Wainio, Ken

Automatic Antiquity

Cullowhee, NC: New Native Press, 2004. First Printing. Softcover. "Ken Wainio cut his literary teeth in the San Francisco 1970s sitting at the feet of Nanos Valaoritis, Philip Lamantia and Bob Kaufman. One can see the evidence of these influences in his work, which represents the best of American surrealism and a true blend of East (Egypt and Turkey) and West (Greece, Western Europe and America). As frequent travelers to the Greek isles and the Near East, Wainio and his oeuvre represent a lifetime's fascination and study of ascendant ancient civilizations while being reluctantly rooted in the most seamy culture the planet has produced to date. With an alchemic blending of tabloid journalism, historical scholarship and the occult, he produces a kind of poetry unknown to American readers—which makes him not only unique amongst few peers, but also a kind of magician, able to make myth from pulp headlines and everyday occurrence with seeming effortlessness—a kind of automatic antiquity" (Back Cover). A late collection of poems & prose-poems by Ken Wainio (1952-2006), the avant garde-surrealist poet & novelist who was a close friend & associate of Thomas Rain Crowe [b. 1949], the acclaimed poet & publisher. 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. A production of Crowe's New Native Press imprint. Trade-format softcover original: First Edition, as stated on copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. In very fine condition with only mild shelf-wear, light bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; otherwise, clean. Very Fine. [Item #7468]

Price: $15.00