Jack Spicer was born on 30 January 1925 in Los Angeles, where his father managed a hotel. The job provided a good income, and even during the Depression the family lived comfortably. Spicer's only sibling was a brother, who became a college instructor and administrator in Missouri.

Spicer attended local schools and graduated from public high school. He was reared a Protestant and began his college career in a religiously affiliated college, the University of the Redlands. He claimed, however, that his life did not really begin until 1945, when he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, and became acquainted first with Robin Blaser and then Robert Duncan, poets who would remain among his closest associates.

Spicer is best known for The Collected Books of Jack Spicer (1975), which brings together all of his major work from 1957 until his death in 1965. A second collection, One Night Stand and Other Poems (1980), includes...