Introduction
Robert Briggs is an American author and poet associated with the Beat Generation. He read poetry in the Jazz Cellar in San Francisco in 1957, and said, “jazz is to music what poetry is to knowing.” He continued to give reads accompanied by jazz musicians up until 2012. In 1972, Briggs co-founded the San Francisco Book Company and then Robert Briggs Associates, as a literary agent and small West Coast publisher. The company was involved in a variety of nonfiction which included Rolling Thunder: An Exploration into the Powers of an American Indian Medicine Man by Doug Boyd, Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer, Kenneth Pelletier's classic book on stress, as well as works by Joseph Campbell, Colin Wilson, and Theodore Roszak. In the 1950s he was a bookseller in Greenwich Village, New York, and North Beach in San Francisco. Robert Briggs served in the Army during the Korean War and witnessed an atom bomb test at Frenchman Flats, Nevada. Filmmaker Chel White directed a short film about Briggs' atom bomb experience titled, "The Beats, the Bomb and the 1950s.
Personal life
Along with his wife, author Diana Saltoon, Briggs was a member of the Zen Community of Oregon. He had one child, in the tempestuous 60s, Hillary Shannon (Sheperd). She lives in New York now, where Briggs grew up as of 10 years old.
Books
- Ruined Time: The 1950s and the Beat (2007)
- The American Emergency: A Search for Spiritual Renewal in an Age of Materialism (1989)
Audio recordings
- Poetry and the 1950s: Homage to the Beat Generation (1999)
- Jazz and Poetry & Other Reasons - Opus One: The Beat Goes On (2007)
- "Bookstore and CD Store - Ruined Time". ruinedtime.com.
- "Ruined Time". google.com.
- "The American Emergency: Search for Spiritual Renewal in an Age of Materialism: Amazon.co.uk: Robert Briggs: 9780890875469: Books". amazon.co.uk.
- "iTunes - Music - Poetry and the 1950's by Robert Briggs". iTunes.
- "Bookstore and CD Store - Ruined Time". ruinedtime.com.