Breit, Luke

Words the Air Speaks: Poems

ISBN: 0933326009
Little River, CA: Wilderness Poetry Press, 1978. First Edition. Softcover. “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, as qtd. in in the TRC Archive Catalog entry on Luke Breit, p. 13). Offered here is the second full-length book of poems by Luke Breit, an early, key participant in the revitalization of Beatitude Magazine & dedicated literary compatriot of both Neeli Cherkovski (1945-2024) & Thomas Rain Crowe (b. 1949), the co-authorial “Founders” of the Second San Francisco Renaissance (e.g., the primary figures responsible for bringing the generations together; both from a visionary, ‘big picture’ perspective & a workaday, nuts-&-bolts one. This book, “Words the Air Speaks,” features an impressive selection of “new poems” the poet had composed over the three-year height of the Second San Francisco Renaissance (the years 1975-1978), as well as selections from his 1975 work, Celebrating America Within (TMB Item No. 7210) at the volume’s end. While TRC may be right in citing Breit’s father’s fame as a factor in LB securing those incredible blurbs, — (my personal favorite has to be Jack Hirschman’s, who called this work, “A triumph of simplicity within the most seamy and mechanical society on earth, this book is genuine proletarian endurance”) — Breit is certainly among the better poets of the SSFR. If literary movements were football teams, Breit would be a ‘starter’ on Team SSFR, ha-ha: & the testaments to why lie nested beneath the cool blue covers of this volume. Need some Big Endorsements to really “try on” the idea that the SSFR was for real? How about the fact that Norman Mailer, Ernesto Cardinal, George Oppen (in addition to JH) actually did love Luke Breit’s verse? That should do it for you: and if not, let it; you’ll be surprised at what you find. 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 No. 3071) & the catalog for the Crowe archive (Item No. 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. Trade-format softcover original: First Edition, though not explicated as such; First Printing, with no mention of (or reference to) subsequent printings thereon. In strong near condition with mild-to-moderate shelf-wear, light rubbing, sunning, & similar age-toning related artifacts to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; a few scattered, low-visibility nicks to same at select locales, otherwise delightfully clean. Near Fine. [Item #7260]

Price: $40.00