Gruen, John (Auden, W.H.; Berrigan, Ted; Brainard, Joe; Ginsberg, Allen; McDarrah, Fred; O'Hara, Frank; Sanders, Ed; Warhol, Andy et al.)

The New Bohemia: The Combine Generation

New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1967. First Softcover Edition. Softcover. "The amazing, sometimes shocking story of the country's erotic, pace-setting area: New York's East Village. The uncensored center of/ HAPPENINGS/ UNDERGROUND MOVIES/ COFFEEHOUSE THEATRE/ DRUGS/ FUGS/ AVANT-GARDE SEX!" (from front cover) A now-classic, thoughtful (albeit sensationally promoted as shown by the above quote) overview of the East Village NYC scene circa 1966, right when the Bohemianism of the Beat Generation was morphing into the 1960s-era counterculture. John Gruen (1926-2016) was a venerable critic, journalist, & "Renaissance Man" with sweeping interests & endeavors including musical composition & photography. Gruen's chapters of text are Interspersed with many great contemporary images by the legendary staff photographer for the Village Voice, Fred McDarrah. All the elders & (mostly) upstarts are here in their habitat of pads, venues, bars & happenings: W.H. Auden, Ted Berrigan, Joe Brainard, Allen Ginsberg, Frank O'Hara, Ed Sanders, the ubiquitous Andy Warhol & many others. Their collaborations on art, writing, music, theater & film created "...a new and radically different Bohemia. As such, it is symptomatic of an international movement in the arts. Its protagonists and practitioners may well become known as the Combine Generation. Its center is known as the East Village, an area that runs roughly from Third Avenue to the East River, and from Houston Street up to Fourteenth Street. A large and relatively unknown park- Tompkins Square- is its focal point, but the area's chief attractions are its low rents and its old-world atmosphere." (pg. 6) This is the first trade-format softcover edition, preceded by a hardcover edition by a different publisher the previous year (1966). A good working-reading copy of an essential work that captures a time & place when what has long since been adopted by the mainstream culture was “shocking” indeed. Book in strong Good-Near fine condition with only moderate-to-enunciated shelf-wear, bumping, bump-creasing & closed chipping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine/spine-edge of same; mild rubbing, light scratching, three tiny, contained exhibits of vertical creasing to front cover; a few correspondingly pronounced exhibits of rubbing, chipping to back cover; single, mm-length chip to bottommost fine-edge near bottom left-hand corner of same. Good-Near Fine. [Item #5398]

Price: $15.00