Finnish-American poet and translator influenced by the Beat Generation
Anselm Hollo was a distinguished Finnish-American poet and translator who produced more than 30 books of poetry and essays. His verse was influenced by the poetry of the Beat Generation, some of whom were personal friends, but he fused its quintessentially American outlook with a cosmopolitan European sensibility.
He was born in Helsinki, the son of the philosopher Juho Aukusti (“J.A.”) Hollo, who was a prolific translator of foreign literature into Finnish. During the 1950s Anselm lived in Germany and Austria before moving to the UK, where he lived for a decade. There he worked for the BBC’s European Service,