Photo by Christopher Michel

Jack Hirschman (1933-2021) was a renowned political activist and author who wrote over 100 volumes of poetry and essays in his lifetime. He was instrumental in the Beat culture movement of the 1960s and beyond, corresponding with Ernest Hemingway and working alongside contemporaries like Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure.

Born in the Bronx to a Russian Jewish family, Hirschman was a vocal activist who supported the Black Panther Party and other movements that were perceived to be radical at the time. As a university professor during the Vietnam War, Hirschman stood up to rigid academia by giving his students automatic A grades so they wouldn’t be drafted. Hirschman went on to become the Poet Laureate of San Francisco and founded the San Francisco-based Revolutionary Poets Brigade. He was married to poet and artist Agneta Falk.