She had not traveled far from her home until college, and had not experienced antisemitism up until that time: "The roommates didn't want to live with me because I was a Jew.

[2] Despite living in the diverse Lower East Side of Manhattan, they were sometimes harassed in public for being an interracial couple.

[4] They published early works by Beat generation figures Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Frank O'Hara, all of whom they'd befriended as well.

[6] While still married to Hettie, he fathered a daughter, Dominique di Prima, with poet Diane DiPrima.

She detailed the experiences of growing up among a Jewish family and community, being part of the Beat Generation, her early writing, and the social difficulties of being in an interracial marriage and raising biracial children.

[14] Her book, Love, H, a selection from 40 years of correspondence with the sculptor Helene Dorn, was published by Duke University Press in October 2016.