Various (Meltzer, David (Editor); di Prima, Diane; Everson, William; Ferlinghetti, Lawrence; Hirschman, Jack; Kyger, Joanne; Lamantia, Philip; McClure, Michael; Micheline, Jack; Rexroth, Kenneth; Snyder, Gary; Welch, Lew; Whalen, Philip)

San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets with: Ephemera

ISBN: 0872863794
San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 2001. First Edition. Softcover. "San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets is an essential archive of the Beat Generation, a rich moment in a fortunate place. America, somnolent, conformist, and paranoid in the 1950s, was changed forever by a handful of people who refused an existence of drudgery and enterprise, opting instead for a life of personal, spiritual, and artistic adventure. In these intimate, free-wheeling conversations, a baker's dozen of the poets of San Francisco talk about the scene then and now, the traditions of poetry, and about anarchism, globalism, Zen, the Bomb, the Kabbalah, and the Internet." (back cover) An outstanding compilation of conversations conducted (or co-conducted) by, edited & with a preface by poet David Meltzer (1937-2016). Diane di Prima, William Everson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Hirschman, Joanne Kyger, Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Meltzer himself, Jack Micheline, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Lew Welch & Philip Whalen- all key primary members & colleagues of the Beat Generation/ San Francisco Renaissance, look back on their work & lives during the heyday of that era & since. Trade-format softcover original, first edition, a production of Ferlinghetti's legendary City Lights imprint, publisher of many of these poets' now-classic works. Loosely included with this copy is an interesting piece of relevant ephemera found in another copy we had on hand of this same classic work: A single sheet folded once horizontally & with printing on both sides, clipping from an unknown arts-culture newsletter circa 2007. On recto is a short article-announcement of a reading held in San Francisco featuring Meltzer & Neeli Cherkovski, a key figure in the Baby Beat Generation/ Second San Francisco Renaissance of the 1970s (see our book, Starting From San Francisco, item No. 3071, Deluxe Edition No. 3075). With photos of both poets, & at blank upper margin of recto this statement hand-written in ink: "Dick, you ain't the last, man!" We're certain that either Meltzer or Cherkovski wrote this, the recipient "Dick" is likely R.J. Ellis, a British author & collector. In the twenty years (as of this writing) since it was published, Meltzer & many other of the great poets interviewed in this volume who were then alive have passed away (including Ferlinghetti recently at age 101), but their memories & insights live on in this collectible volume, enriched with relevant ephemera. Book in very fine condition with only slightest shelf-wear to fine-edges; minute bumps to corners of front cover; slight rubbing to spine; slight rubbing, scuffing to back cover. Very Fine. [Item #4356]

Price: $40.00