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The Mystery of Rod McKuen: the Forgotten Best-selling Poet
SlateRod McKuen was, by any commercial measure, the most successful poet in American publishing history. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he sold more than 60 million books of poetry and 100 million recordings worldwide, filled Carnegie Hall annually on his birthday, and wrote songs for Frank Sinatra. His plain-spoken, romantically accessible verse attracted a devoted mass audience. Yet McKuen is almost entirely forgotten today. Critics were brutal during his peak years — a former U.S. poet laureate called his work "not even trash" — and the literary establishment never took him seriously. Slate's profile explored McKuen's complicated life and asked whether a poet who moved that many people deserves a more honest reassessment.
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