Ted Berrigan was born Edmund Joseph Michael Berrigan, Jr., in Providence, Rhode Island. He served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1957, and received a B.A. in 1959 and an M.A. in 1962 from the University of Tulsa. He first married Sandra Alper, who later collaborated with him in his writing and who also published her own volume of poems, Daily Rites (1974). Berrigan moved to New York City in 1960 to establish himself as a writer. He has since served as the editor of " C" magazine and "C" Press in New York. From 1966 to 1967 Berrigan taught in the poetry workshop at the St. Mark's Art Project, New York, and in 1968-1969, he served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Iowa. Berrigan is now married to Alice Notley, also a poet, whose published works include Alice Ordered Me to Be Made (1975).

Berrigan credits an extensive reading of Thomas...