Cherkovski, Neeli (Kaufman, Bob)

Elegy for Bob Kaufman

Northville, MI: Sun Dog Press, 1996. First Edition. Softcover. Signed by Neeli Cherkovski to Thomas Rain Crowe, the co-authorial founder[s] of the Second San Francisco Renaissance. “We walked into the Co-Existence Bagel Shop back in 1958–I was thirteen years of age—and there was the poet himself sitting across from Tiny Trent, an old hanger-on from the 30s, a guy named Mad Alex and several other North Beach regulars. Kaufman wore a light blue sports shirt, black trousers. I knew he was a poet as my father's old friend Henri Lenoir pointed him out. Henri ran Vesuvio's across Adler Alley from City Lights Bookstore, one of the main watering holes. He had served drinks to Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac and more than half of the Beat Generation. And, of course to "Bomkauf" as well. I wanted to meet him, but was reluctant to do so on my own. At that time, I had just finished reading Lawrence Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind, my introduction to modern poetry.
Our first encounter one on one took place seventeen years later. By that time I had read and re-read everything Bob had in print. […] These poems were not conceived as a book until mid-1994, when I suddenly realized how deeply Bob's loss had affected me. At home, I sat at my desk and wrote. I brought the poet back to life and easily sensed his presence at my kitchen table, heard him again reciting poems, talking about jazz and the incidents of his early life. I read and re-read his books, dwelling especially on the classic poems "Walking Parker Home," "Would You Wear My Eyes?" and "Bagel Shop Jazz." Slowly the collection took shape. Living with this process taught me a lot about mourning, about the passing of a poet, and the loss of a certain constellation of bohemian life that will not come round again. Outside of time, I wrote” (Neeli Cherkovski, Abridged Qtn. from “Introduction,” pp. 7-11). Offered here is a sparkling collection from roughly the middle of the great American poet, Neeli Cherkovski’s (1945-2024) career — his “Elegy for Bob Kaufman”; a swaggering testament to Neeli’s bona-fides as among the truest “Beat Progeny” possible. Readers unfamiliar with how good Cherkovski can be — esp. those that love the subject of these elegies, Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) — should feel good getting a copy of this work, in particular; for Neeli’s in fine form, here and the vibrancy & resplendence of Kaufman’s wild verse forms reverberate between and across these stanzas. 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," per copyright page. Immeasurably endowing this lot is the fact that the copy offered here is inscribed & signed (& features three doodles!) by Cherkovski to Thomas Rain Crowe; and is thus a gift from one "co-authorial founder of the Second San Francisco Renaissance" to the other. Cherkovski's inscription & accompanying signature -- in thin, blue pen ink & flanked by doodles, as previously mentioned -- reads: "caffe trieste / 14 April 06 / for Thomas / solidarity over the years, / best / Neeli." As many Beat readers will recognize, the significance of this inscription is further magnified by the fact that Neeli signed it to Thomas while sitting in the Caffe Trieste: a storied, key locale for poets of both the First & Second San Francisco Renaissances. In strong near fine condition with mild shelf-wear, light rubbing, bumping, and a few low-impact exhibits of bump-creasing to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; a few scattered, low-visibility nicks variously present at same, otherwise clean.  . Near Fine. [Item #7362]

Price: $45.00