[Item #3052] Songs for Dead Children. d. a. levy.

Songs for Dead Children

San Francisco, CA: Black Rabbit Press, 1969. First Printing. Sewn Sheets in Folded Wraps. From the Collection of Ken & Ann Mikolowski, Founders of Detroit's Visionary "Alternative Press," publishers of many "Beat/Black Mountain/N.Y. School"-affiliated authors. "Songs for Dead Children" is a very early posthumous publication by poet, publisher, impresario and countercultural martyr d.a. levy of Cleveland, Ohio. levy was born in 1942 in West Cleveland, growing up along the Cuyahoga River and coming of age when the Beat scene had just begun to thrust itself into national notoriety. levy, although attracted to the poetry of his pioneering comrades-in-arms, refused to migrate permanently to New York or San Francisco--the most active centers of the Beat movement and the burgeoning Mimeograph Revolution. Instead, levy opted to bring to his community in Cleveland a self-styled segment of the Mimeo Rev--with its own cast of characters and bardically-inclined subversives. Starting in 1963, levy and his contemporaries such as Kent Taylor began to do just that: holding readings, publishing the work of local poets, and genuinely attempting to bring some sort of literary renaissance to a town that had never known one. Despite Hart Crane's earlier experience in Cleveland, it was no Paterson as for Williams, no Gloucester as for Olson--but levy found Cleveland his muse, his "city to cover with lines." While the limitation is unknown, this is certainly a handmade production and it would seem that a very small amount were printed and circulated. Published by levy associate and fellow Clevelander T.L. Kryss' Black Rabbit Press. Book in very fine condition with only slight rubbing to front, back covers; minute shelf-wear at fine-edges; vertical crease running through length of back cover from tight placement on shelf. Very Fine. [Item #3052]

Price: $60.00

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