Todd, Glenn (Cassady, Neal; Ferlinghetti, Lawrence; Ginsberg, Allen; Haselwood, David; Plymell, Charles; Whalen, Philip et al.)

The Book of Friends: Scenes from Life on Gough Street

ISBN: 9781937073701
Wallkill, NY: Bottle of Smoke Press, 2017. First Edition. Softcover. A memoir of life in the apartment at 1403 Gough Street in San Francisco that was the premier "beathive" (as Charles Plymell coins in his afterword) during the early 1960s by Glenn Todd, a respected printer, editor & writer. The residents, visitors & goings-on at Gough Street were on the verge of & a seed-bridge to the countercultural hippie Haight-Ashbury explosion about to occur. Based on his diaries of 1963, this is Todd's recollection of living & sharing adventures with Plymell, Neal Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, David Haselwood, Philip Whalen & other now-legendary figures of the Beat Generation, the subsequent 1960s phenomenon & beyond. With photographs, & a wonderful afterword by Plymell, the great American Literary Outlaw who would go on to print the first Zap underground comix book in SF not long after the action in this book took place. An exemplary production by Bill Roberts' Bottle of Smoke Press, trade-format softcover original, first edition, first printing as stated on copyright page. On rear endpaper is this statement above a barcode: "Made in the USA/ Monee, IL/ 21 May 2021." We conclude that notwithstanding first printing reference noted above, this is a print-to-order production. A fascinating contemporary testament to a ground-zero where the Big Bang was gestating. In very fine condition with only a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of front, back covers, spine & upper edges & corners of a few page leaves; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Very Fine. [Item #4418]

Price: $20.00