Various (Breytenbach, Breyten; Coyote, Peter; Schwartz, Stephen et al.)

Free Space: A Bulletin of Solidarity No. 1 (Summer 1977)

San Francisco, CA: Free Space, 1977. First Printing. Stapled Sheets. “We had intended to publish the first number of FREE SPACE in time to commemorate the anniversary of the Barcelona Commune, but circumstances made that impossible. We also wanted to republish the last letter of Camillo Berneri, the great anarchist murdered by the Stalinists during the 1937 ‘events’ in Catalonia,” reads the last page of Free Space, the Surrealism & Communism-focused periodical half-anonymously pioneered by Second San Francisco Renaissance surrealist, Stephen Schwartz. As Thomas Rain Crowe notes in The Thomas Rain Crowe Archive catalog, “Stephen Schwartz was hanging out with Neeli Cherkovski, [Philip] Lamantia, and Francis Ford Coppola and was working with Coppola's film-focused publication 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” (p. 76). This issue of Free Space, — the only issue we are aware of at present — features several contributions by the great South African anti-apartheid poet, Breyten Breytenbach (1939-2024). Breytenbach, like the great Dennis Brutus (1924-2009) was wrongfully imprisoned by the apartheid government (as were many South African poets of note, skin tone not withstanding). Also featured is a two-sided leaflet discussing the state of the Breytenbach case. Other politically-engaged topics native to this issue include Schwartz’s own essay on Surrealism’s link to Quebecois battles for independence, and the state of the fight for Gay Rights in California during the Summer of 1977. For a full list of contributors and contents, see photos of contents page attached to this listing. 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. Stapled sheets. In strong near fine condition with only 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, speck-lick exhibits of bleeding to staples at interior & exterior of recto & verso wrappers; & verso wrapper detached but intact; otherwise, clean. Near Fine. [Item #7436]

Price: $175.00