Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982)[1] was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist.

[4] Largely self-educated, Rexroth learned several languages and translated poems from Chinese, French, Spanish, and Japanese.

[7] At age 19, he hitchhiked across the country, taking odd jobs and working a stint as a Forest Service trail crew hand, cook and packer at the Marblemount Ranger Station in the Pacific Northwest.

[8] In the 1930s, Rexroth was associated with the Objectivists, a largely New York group gathered around Louis Zukofsky and George Oppen.

[4] With The Love Poems of Marichiko, Rexroth claimed to have translated the poetry of a contemporary, "young Japanese woman poet", but it was later disclosed that he was the author, and he gained critical recognition for having conveyed so authentically the feelings of someone of another gender and culture.

[11] Linda Hamalian, his biographer, suggests that, "translating the work of women poets from China and Japan reveals a transformation of both heart and mind".