Philip Whalen

Born: October 20, 1923
Place of Birth: Portland, Oregon

Texts from Levi Asher - Literary Kicks Excerpted by permission of copyright holder

Philip Whalen was a roommate of future poets Gary Snyder and Lew Welch's at Reed College in Oregon. (Shit, how come when I look back at my old college roommates all I see is one lawyer, one salesman and one eternal grad student?)

Whalen did not pursue a career in poetry, but fell into it after Snyder asked him to take part in the famous Six Gallery poetry reading in 1955. A good portrait of Whalen, Snyder's slightly older and chubbier Zen-poet friend, appears in 'The Dharma Bums' by Jack Kerouac (the character's name is Warren Coughlin).

Like Snyder and Kerouac, Whalen took Buddhism very seriously, and also like them he found spiritual enlightenment as a fire lookout in the Cascade Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. Whalen published many highly respected works of poetry, and was ordained as a Zen monk in 1973. He has been suffering from severe eyesight problems in recent years. He continues to live as a Buddhist in San Francisco.

A webzine called Big Bridge features a recent chapbookby Philip Whalen.

Literary Kicks
by Levi Asher