SHUNRYU SUZUKI (1904-1971) was one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the twentieth century and is truly a founding father of Zen in America. A Japanese priest of the Soto lineage, he taught in the United States from 1959 until his death. He was the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He is the author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai, and Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki, and he is the subject of the biography Crooked Cucumber by David Chadwick.

DAVID CHADWICK began his Zen study under Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1966. Ordained as a Zen priest in 1971, he later wrote Suzuki's biography, Crooked Cucumber, as well as Thank You and OK!: An American Zen Failure in Japan. With a great deal of help, Chadwick is poo-bah of Cuke Archives, preserving the legacy of Shunryu Suzuki and those whose paths crossed his--and anything else that comes to mind. See cuke.com and shunryusuzuki.com for more vital info.