Mueller, Jack

The Gate

Fruita, CO: Lithic Press, 2022. Numbered, Limited First Edition. Hardcover. “The Gate is an essay in open form—or a poem as essay. It represents one part of an ongoing work. This poetic essay had as its origins a series of conversations in the basement of the Golden Flyer restaurant on the waterfront in San Francisco. Irregular sessions were attended by Kirby Doyle, Tisa Walden, Howard Hart, Gregory Corso, Neeli Cherkovski and other poets and painters from North Beach. The meetings only continued for a few months, but the talk was passionate and productive. During that time I kept a notebook of my own thoughts towards an evolving poetics. The notebook, an orange German school issue, had the words ‘Tell Notiz’ on its cover. That was the original title of the essay, and it resonated neatly with my investigations at the time into the linguistic and archeological findings of Tell Mardikh in Syria—studies that point to the origins of written language in the West. Some of the remarks and ideas brought up in our talks are attributed to the speaker (or author) of the statements” (from Front Cover blurb). Jack Mueller (1942-2017), was born in Philadelphia in 1942, and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1975, Mueller moved to San Francisco, soon after becoming an active participant in the literary-cultural ferment of the Second San Francisco Renaissance (then at an early crest) & associating with the likes of Neeli Cherkovski, a primary poet & soldiering, contributory force behind the aforementioned SSFR. With Neeli’s appearance acknowledged, Your Devoted Managing Curator can continue a theme that Cherkovski's presence establishes: namely, that – while the blurb does provide no small measure of intrigue for fans of obscure literary theory and Beat literary history alike, — it is the milieu in which these talks took place that, at least for this writer, is of central import. The backdrop of its creation is the heady milieu of the Second San Francisco Renaissance, covered in-depth by Third Mind Books’ 2018 publication, “Starting from San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books” [TMB Item #3071; #3075]. For Beat scholars, this makes things all the more interesting; a “new angle” at which we might survey the happenings of that place and time. Future readers of this kaleidoscopic work are going to want to have some Charles Olson on their resume if they plan on really “taking on,” or “tackling” this work “for real." This is because “The Gate” takes no prisoners: it’s Olsonian, for example, in its scholarly otherworldliness, its mosaic non-linearity, and in its ultimate nutritive beneficence for those who make their way to the end. To those Olympians of superior fortitude who might crack the ciphers inside, and be muscularized by the task…emerging both unmarred and undaunted…we salute you! [ISBN: 978-0-9883846-6-8]. Hardcover in debossed, illustrated boards: numbered “First Edition,” as indicated on copyright page. Limitation, in thin black pen ink, reads: “30” (of “100 Numbered Copies”). In very fine condition with only moderate shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; fundamentally as issued and deserving of inclusion in any Beat-&-Beyond collection, or library. Very Fine. [Item #5285]

Price: $90.00 save 20% $72.00