Ellis Foote

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Ellis Foote (November 16, 1911 – September 8, 1991) was an American poet known for his bold, experimental work in the 1940s. Mostly self-educated, he learned from classes at Brigham Young University and other extension programs. In the early 1940s, through Brewster Ghiselin’s writing programs at the University of Utah, Foote joined a Western literary circle that included Ghiselin, Vardis Fisher, George Snell, and Francis Golffing. Some readers believe his work helped shape later Beat writers.

Foote was born near Quitchumpah Creek in Emery County, Utah. He left school after the ninth grade and later joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving missions in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Leadville, Colorado. He married Norma Schreiner on May 20, 1937, in the Salt Lake Temple, and they had five children. In addition to his writing, Foote spent his final years in Boulder, Colorado, and his career included several stints as a city manager in Western towns.

Foote published in journals such as American Book Collector, New Mexico Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, and Neurotica. His first book appeared from the Rocky Mountain Review, followed by a second book from Alan Swallow. He stopped publishing in the early 1950s to work in municipal administration, holding roles in Moab, Utah (and noting its uranium discoveries), Hayden, Arizona (the first town manager there), Needles, California, and Willcox, Arizona. He continued to write privately and began releasing small, self-published collections in the 1970s.

Critics and peers praised his work. Alan Swallow called Foote a poet to be reckoned with, even if the first book showed many experiments. Tom Trusky called him “the first interesting and experimental poet from Zion.” Vardis Fisher used a Foote poem as the epigraph for his 1963 book. A review of Layman’s Fall in Poetry praised its bold design and witty, skilled language. Some scholars believe a neurotica poem Foote published in its first issue may have influenced Kerouac, and that Foote’s long-line forms caught the attention of Ginsberg; a later Neurotica issue featured a collaboration by Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Cassady.