GREAT POETS OF THE 20th CENTURY

GREAT POETS OF THE 20^th CENTURY

“Ain’t no money in Poetry, that’s what sets the poet free”
And probably why poet Lew Welch turned to advertising to make some clams. Lew made up the slogan “Raid Kills Bugs Dead”, which sold a lot of Raid. He studied Philosophy and took a job with Montgomery Wards writing copy for the lingerie and sporting goods department, and asked for a transfer to San Francisco in order to be closer to Kerouac and the Beat poetry scene. Once there he started driving a cab, as all Beat poets do, living with Gary Snyder and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
He married a nice Polish lady named Maria, and became stepfather to her son Hugh Anthony Cregg, III, better known by his stage-name Huey Lewis.


On May 23, 1971, Welch walked out of poet Gary Snyder's house in the mountains of California, leaving behind a suicide note faintly reminiscent of the terse meter of his Raid ad that read only “HEADING SOUTH-SOUTHWEST. GOODBYE”. His body was never found.