Sam Hamill, 74, activist founded publishing house

Sam Hamill, a poet, translator and anti-war activist who as co-founder of Copper Canyon Press published works by Pablo Neruda, W.S. Merwin and many other celebrated poets, has died at age 74.

Mr. Hamill died Saturday at his home in Anacortes, Wash., following a period of ill health. His death was announced by Copper Canyon, which he, Bill O’Daly and Tree Swenson helped start in 1972.

Although based thousands of miles from the New York publishing industry, Copper Canyon became the literary home to some of the world’s greatest poets, whether Merwin or Theodore Roethke or such Nobel Prize winners as Neruda and Octavio Paz. Mr. Hamill himself wrote poetry. His works include the career retrospective “Habitation.” He also translated poetry from Mandarin and Japanese, and, at times, used poems for protest. In February 2003, he helped organize a campaign to send thousands of poems and statements to the White House in opposition to the imminent Iraq War, which President George W. Bush began the following month.

Known for his confrontational style, Mr. Hamill had been responding to an invitation from first lady Laura Bush to a poetry forum at the White House. The event was canceled.

Mr. Hamill’s growing involvement in the anti-war movement helped lead to his departure from Copper Canyon in 2004.

“Through his advocacy, social consciousness, political engagement, and acts of resistance, he set a model that the Press still engages today,” Copper Canyon Press Editor-In-Chief Michael Wiegers said.