GEORGE OPPEN was born in New Rochelle, New York. His first book of poems, Discrete Series (1934), was published by the Objectivist Press. Then for nearly a quarter of a century he fell poetically silent, becoming a political activist, choosing exile in Mexico in the 1950s. When he began writing poetry again, it was with a maturity and a spiritual and political clarity rare at any time of day. Michael Davidson teaches at the University of California, San Diego. The essayist and translator Eliot Weinberger provides an important memoir. George Oppen was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry in 1969.