December 30, 1904 [Red Granita, Wisconsin] – February 23, 1981 [Los Angeles]
Best known as the “maverick” publisher of Trace (1952-1970) which, in addition to publishing new poetry and reviews, indexed the activity of small press poetry magazines in the United States and elsewhere, May was an ambitious essayist, poet and fiction writer. It because of May’s advice that the first edition of Howl was printed in the U.K. and hence confiscated on its return journey. May self-published an attractive 3 volume boxed-set of his selected fiction, criticism and poetry, though he doesn’t seem have made much of a reputation for himself as a writer at all during his lifetime. He co-edited Los Angeles Poetry I, with Thomas McGrath and Peter Yates in 1958.
