Philip Whalen
Whalen grew up in a small town, The Dalles, Oregon. He went to public schools, and he wrote poetry for his high school magazine. He was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943 but stayed in the United States. After the war he went to Reed College. His tuition was paid by the G. I. Bill. There he became a friend of poets Lew Welch and Gary Snyder. They all met poet William Carlos Williams when he visited in 1950. In 1951 Whalen got a B. A. in general literature.