"Just Because"

Just because
people love your mind,
doesn't mean they
have to have
your body,
too.

1978 San Francisco ©Erik Weber

1935 - Born 30 January in Tacoma, Washington, oldest child of Bernard F. Brautigan and Mary Lull Brautigan. Very little is known about his childhood, which he refused to discuss. Some sources say that Brautigan never knew his father, others say that his father never knew of him until Brautigan's death was announced

1955? - Allegedly committed to Oregon State Hospital after throwing a rock through a police station window, diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and given shock therapy treatments. Left home soon after release from hospital.

1955/ 1958? - Moved to San Francisco and became involved with the Beat Movement

1956 - “The Second Kingdom,” first known poem, published.

1957 - Married Virginia Dionne Adler in Reno, NV, 8 June.

1957 - 1958? - “The Return of the Rivers,” a single poem, published.

1958 - “The Galilee Hitch-Hiker,” a single poem, published

1959 - "Lay the Marble Tea" published . Twenty-four poems in this first collection.

1960 - "The Octopus Frontier" published.

1960 - 1960 Daughter Ianthe born, 25 March.

1961 - Spent summer camping with wife and child in Idaho's Stanley Basin. Wrote "Trout Fishing in America" on a portable typewriter alongside the trout streams.

1964 - "A Confederate General from Big Sur" published. Involved with the Diggers and the “hippies” of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Often gave away copies of his poems on the streets.

1966 - 1967 - Poet-in-residence at the California Institute of Technology.

1967 -"Trout Fishing in America" published

1967 - "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" published.

1968 - Awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. "In Watermelon Sugar" and "The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster" published. "Please Plant This Book" also published: eight seed packets, each containing seeds, with poems printed on the sides.

1969 - "Trout Fishing in America", "The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster", and "In Watermelon Sugar" published in collection.

1970 - "Rommel Drives On Deep into Egypt" published. Divorced from Virginia, 28 July, in San Francisco.

1970 - "The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966" published.

1971 - "The Revenge of the Lawn" published.

1972 - 1973? - Establishes a residence in Pine Creek, MT, just north of Yellowstone National Park. Allegedly refuses to deliver lectures or grant interviews for the next eight years.

1974 - "The Hawkline Monster" published.

1975 - "Willard and His Bowling Trophies" and "Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork" published.

1976 - "Sombrero Fallout" published.

1977 - "Dreaming of Babylon" published.

1978 - "June 30th, June 30th" published.

1978 - "The Abortion", "The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster", "Trout Fishing in America", "Rommel Drives On Deep into Egypt", and "A Confederate General from Big Sur" banned in Union Hills High School in northern California. ACLU case decided in favor of Brautigan and his publisher.

1979 - At December meeting of Modern Language Association in San Francisco, participated in a panel discussion concerning Zen and Contemporary Poetry with Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Robert Bly, and Lucien Stryk.

1980 - "The Tokyo-Montana Express" published. Begins lecture/promotion tour.

1982 - "So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away" published.

1984 - Commits suicide in house in Bolinas, California. Body discovered 25 October.

[CREDIT] - Chronology Excerpted from Richard Brautigan, An Annotated Bibliography, by John F. Barber. - (McFarland & Company, Inc., 1990)

SPECIAL THANKS:
Photographs of Brautigan, and images of others by Erik Weber may be viewed at
http://www.desart.com