Born Rodney Marvin McKuen in Oakland, California, McKuen ran away from home at the age of eleven to escape an alcoholic stepfather and to send what money he could to his mother. After a series of jobs, from logger, ranch hand, railroad worker to rodeo cowboy, throughout the west, he turned to live poetic performance. McKuen began in the 1950s to give poetry readings, appearing with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg; during this time, he often used the pseudonym "Dor."
McKuen moved to New York City in 1959 to compose and conduct for the TV show The CBS Workshop. During the early 1960s he spent most of his time in France. There he began to translate the work of Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel into English. After Brel died he said, "As friends and as musical collaborators we had traveled, toured and written - together and apart - the events of our lives as if they were songs, and I guess they were. When news of Jacques’ death came I stayed locked in my bedroom and drank for a week. That kind of self-pity was something he wouldn’t have approved of, but all I could do was replay our songs (our children) and ruminate over our unfinished life together."
McKuen enjoyed commercial success unusual in the field of modern popular poetry. His poems have been translated into eleven languages and his books have sold over 65 million copies. Throughout his career he has continued to enjoy sell-out concerts around the world and appears regularly at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Edward Habib's liner notes for McKuen's Amsterdam Concert album make the often-repeated claim that Rod McKuen is the best-selling and most widely read poet of all time (however, the aggregate sales of works by major poets like Shakespeare and Dante in hosts of editions over centuries of publication in scores of languages easily surpass McKuen's impressive though more recent sales figures).
McKuen's work has never been taken seriously by the literary academy. Michael Baers observes in Gale Research's St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture that "through the years his books have drawn uniformly unkind reviews. In fact, criticism of his poetry is uniformly vituperative..."
McKuen wrote over 1500 songs, accounting for over 100 million records. His material has been recorded by Frank Sinatra (who in 1969 recorded A Man Alone, an album of McKuen's songs), Johnny Cash who (just before his death) recorded McKuen's "", Waylon Jennings, The London Philharmonic, Greta Keller, Perry Como, and Madonna. Perhaps his best-known song is "Jean", recorded by Oliver in 1969 for the soundtrack to the film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In 1959, McKuen released a novelty single on the Brunswick label called "The Mummy". Bob McFadden and Dor were listed as the artists. In 1961, he had a hit single titled "Oliver Twist". He has collaborated with numerous composers, including Henry Mancini and John Williams, and a successful series of albums with Anita Kerr. His symphonies, concertos, and other classical works have been performed by orchestras around the globe. His work as a composer in the film industry has garnered him two Academy Award nominations.
Before a tour of South Africa in the 1970s, McKuen demanded “mixed seating” among white and black concert-goers, opening the doors for successful tours by a variety of African-American performers, including Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald. He has also spearheaded efforts to raise AIDS awareness and fund charities for children and senior citizens. His humanitarian efforts have twice won him the prestigious Freedoms Foundation Award.
