Diane di Prima

2025-10-24T05:09:51Z

2603:8000:2F00:F1EC:7109:1C93:451E:E4F6:

{{Short description|American poet (1934–2020)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox writer 
| name = Diane di Prima
| honorific_prefix =
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Gloria Graham Diane di Prima.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| alt =
| caption = Diane di Prima, photo by [[Gloria Graham]] during the video taping of Add-Verse, 2004
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| pseudonym =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1934|8|6|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City]], [[New York State|New York]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|10|25|1934|8|6|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[San Francisco]], [[California]], U.S.
| resting_place =
| occupation = {{flatlist|
* Poet
* author
* artist
}}
| education = [[Hunter College High School]]
| alma_mater = [[Swarthmore College]]
| period =
| genre = 
| subject = 
| movement = [[Beat Generation|Beat movement]]
| notableworks = 
| spouse = 
| partner = 
| children = [[Dominique di Prima]]
| relatives =
| awards =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| years_active = {{start date|1958}}–2020
| module =
| website =
| portaldisp = yes 
}}

'''Diane di Prima''' (August 6, 1934{{spnd}}October 25, 2020) was an American poet, known for her association with the [[Beat Generation|Beat movement]]. She was also an artist, prose writer, and teacher. Her ''magnum opus'' is widely considered to be ''Loba'',{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} a collection of poems first published in 1978 then extended in 1998.

==Early life and education==
Di Prima was born in [[Brooklyn]], New York, on August 6, 1934.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Genzlinger|first=Neil|date=October 28, 2020|title=Diane di Prima, Poet of the Beat Era and Beyond, Dies at 86|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/books/diane-di-prima-dead.html|url-status=live|access-date=2020-10-29|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=October 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029005820/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/books/diane-di-prima-dead.html}}</ref> She was a second generation [[Italian Americans|American of Italian descent]]. Her father Francis was a lawyer, and her mother Emma (née Mallozzi) was a teacher.<ref name=":0" /> Her maternal grandfather, Domenico Mallozzi, was an activist and associated with [[anarchy|anarchists]] [[Carlo Tresca]] and [[Emma Goldman]].<ref name=Bio>{{cite web|title=Biography of Diane Di Prima|url=http://dianediprima.com/bio.html|website=Diane di Prima|access-date=April 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717001957/http://dianediprima.com/bio.html|archive-date=July 17, 2012}}</ref> Di Prima changed her last name from DiPrima to di Prima because she believed it better reflected her Italian ancestry.<ref name=":0" />

She attended academically elite [[Hunter College High School]] where she became part of a small group of friends including classmate [[Audre Lorde]] who formed a sort of Dead Poets Society calling themselves "the Branded". They cut class to roam the city, hanging out in bookstores, sharing their own poetry and holding séances for dead poets.<ref>{{cite book|last1=De Veaux|first1=Alexis|title=Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde|date=2004|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.|isbn=0-393-01954-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/warriorpoetbiogr00deve/page/7 7–13]|url=https://archive.org/details/warriorpoetbiogr00deve/page/7}}</ref>

Di Prima then went on to [[Swarthmore College]] before dropping out to be a poet in [[Manhattan]].<ref name=":0" /> Di Prima began writing as a child and by the age of 19 was corresponding with [[Ezra Pound]] and [[Kenneth Patchen]]. Her first book of poetry, ''This Kind of Bird Flies Backward'', was published in 1958 by [[Hettie Jones]] and [[LeRoi Jones]]' Totem Press.

== Career ==
===Involvement with the Beats===
Di Prima spent the late 1950s and early 1960s in [[Manhattan]], where she participated in the emerging [[Beat Generation|Beat movement]].<ref name=":1" /> She spent some time in [[California]] at [[Stinson Beach]] and [[Topanga Canyon]], returned to New York City, and eventually moved to [[San Francisco]] permanently.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gluckstern |first=Nicole |date=September 28, 2021 |orig-date=September 28, 2021 |title=Two New Diane di Prima Books Capture the Brilliance of a San Francisco Treasure {{!}} KQED |url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/13903815/diane-di-prima-revolutionary-letters-city-lights |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023022442/https://www.kqed.org/arts/13903815/diane-di-prima-revolutionary-letters-city-lights |archive-date=October 23, 2021 |access-date=July 26, 2024 |website=www.kqed.org |language=en}}</ref>

