Cherkovski, Neeli (a/k/a Cherry, Neeli)

You V.I. Lenin (Blake-Handbooks No. 3, 1975)

San Francisco, CA: Street Publications, 1975. First Edition. “Without Revolutionary theory, there can be no Revolutionary Movement.”--Vladimir Lenin, State and Revolution. Neeli Cherkovski (1945–2024) was an American poet and memoirist, and is widely considered one of the greatest writers of his generation. Cherkovski authored Whitman’s Wild Children, a collection of essays about twelve poets he has known: Michael McClure (1932–2020), Charles Bukowski (1920–1994), John Wieners (1934–2002), James Broughton (1913–1999), Philip Lamantia (1927–2005), Bob Kaufman (1925–1986), Allen Ginsberg (1914–1997), William Everson (1912–1994), Gregory Corso (1930–2001), Harold Norse (1916–2004), Jack Micheline (1929–1998), and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919–2021). This book combines biography, personal stories, and poetry analysis. Cherkovski also authored of many books of poetry, including Animal (1996), Leaning Against Time (2005), From the Canyon Outward (2009), and The Crow and I (2015). He was the co editor of Anthology of L.A. Poets (with Charles Bukowski), Cross-Strokes: Poetry between Los Angeles and San Francisco (with Bill Mohr), and Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman (with Raymond Foye and Tate Swindell). Offered today is the uniquely rare and often forgotten 1975 publication, You, V.I. Lenin. A four page long surrealist half-manifesto, half-ode to Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), great Marxist revolutionary, leader of the Bolshevik Party, and founder of the U.S.S.R. Cherkovski’s prose is as wild, hectic, and dream-like as it is revolutionary. A portrait for one of the great proletarian heroes. 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 (see item #1010), 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. Stapled sheets. First & presumably only edition. Sheets are in very fine condition with only the slightest wear to fine edges. Very Fine. [Item #7256]

Price: $60.00