Robert Duncan is one of the twentieth century's most enigmatic and romantic poets. His dedication to poetry as an act of magic and self-creation has enlarged the scope of what is possible for other poets to do. Born to Edward Howard and Marguerite Wesley Duncan on January 7, 1919, in Oakland, California, Duncan was given up for adoption shortly after birth and raised as Robert Edward Symmes. He resumed using his original surname in 1942. At three years old, Duncan suffered an eye injury in a fall, making him cross-eyed. Duncan has written about his altered way of physically perceiving the world in his poems, and critics have made connections between his writing and his injury, especially in regards to the blurring of identities and distinctions in his poetry. Duncan's adopted parents were "orthodox theosophists," and his upbringing was steeped in hermetic lore and the occult. Theosophy, a nineteenth...