Donald Fagen, the lead singer of Steely Dan, tells a story about the poet Anthony Hecht that does not appear in David Yezzi’s new biography. In 1966, “my formerly tweedy, graying poetry professor, Anthony Hecht,” returned for the fall semester at Bard College “in gray-and-white-striped Uncle Sam bell-bottoms, a bright paisley shirt, a suede vest and Beatle boots.” Hecht had apparently spent the summer in Haight-Ashbury. He soon reverted to his usual tweed, but it inspired Fagen to go see San Francisco for himself.
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