She edited the newspaper ''The Floating Bear'' with [[Amiri Baraka|Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)]]<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hathaway|first1=Heather|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vYZ5UddwfnwC&pg=PT259|title=Race and the Modern Artist|last2=Jarab|first2=Josef|last3=Melnick|first3=Jeffrey|date=January 16, 2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535262-7|pages=245|language=en}}</ref> and was co-founder of the [[New York Poets Theatre]] and founder of the Poets Press. On several occasions she faced charges of obscenity by the United States government due to her work with the New York Poets Theatre and ''The Floating Bear''. In 1961 she was arrested by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) for publishing two poems in ''The Floating Bear''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Diane di Prima|url=https://poets.org/poet/diane-di-prima|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200506184613/https://poets.org/poet/diane-di-prima|archive-date=May 6, 2020|website=poets.org}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Limbong|first=Andrew|date=October 27, 2020|title=Diane di Prima, Beat Poet And Activist, Dead at 86|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/10/27/927948704/diane-di-prima-beat-poet-and-activist-dead-at-86|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028015532/https://www.npr.org/2020/10/27/927948704/diane-di-prima-beat-poet-and-activist-dead-at-86|archive-date=October 28, 2020|access-date=2020-10-29|publisher=[[NPR]]|language=en}}</ref> According to di Prima, police persistently harassed her due to the nature of her poetry.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/Diprima/MSS19910042.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105031316/http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/Diprima/MSS19910042.html|url-status=dead|title=Diane Di Prima Papers, Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.|archive-date=Nov 5, 2012|access-date=Oct 28, 2020}}</ref> In 1966, she spent some time at [[Timothy Leary#Millbrook and psychedelic counterculture (1963–1967)|Millbrook]] with [[Timothy Leary]]'s [[psychedelia|psychedelic]] community.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Langer|first=Emily|date=October 26, 2020|title=Diane di Prima, feminist poet of the Beat Generation, dies at 86|work=[[The Seattle Times]]|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/diane-di-prima-feminist-poet-of-the-beat-generation-dies-at-86/|access-date=2020-10-28}}</ref>

From 1974 to 1997, di Prima taught poetry at the [[Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|agency=Associated Press|author-link=Associated Press|date=October 28, 2020|title=Diane di Prima, Beat poet and activist, dead at 86|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/diane-di-prima-beat-poet-activist-dead-86-73888949|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029013248/https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/diane-di-prima-beat-poet-activist-dead-86-73888949|archive-date=October 29, 2020|access-date=2020-10-29|publisher=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]|language=en}}</ref> of the [[Naropa Institute]] in [[Boulder, Colorado|Boulder]], Colorado, sharing the program with fellow Beats [[Allen Ginsberg]] and [[Anne Waldman]] (co-founders of the program), [[William Burroughs]], [[Gregory Corso]], and others.

===Later career===
In the late 1960s, di Prima moved permanently to California. There, she became involved with the [[Diggers (theater)|Diggers]] and studied [[Buddhism]], [[Sanskrit]], [[Gnosticism]], and [[alchemy]]. In 1966, she signed a vow of [[tax resistance]] to the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://triptych.brynmawr.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715150745/http://triptych.brynmawr.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2FSC_Ephemera&CISOPTR=158 |url-status=dead |title=triptych | tri-college digital library: Item Viewer |access-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-date=July 15, 2012}}</ref> In the 1970s, she published the collection ''Revolutionary Letters'', influenced by her time with the Diggers.<ref name=":2" /> At [[The Band|The Band's]] famous [[The Last Waltz|Last Waltz]] concert in 1976, she read aloud from Revolutionary Letters and the one-line poem "Get Yer Cut Throat Off My Knife".<ref name=":2" />

She published her major work, the long poem ''Loba'', in 1978, with an enlarged edition in 1998. From the 1960s on she worked as a photographer and a [[collage]] artist, and in the last decade or so of her life she took up [[watercolor painting]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

