Miriam Patchen (1914–2000) was the wife and muse of poet and novelist Kenneth Patchen, who dedicated each of his more than 40 books to his wife.
Gardiner is also notable as a supporter of Kenneth Patchen, whose Outlaw of the Lowest Planet he published in 1946, with an introduction by David Gascoyne and a preface by Alex Comfort.
John Kenneth Galbraith | Kenneth Branagh | Kenneth McClintock | Kenneth Grahame | Kenneth Cole | Kenneth Burke | Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds | Kenneth Williams | Kenneth Noland | Kenneth Clarke | Kenneth T. Jackson | Kenneth Rexroth | Kenneth Hayne | Kenneth Cranham | Kenneth Cole Productions | Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. | Kenneth Anger | Kenneth Tynan | Kenneth Kaunda | Kenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking | Kenneth Armitage | Kenneth More | Kenneth Goldsmith | Kenneth Frampton | Kenneth Fisher | Kenneth Connor | Kenneth Rogoff | Kenneth R. Miller | Kenneth Patchen | Kenneth Nicholls |
He has written a dozen articles (on Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, George Oppen, Penelope Fitzgerald, Louis Zukofsky, Kenneth Patchen, Paul Blackburn, Robert Kelly, among others) for encyclopedias (DLB, Encyclopedia of American Literature, Encyclopedia of World Literature, and The Ezra Pound Encyclopedia), and many essays and reviews for journals, especially Sagetrieb.
A graduate of Stanford University, where he earned a degree in Philosophy and studied under the poet and critic Yvor Winters, Packard was a presence in the literary circles of the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1950s and 60's — circles that included Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Patchen, and Kenneth Rexroth.