Editing Kenneth Patchen (section)

== Critical response ==
Patchen's work has received little attention from academic critics. However, a few scholars have published critical books on Patchen, including Raymond Nelson, Herbert P. Hogue, and [[Larry R. Smith]]. Also, a collection of essays on Patchen's work was edited by Richard Morgan for the book ''Kenneth Patchen: A Collection of Essays'' (1977).

Notable book reviews provide a reasonably accurate gauge of the public response to Patchen's work when it was initially published. For instance, Patchen biographer Larry Smith notes that "[the] initial reception to Patchen's ''First Will & Testament'' was positive and strong."<ref name="Smith" /> Smith notes that a reviewer from the ''New Republic'' compared the book to [[T. S. Eliot]]'s ''[[The Waste Land]].'' The book was also praised in reviews by [[Louis Untermeyer]] and [[John Peale Bishop]].<ref name="Smith" /> However, it received a notably negative review by [[Delmore Schwartz]] in ''Partisan Review''. Following this first negative review, Schwartz would remain one of Patchen's fiercest critics.<ref name="Smith" />

In response to Patchen's novel ''The Journal of Albion Moonlight'' (1941), prior to its publication, [[Henry Miller]] praised the work in the long essay ''Patchen: Man of Anger and Light'', which was published in book form in 1946. Also prior to the book's publication, [[Delmore Schwartz]] read the manuscript and claimed to be so offended by its controversial antiwar stance that he persuaded Patchen's publisher, New Directions, against publishing it.<ref name="Smith" /> This forced Patchen to self-publish the book by subscription.<ref>Frost, Allen (2012). "Introduction." ''Selected Correspondence of Kenneth Patchen''. Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press.</ref> Post-publication, the book's supporters included Miller, [[Robert Duncan (poet)|Robert Duncan]], and [[James Laughlin]]; its detractors included Schwartz, [[Edmund Wilson]], and [[Anaïs Nin]]. Despite receiving a favorable review from [[William Carlos Williams]] in 1942, the novel's highly experimental style, limited release, and antiwar stance would guarantee it a very limited audience.

In 1943, Patchen's ''Cloth of the Tempest'' received largely negative reviews. One reviewer even accused Patchen of being "naive," a common criticism aimed at his work, particularly regarding his fervent pacifist beliefs.<ref name="Smith" />

In the 1950s, Patchen received praise from the jazz critic [[Ralph Gleason]] for his jazz-poetry readings with the Chamber Jazz Sextet at the Blackhawk Club in San Francisco. Gleason wrote, "I think [Patchen's reading] technique presents the possibilities of an entire new medium of expression―a combination of jazz and poetry that would take nothing away from either form but would create something entirely new."<ref name="Smith" /> When Patchen recorded his jazz-poetry readings, one of the resulting albums drew praise from the poet [[John Ciardi]], who wrote that "Patchen's poetry is in many ways a natural for jazz accompaniment. Its subject and its tone are close to those of jazz."<ref name="Smith" />

In 1958, Patchen's ''Selected Poems'' and his book ''When We Were Here Together'' received significant praise from the reviewer [[Frederick Eckman]] in [[Poetry (magazine)|''Poetry'']] magazine. Eckman favorably compared Patchen's work to that of the poet [[William Blake]] and singled out the poems "Street Corner College," "Do the Dead Know What Time It Is?," "The Origin of Baseball," "Fog," and "The Character of Love Seen As a Search for the Lost" as some of Patchen's best pieces. He called ''When We Were Here Together'' "a beautiful book, inside and out."<ref name="Eckman, Frederick 1958" /> However, in the very same issue of ''Poetry'', the reviewer Robert Beum wrote a brief, negative review of Patchen's book ''Hurrah for Anything'', calling it dull and clichéd.<ref>Beum, Robert. "Five Poets." ''Poetry'', September 1958.</ref>

Patchen's most important volume, ''The Collected Poems of Kenneth Patchen'', first published in 1968, received largely positive reviews. A reviewer for the ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' called the book "a remarkable volume" and compared Patchen's work to that of [[Walt Whitman]], [[Hart Crane]], and [[D. H. Lawrence]] and also compared it to the [[Bible]].<ref name="Smith" /> In another review, the poet [[David Meltzer (poet)|David Meltzer]] called Patchen "one of America's great poet-prophets" and called his body of work "visionary art for our time and for Eternity." Like the ''Times'' reviewer, Meltzer also compared Patchen's work to that of Walt Whitman and to the Bible and also to the writing of William Blake.