From 1980 to 1987, di Prima taught [[Hermeticism|Hermetic]] and [[Western esotericism|esoteric]] traditions in poetry, in a short-lived but significant Masters-in-Poetics program at [[New College of California]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Barmann |first=Jay |date=October 27, 2020 |title=Diane di Prima, Noted Female Voice in the Beat Generation Boys' Club, Dies at 86 |url=https://sfist.com/2020/10/27/diane-di-prima-noted-female-voice-in-the-beat-generation-boys-club-dies-at/ |access-date=October 29, 2020 |website=SFist |language=en |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101013045/https://sfist.com/2020/10/27/diane-di-prima-noted-female-voice-in-the-beat-generation-boys-club-dies-at/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> which she established together with poets [[Robert Duncan (poet)|Robert Duncan]] and [[David Meltzer (poet)|David Meltzer]]. She has also taught at the [[San Francisco Art Institute]]. She was one of the co-founders of San Francisco Institute of Magical and Healing Arts (SIMHA), where she taught Western spiritual traditions from 1983 to 1992.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Meltzer|first=David|date=2020|title=Di Prima, Diane|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/di-prima-diane|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029013220/https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/di-prima-diane|archive-date=October 29, 2020|access-date=2020-10-28|website=Contemporary Poets}}</ref>

In 2009, di Prima became San Francisco's poet laureate.<ref name=":0" />

==Activism==
Di Prima was known for her activism, having been exposed early on to political consciousness by her grandfather, Domenico, as detailed in her memoir ''Recollections of My Life as a Woman''; she also discusses this in a 2001 interview with David Hadbawnik.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://jacketmagazine.com/18/diprima-iv.html|title=Jacket 18 - Diane di Prima in conversation with David Hadbawnik, August 2001|website=jacketmagazine.com|access-date=Oct 28, 2020|archive-date=July 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721115141/http://jacketmagazine.com/18/diprima-iv.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In her memoir, di Prima describes seeing her grandfather speak at a rally in the park, writing: "I am proud of him, and afraid, but mostly amazed. His words have awakened my full acknowledgment, consent. I hear what he says as truth, and it seems I have always known it. I feel old, self-contained, passionate with the pure passion of a child."<ref>''Recollections of My Life as a Woman'', pp. 13–14.</ref> Moments such as these sparked a dedication to social activism, especially as it concerned women's rights, that persisted throughout di Prima's life.

== Death and legacy ==
Di Prima died on October 25, 2020, at San Francisco General Hospital. She was 86 years old.<ref>{{cite news|last=Genzlinger|first=Neil|date=October 28, 2020|title=Diane di Prima, Poet of the Beat Era and Beyond, Dies at 86|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/books/diane-di-prima-dead.html|access-date=March 21, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Diane di Prima Papers, University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections.|url=http://louisville.edu/library/archives/findingaids/diprima.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091204233803/http://louisville.edu/library/archives/findingaids/diprima.html|archive-date=December 4, 2009|access-date=November 12, 2012}}</ref> She had several health issues including [[Parkinson's disease]] and [[Sjögren syndrome]]. She was working on several books until two weeks prior to her death. Di Prima's works{{Clarify|date=May 2024}} are held at the [[University of Louisville]], [[Indiana University]], [[Southern Illinois University]], and the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 27, 2020|title=Diane di Prima|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/diane-di-prima|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005092005/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/diane-di-prima|archive-date=October 5, 2020|access-date=Oct 28, 2020|website=Poetry Foundation}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
{{Incomplete list |date=August 2025}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}

