Poet and activist Ed Sanders grew up in Blue Springs, Missouri. He studied at the University of Missouri and New York University and earned a BA in ancient Greek. After college Sanders stayed in New York City, where he opened the Peace Eye Bookstore and started Fuck You/ A Magazine of the Arts. Deeply influenced by the work of Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound, and Allen Ginsberg, Sanders helped bridge the concerns of Beat poetry and the countercultural movement of the 1960s.