Solomon was born in the Bronx of New York City. His father's death in 1939 had a profoundly negative effect on his early life. Solomon later said of the time, "I drifted into indiscipline and intellectual adventure that eventually became complete confusion. Graduating from high school at fifteen, Solomon then went to The City College of New York for a short time before joining the United States Marines in 1944. In his travels overseas, Solomon became exposed to Surrealism and Dada, ideas that would inspire him throughout his life. In Paris, he witnessed Antonin Artaud give a screaming poetry reading—this so impressed him that he would remain a disciple of Artaud for much of his life. It was shortly after this period that Carl Solomon was voluntarily institutionalized, a gesture he made as a Dadaist symbol of defeat. In the late 1960s, Solomon published two chapbooks of prose poems with Mary Beach's Beach Books, Texts & Documents, distributed by City Lights Mishaps, Perhaps (1966) and More Mishaps (1968). Emergency Messages (published in 1989), features selections from the two books, along with some of Solomon's other autobiographical, critical and poetic writings. During his life, Solomon was also a frequent contributor to New Directions Annual, American Book Review, and The New Leader.