Born in Nelson, a small town in the Interior of British Columbia, on 26 March 1939, Patrick Lane has never really left the harsh and brutally beautiful physical and human landscape of his birth. Although he escaped to live in Vancouver, and later to travel widely in North and South America, he returned again and again to the Interior during his first thirty-five years, living for some time in Vernon, marrying twice (Mary Hayden in 1958, Carol Beale in 1972), fathering several children, and working at a variety of jobs on ranches, with road crews, and in construction. Lane has remained true to his working-class origins and until recently has had little to do with so-called academic poets or with academic life in general.

Lane's early efforts as a poet seem to be an attempt to emulate his older brother, Red Lane, who was recognized as a poet of promise before he...