Spicer was born in Los Angeles, where he later graduated from Fairfax High School in 1942, and attended the University of Redlands from 1943-45.
Persky served in the United States Navy, and then settled in San Francisco, California in the early 1960s, becoming part of a group of writers that included Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, Robin Blaser and George Stanley.
Jack Kerouac | Jack Nicholson | Jack Nicklaus | Jack the Ripper | Jack London | Jack Kemp | Jack Kirby | Jack Lemmon | Jack Black | Jack Abramoff | Jack Dempsey | Jack Benny | Jack White | Wolfman Jack | Union Jack | Jack White (musician) | Jack and the Beanstalk | Jack Johnson | Jack Charlton | Jack Palance | Jack Daniel's | Jack | Jack Paar | Jack Layton | Jack Straw | Jack Vance | Jack Bruce | Jack Warden | Jack's Mannequin | Jack in the Box |
In 1957, he moved to San Francisco and became part of a circle of writers based around Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan.
In addition to work by Coffey, MacGreevy, Joyce and Smith, New Writers Press authors included John Jordan, Anthony Cronin, Michael Hartnett, Augustus Young, Jack Spicer, Tom MacIntyre, Patrick Galvin, Paul Durcan, Robert Pawlowski, and Antonio Machado (in Smith's translation).