=== Poetry ===
;Collections
* {{Cite book|title=This Kind of Bird Flies Backward|publisher=Totem Press|year=1958|location=New York}}
* {{Cite book|title=Dinners and Nightmares|publisher=Corinth Books|year=1961}} (reissued [[Last Gasp (publisher)|Last Gasp]], 1998)
* {{Cite book|title=The New Handbook of Heaven|publisher=Auerhahn Press|year=1963|location=San Francisco}}
* {{Cite book|title=Seven Love Poems from the Middle Latin|publisher=The Poets Press|year=1965}} (translations)
* {{Cite book|title= Freddie Poems|publisher=Eidolon Editions|location=Point Reyes|year=1966}}
* {{Cite book|title=Earthsong: Poems 1957–1959|publisher=The Poets Press|location=New York|year=1968}}
* {{Cite book|title=War Poems|publisher=The Poets Press|location=New York|year=1968}}
* {{Cite book|title=Memoirs of a Beatnik|publisher=[[Olympia Press]]|location=New York|year=1969}} (reissued with new afterword, [[Last Gasp (publisher)|Last Gasp]], 1988)
* {{Cite book|title=The Book of Hours|publisher=Brownstone Press|location=San Francisco|year=1970}}
* {{Cite book|title=Kerhonkson Journal 1966|publisher=Oyez|year=1971|location=Berkeley, California}}
*''Revolutionary Letters''. City Lights. 1971. (expanded edition, [[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights]], 2021)
* {{Cite book|title=The Calculus of Variation|publisher=Eidolon Editions|location=San Francisco|year=1972}}
* {{Cite book|title=Selected Poems: 1956-1975|publisher=North Atlantic Books|location=Plainfield|year=1975}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Bell Tower|publisher=[[No Mountains Poetry Project]]|location=Evanston, Illinois|year=1976}}
* {{Cite book|title=Loba, Part II|publisher=Eidolon Editions|location=Point Reyes|year=1976}}
* {{Cite book|title=Selected Poems: 1956-1976|publisher=North Atlantic Books|year=1977}}
* {{Cite book|title=Loba, Parts 1-8|year=1978}}
* {{Cite book |title=Pieces of a Song: Selected Poems |publisher=[[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights]] |year=1990}}
* {{Cite book|title=Seminary Poems|publisher=Floating Island Publications|year=1991}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Moon and the Island|publisher=Hesperia Press|year=1997|location=Berkeley, California}}
* {{Cite book|title=Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years|publisher=Viking Press|location=New York|year=2001}}
* {{Cite book|title=Towers Down: Notes Toward a Poem of Revolution|publisher=Eidolon Editions|year=2002|location=San Francisco}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Ones I Used to Laugh With: A Haibun Journal|publisher=Habenicht Press|year=2003}}
* {{Cite book|title=Kit Fox Blues|publisher=Eidolon Editions|year=2006|location=San Francisco}}
* {{Cite book|title=R.D.'s H.D.|publisher=Center for the Humanities, the Graduate Center|year=2011|location=New York}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Mysteries of Vision: Some Notes on H.D.|publisher=Center for the Humanities, the Graduate Center|year=2011|location=New York}}
* {{Cite book|title=Old Father, Old Artificer|publisher=Center for the Humanities, Graduate Center|year=2012|location=New York}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Poetry Deal|publisher=[[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights]]|year=2014}}
* {{Cite book|title=Haiku|publisher=X Artists' Books|location=Los Angeles|year=2019}}
* {{Cite book|title=Spring and Autumn Annals: A Celebration of the Seasons for Freddie|publisher=[[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights]]|year=2021}}
* {{Cite book|title=Revolutionary Letters: 50th Anniversary Edition|publisher=[[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights]]|year=2021}}

;List of poems
{|class='wikitable sortable'
|-
!width=25%|Title
!|Year
!|First published
!|Reprinted/collected
|-
|Radio
|2023
|{{cite journal |author=Di Prima, Diane |date=March 27, 2023 |title=Radio |journal=The New Yorker |volume=99 |issue=6 |pages=24 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/27/radio }}
|
|-
|}

She also published in literary journals such as ''[[Earth's Daughters]].''<ref>{{Cite web |title=A mother poem published in Earth's Daughters |url=https://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2012/10/a-mother-poem-published-in-earths-daughters.html |access-date=2025-07-21 |website=Velveteen Rabbi}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Beat Reader''. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. {{ISBN|0-670-83885-3}} (hc); {{ISBN|0-14-015102-8}} (pbk)
* di Prima, Diane, and Jones, LeRoi [Imanu Amiri Baraka], eds. The Floating Bear, a newsletter: Numbers 1-37, 1961–1969. Introduction and notes adapted from interviews with Diane di Prima. La Jolla, California: Laurence McGilvery, 1973. {{ISBN|0-910938-54-7}} (library binding)
* di Prima, Diane. ''Recollections of My Life as a Woman''. Viking USA (2001). {{ISBN|0-670-85166-3}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130307183607/http://dianediprima.com/ Archived version of Diane di Prima Official Website]
* {{IMDb name|id=0224227}}
* {{Discogs artist|Diane Di Prima}}
* [https://archivescatalog.library.louisville.edu/repositories/2/resources/517 Di Prima Papers] at University of Louisville
* [http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/d/Di_Prima,Diane.html Diane Di Prima Papers] at the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]]

{{Poets Laureate of San Francisco}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Prima, Diane}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:2020 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American poets]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American poets]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:Activists from California]]
[[Category:American people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:American Buddhists]]
[[Category:American tax resisters]]
[[Category:American women poets]]
[[Category:Beat Generation writers]]
[[Category:Diggers (theater)]]
[[Category:English-language haiku poets]]
[[Category:Hunter College High School alumni]]
[[Category:The New Yorker people]]
[[Category:Poets laureate of San Francisco]]
[[Category:Swarthmore College alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area]]

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Diane di Prima