Kenneth Rexroth was born in San Francisco, California, in 1914. After graduating from high school, he went to the University of California at Berkeley. In 1939 he began his career as a poet and writer. That same year he published his first book of poems, The Earth Is the Cradle of the Mind
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In 1940 he moved to New York City and lived there for two years, during which time he wrote The Collected Poems (1941). He then returned to San Francisco and began writing and publishing poetry and essays. He also became active in the antiwar movement and was active in the organizations CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and SDS (Students for a Democratic Society).
During the spring of 1965, Rexroth went on an extended European lecture tour sponsored by Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He died in June 1965 at the age of forty-nine.