Ronald Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 November 1935 Ashland, Kansas, USA |
| Died | 4 March 1998 Topeka, Kansas, USA |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Genre | Modernism, Concrete Poetry, Erasure Poetry |
Ronald Johnson (November 25, 1935 – March 4, 1998)[1] was a poet from Ashland, Kansas, whose significant works include a number of experimental long poems such as The Book of the Green Man, RADI OS, and his magnum opus ARK. Johnson graduated from Columbia University in 1960, wandered in Appalachia and Britain for a number of years, then settled in San Francisco for twenty-five years before returning to Kansas, where he died. Writer and critic Guy Davenport once referred to Johnson as America's greatest living poet,[2] while poet Robert Creeley considered Johnson as "one of the defining peers of [his] own imagined company of poets."[3]