Dorn was born in Villa Grove, Illinois and studied at the University of Illinois and the Black Mountain College . Here he came into contact with Charles Olson and his final examiner was Robert Creeley. His first book, The Newly Fallen (1961), was published by Amiri Baraka's Totem Press.
In 1965, Dorn moved to Britain and taught at the University of Essex for five years. He then returned to the United States, where he worked at a number of universities, including the University of Colorado, where he taught from 1977 until his death.
His main work, Gunslinger is a long poem in four sections. Part 1 was first published in 1968 and the final complete text appeared in 1989. Other important publications include The Collected Poems: 1956-1974 (1975) and High West Rendezvous: A Sampler (1997).
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