Breit, Luke

Celebrating America Within

San Francisco, CA: Golden Mountain Press, 1975. First Edition. Signed by Luke Breit. “Luke Breit was part of the group of us younger poets who resurrected and revised Beatitude magazine. He was the editor of the initial revision issue Beatitude No. 21. He is the son of Harvey Breit, who was a well-known writer for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and part of the New York literary establishment during a previous generation. His father knew [Norman] Mailer and all the well-known literati of that era, some of whom Luke had also known as a youngster when he was growing up back in New York–which explains the connections and blurbs on the back of his first book of poems. He was an integral and active part of the whole Beatitude project, if you want to call it that. He was a daily presence in North Beach, both at Discovery Books where he worked and in all the cafes and bars in the bohemian community, which was reflected in his poetry during those years. He later moved to Sacramento and worked as part of the California political establishment there.”--Thomas Rain Crowe, Thomas Rain Crowe Archive, pg 13. Offered today is the delectably rare, and undeniably fantastic 1975 collection of poetry, Celebrating America Within by Luke Breit. Breit, while not exceptionally prolific, was a particularly respected poet within the North Beach poetic community. Earning the hard-won praise of Jack Hirschman (1933-2021), and Norman Mailer (1923–2007). Hirschman had the following to say on Celebrating America Within: “A triumph of simplicity within the most seamy and mechanical society on earth, this book is genuine proletarian endurance, and no one’s nature can be the worse for the reading of it.” And Mailer similarly lauded the book with heaps of praise: “I think Luke Breit succeeds in writing with a fine edge right into the tendrils of natural change. No one does more with a mist, or the quiet desperation of a root, no young poet I know is so successfully and consistently tender without ever embarrassing the reader or forcing underwear to climb the crotch. Luke Breit celebrates emergence from gloom – what a nice feat. What skill in the simplicity.” Breit’s minimalist, simple approach is as effective as it is charming, like Mailer and Hirschman point out, it is truly the mark of a skilled poet to relish in the quiet moments and exercise restraint in the face of the temptation to be overwrought and saccharine. Breit’s work is criminally underread for as skillful and enjoyable his work is. From the collection of Thomas Rain Crowe, the legendary American poet and co-authorial founder of the Second San Francisco Renaissance. 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 #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. Signed in thin black ink at the title page by the author with an inscription that reads: “Dear Tom, where this book comes from–really–home for both of us. Love, Luke Breit!” Softcover. First edition though not explicated as such at copyright page, presumed first printing though similarly not explicated. Book in very fine condition with only minor wear to fine edges and light smudging to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #7210]

Price: $45.00