Schwartz, Stephen

Hidden Locks

San Francisco, CA: Stephen Schwartz, 1976. Second Edition. Signed by Stephen Schwartz. “Stephen Schwartz was hanging out with Neeli Cherkovski, [Philip] Lamantia, and Francis Ford Coppola and was working with Coppola’s film-focused publication that he called The City. Schwartz was all into the Russians and considered himself a Communist at the time–which was apropos for his connection with the Surrealist group in San Francisco which also included Allan Graubaud and the Chicago Surrealists. He was a very vocal and outspoken presence and seemed to like to instigate conflict or at least debate about ideas and political issues.”--Thomas Rain Crowe, Thomas Rain Crowe Archive, pg 76. Offered today is the wonderfully constructed, and enticingly rare collection of surrealist writing, Hidden Locks by Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948). Schwartz, because of his parents, grew up within a milieu of left-wing politics and the nascent San Francisco literary scene–his father having ran a magazine called Goad which published radical poetry from the likes of Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982), Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), and Robert Creely (1926-2005). During the 60s, Schwartz studied at the S.F. School of Social Science where he studied dialectical materialism, political economy, Latin American poets, and Marxism. At an early age, Schwartz joined the youth branch of the CPUSA (Communist Party of the United States) which followed a Marxist-Leninist political line. Later he shifted to Trotskyism, then an Anarchist-adjacent form of Trotskyism developed by the political organization Fomento Obrero Revolucionario, however, in 1983 he ultimately broke with the left and joined the San Francisco based institute for Contemporary Studies, which was a Conservative think tank. Throughout his teenage years, while he was still slinging dimebags of Marxist theory on the street corners of San Francisco, Schwartz met and cultivated friendships with literary giants like Ferlinghetti, Beat-poet-extraordinaire Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), Gary Snyder (b. 1930) who introduced him to Buddhism, and American surrealist poet guru Phillip Lamantia (1927-2005) who became Schwartz’s mentor. Hidden Locks, while a short collection, is packed to the gills with radical, surrealist writing. Half poetry, half short fiction, Hidden Locks is a work that is as spell-binding as it is hypnagogic. Written with a concise erudition and dream-like atmosphere, Hidden Locks is a surprising collection that is as rare as it is impressive. Signed by Stephen Schwartz in thin blue ink at title page beneath his printed name. 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 wrappers. Limited Second Edition, No. 94/100 as stated at title page. In very fine condition with light rusting to staples, minor wear to fine edges and slight smudging/staining to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #7423]

Price: $50.00