Jack Micheline; Beat Generation Poet, Painter

Jack Micheline, 68, a Beat Generation poet who published more than 20 books of poetry. Born Harvey Martin Silver in New York City, he served in the Army Medical Corps and eventually settled in San Francisco where he befriended Beat icon Jack Kerouac. Micheline, who legally changed his name in 1963, wrote of poor workers, petty criminals, prostitutes, junkies and destitute artists, weaving poetry of street speech and ethnic dialects. His first book, with an introduction by Kerouac, was “River of Red Wine,” published in 1958. Micheline painted and taught art in his later years. On Friday on a BART train near Orinda, Calif., of a heart attack.