Born in Idaho in 1925, Robin Blaser became a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance movement. His work was anthologized by Donald Allen in The New American Poetry along with the works of his companions Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and Jack Spicer. Blaser came to Canada in 1966 to teach at the newly opened Simon Fraser University where he taught in the English department until his retirement. He became a Canadian citizen in 1972. Poet, scholar and teacher, Robin Blaser has been a mentor to many writers, poets and intellectuals worldwide. A celebration of Robin Blaser’s work, The Recovery of the Public World: Essays on Poetics in Honour of Robin Blaser, edited by Charles Watts and Edward Byrne, was published in the fall of 1998. Blaser passed away in 2009.