco, France, Italy, Spain, and Greece.