Various (Suntree, Philip (Editor); Wainio, Ken (Editor); Cherkovski, Neeli; Codrescu, Andrei; Estrin, Jerry; Hirschman, Jack; Pendell, Dale; Weiner, Michael et al.)

Beatitude No. 26 with: Ephemera

San Francisco, CA: Beatitude Press, 1977. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. Beatitude 26 is made especially collectible by its unique editorial pairing of two Second San Francisco Renaissance giants: Ken Wainio (1952-2006), the movement’s noted, premier surrealist; and Philip Daughtry [a/k/a Philip Suntree; b. 1942], a key associate of the movement’s co-authorial founder, Thomas Rain Crowe (b. 1949). Of Daughtry, Crowe writes: “Philip actually studied with Galway Kinnell and Robert Bly before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. He had many mentors who were influential. A very literary and intelligent person, he soaked up everything he could get his hands on. He lived in Berkeley during the 1970s but often came to San Francisco, and I used to go over to Berkeley frequently to see him and his family and to hang out with the “Street Poets” scene that was going on over there then. He was more interested in the Beat/Baby Beat scene in San Francisco and so joined forces with us in North Beach and became one of the rotating editors of Beatitude Magazine for Beatitude 26, which he co-edited with Ken Wainio. Eventually we became best friends and he was the one who introduced me to Gary Snyder and the Kuksu community up on the San Juan Ridge, which is where I ended up after leaving San Francisco. We have remained close friends ever since, and I published his collection of poems Celtic Blood: Selected Poems 1968-1994 (Cullowhee, NC: New Native Press, 1995). He was a major player to the Beatitude cadre and acted as MC for the 1st Annual San Francisco Poetry Festival. He has a poetic voice like no one else I know” (The Thomas Rain Crowe Archive, p. 29). While We at TMB did not have the pleasure of knowing Wainio during his lifetime, Your Devoted VP-of-Operations here at TMB can vigorously attest to the poetic bona-fides of Philip Daughtry, who I had the pleasure of drinking and shop-talking with (about all the craft-technical specifics relevant to the writing of poetry) at Specs, San Francisco’s famed Beat bar & can tell you first-hand that the man knows what he’s talking about. Since anything topically dealing with, or adjacent to Surrealism is automatically identifiable with Wainio, part of the great value of this issue is seeing what it tells us about Daughtry; who was already highly developed & deeply involved in the literary life at the time this magazine was issued. A look at the contributor list, however seems to reflect the dominant interests of Wainio as editorially operative here; a suggestion further enhanced by the presence of an extremely obscure translation (by Stephen Schwartz, a protege of Pete Winslow [See TMB Item No. 7230]) of work by the great Surrealist, Benjamin Peret [1899-1959] (“FROM THE BOOK OF CHILAM BALAM OF CHUMAYEL”). For a full list of contributors, see photos attached to this listing. Lastly, we have found & have retained two copies of “The Grant-Getter’s Gazette,” — a pseudonymously authored, satirical broadside (folded in half & printed only on recto side) — which was included as a tip-in/insert for Beatitude 26 as issued. This knee-slapping hilarity rivals only TMB Item No. 7254 (“Notes from Syropa”) as perhaps the finest piece of knife-edged satire to come from the Second San Francisco Renaissance & its authors. All in all, a momentous issue of Beatitude welcome in any-&-all San Francisco Renaissance-inclusive collections or libraries. From the archive 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. Large-format magazine in stapled wrappers: the first-&-only printing of Beatitude No. 26. Magazine in Fair-Good condition with light-to-moderate shelf-wear, bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back wrappers; mild-to-moderate rubbing, age-typical toning & a few faintly visible, low-impact instances of spotting to same; additionally, it seems the three quotations (two of whom are by noted Surrealists, including Octavio Paz and Benjamin Peret) front covers of this issue were typed directly on the front covers during the collation process (on verso side), and as such the impact of the pelting typebars bleeds, artistically into the front cover [see photos]; moderate-to-enunciated water stain to bottom left-hand corner of front cover; light rusting, & speck-like instance of bleeding to staples at interior & exterior of recto & verso wrappers, otherwise clean. Ephemera [both the insert and the unused back cover leftover from the collation process, as described above] in very fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear & some light bumping to/at/along fine-edges & corners of same, otherwise, pristine. Near Fine. [Item #7412]

Price: $100.00