Emmett Williams (person)

sometimes
the typewriter
thinks
for
me,

and sometimes
i violently
i disagree
violent
ly.
-- Typewriter by Emmett Williams

Emmett Williams was a poet and visual artist, which is to say, he made his living by playing with words. More so than most poets, I mean.

He was born in Greenville, SC on April 4th, 1925, and studied poetry at Kenyon College in Ohio. He moved to Europe in his early 20s, studying anthropology at the University of Paris. He spent some time working with ethnologist Paul Radin in Switzerland, but returned to poetry in the late 1950s. His first book of poetry, konkretionen, was published in 1958, about the same time as he started collaborating with the European poets experimenting with concrete poetry, in which the formatting of words on the page carried a significant aspect of the poem's message.

Soldier
Soldier
Soldier
Soldier
Soldier
Soldier

--DIE as in SOLDIER by Emmett Williams, 1970

In the 1960s, Williams helped found Fluxus, a network of artists, composers, and designers who often blended media in unique ways. He acted as the European coordinator for Fluxus, and he worked as the Editor in Chief for The Something Else Press, which specialised in intermedia texts, including many by Fluxus members. He was also a founding member of Le Domaine Poetique, a Paris-based showcase for experimental works. However, he is remembered best for his own works, which are best experienced directly. You can find many of them at his website.

He died in Berlin on the 14th of February, 2007.