Who’s Who
Throughout my life, and especially amongst other writers, I have been asked to explain my familial relationship to Kenneth Patchen.
For those sketchy on Kenneth Patchen, he was a poet and novelist who died in 1972. I am not related to him. My Great Grandfather emigrated to the United States from Italy with the surname Pace (pronounced Pa-chay). This was re-interpreted by some fine civil servants at Ellis Island into Patchen. So my family is not related to the Patchens of Ohio or California or Georgia and definitely does not trace its American ancestry back into the 1600s.
Kenneth Patchen was a fine writer and poet in his own right. But by a quirk of linguistics, all he and I share is the same last name.
Throughout my life, and especially amongst other writers, I have been asked to explain my familial relationship to Kenneth Patchen.
For those sketchy on Kenneth Patchen, he was a poet and novelist who died in 1972. I am not related to him. My Great Grandfather emigrated to the United States from Italy with the surname Pace (pronounced Pa-chay). This was re-interpreted by some fine civil servants at Ellis Island into Patchen. So my family is not related to the Patchens of Ohio or California or Georgia and definitely does not trace its American ancestry back into the 1600s.
Kenneth Patchen was a fine writer and poet in his own right. But by a quirk of linguistics, all he and I share is the same last name.
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