Cultural Writing. Poetry. RUINED TIME is a memoir, a personal cultural anthology of the Great Depression, World War II and the 1950s...of Hiroshima, the military-industrial complex, and the Beat Generation. "RUINED TIME is the book within the book, the history within the mystery, the mythology of the '50s, the so-called Beat Generation. Briggs reveals the real deal as a participant in that confounding history. His work is a remarkable embodiment of the personal as the political; a brave demonstration of tough insight, survival and triumph"--David Meltzer. Robert Briggs attended Auburn and Columbia Universities and served in the army during the Korean War. A bookseller in Greenwich Village and North Beach in the '50s, he was involved the jazz and poetry scenes. He is the author of The American Emergency, 1989, and a member of the Zen Community of Oregon.