Blue, Janice

In Good Old No-Man's Land

ISBN: 093086400X
San Francisco, CA: Greenlight Press, 1978. First Trade Softcover Edition, First Printing. Softcover. “Everyone likes to go over their own stories, echo-laden sanctuaries—you were here, here, here. Suffice it to say that I was the middle of three daughters to a small tobacco farmer in the extreme western edge of Kentucky, some fifteen miles before its key shape touches the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, where they juncture. Hill country. I went two years of high school, had a baby girl, worked at different jobs, dropped into a bohemian lifestyle and lived on the scene in St. Louis until 1962, when I decided to drive an old car to San Francisco with a guitar and an autoharp. I’ve been writing poetry seriously for nine years. I was born on New Year’s Day and am a Capricorn with Libra rising and moon in Cancer, they tell me. I was born Janice Faye Adams and my nickname is Blue and my pen name is Janice Blue. I wear only that color, and have for over eleven years. It is my aspect and my slant, in life as in poetry. This is my first book and I hope we all have enough time to come true” (from “Biography,” the work’s informal Introduction). Offered here is the first substantive collection by Janice Blue (1942-2017), one of the signficant contributors to the Second San Francisco Renaissance. In 1996, Blue murdered a longshoreman (what a film noir plot that is!) and served several years time for the murder, but was released before her death, and hilariously published more great poetry after her release. She’s at least as good a poet as Charles Manson was a songwriter, truth be told (and if you’ve listened to the Manson classic, “Look At Your Game, Girl,” you’ll know that’s quite the bold statement). Blue was very close with Bob Kaufman (1925-1986), and published a book with Bob titled Closing Time Till Dawn during the year of Kaufman’s death. This book, published by the great Kaye McDonough’s (b. 1943) Greenlight Press in 1978 at the height of the Second San Francisco Renaissance, is a classic of the movement and will doubtlessly grow in esteem with time. For more information on the Thomas Rain Crowe archive (assembled & curated by Third Mind Books), see our book, Starting from San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books (Item No. 3071) & the catalog for the Crowe archive, which contains several excerpts and quotations from the book as well as a full listing of the archive’s contents, which are now being offered for sale individually on the Third Mind Books site. From the collection of Thomas Rain Crowe, the legendary American poet and co-authorial founder of the Second San Francisco Renaissance. Small-format, First Trade Softcover Edition: First Printing, one of 500 unnumbered copies per colophon. though not explicated as such on copyright page. In strong near fine condition with moderate-to-enunciated rubbing, shelf-wear, light bumping & scattered, light nicks & low-visibility scuffs to front, back covers & spine-edge; light-to-moderate age-toning throughout, otherwise clean. Near Fine. [Item #7185]

Price: $40.00