Gogou, Katerina (Hirshcman, Jack)

The Month of the Frozen Grapes

San Francisco, CA: Deliriodendron Press, 1998. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. Signed by Jack Hirschman to Thomas Rain Crowe, his apprentice, friend & the co-authorial Founder of the Second San Francisco Renaissance. “In the Spring of 1994, I published a translation of a Greek poem written about the Polytechnic revolt in 1973 by one Dorou Leftheria. The name had always struck me (as it had Greek friends to whom I'd shown the original text) as a pseudonym. Before printing the edition, I gave a typed copy of my translation to Peter Marevelis, a friend and worker at City Lights Bookstore, who was going on a trip to Greece, the country of his heritage. I asked Peter if, when he was in Athens, he might look up the poet Katerina Gogou, and ask her about the author of the Polytechnic poem; and, also, of course, to bring my regards: I had translated her wonderful book of poems, Three Clicks Left, in the early 80s. It was published in San Francisco by Robert Anbian's Night Horn Books. Katerina and I had had some correspondence at that time. It was during that period as well that I lost my son David to leukemia. He died of it in 1982 at the age of 25. I recall with emotion my correspondence with Katerina. In reading her letter of condolence I realized that she, too, had lost a child, some years earlier, a child of nine years. I recall her moving words to me, the most resonant words written to me by anyone, with respect to that personal tragedy. You might imagine my sorrow when I learned, upon Peter Marevelis' return to San Francisco, that Katerina herself was dead. He'd learned the fact through the publisher of her last book of poems, The Month of the Frozen Grapes, after a labyrinthine search in trying to locate her. Apparently she overdosed in early October of 1993. She was 53 years old when she died. Peter brought back her last book of poems and I made a first draft translation as soon as I heard the news from him in June 1994. During that summer I went over the text with my old friend, Demosthenes Aeolus, a poet in his own right and one who knows both Greek and American nuances. But Katerina was in essence a poet of the first rank. Born during the second World War, her childhood was spent in the air of the important Greek Civil War of the late '40's. In 1978 she published the first of five books of poetry, Three Clicks Left a work that book deals with the Greek working class and declass. citizens caught in the political betrayals of the fascist period of the '60's, and its consequences, secures Gogou a foremost place in European writing” (excerpted qtn. from “Translator’s Note”). The Month of the Frozen Grapes is yet another inventive, unheralded classic rescued from the margins & footnotes of history by Jack Hirschman (1933-2021), the great American “Red Poet” of the Beat Generation-&-Beyond. This volume, published by the Deliriodendron Press of San Francisco, CA in 1998, forms yet another example of Jack’s global committment to resistance literature & literary Modernism. 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 chapbook in stapled wrappers: First Printing, though not explicated as such on copyright page. As the provenance notation above works to intimate, this item is ripe with significant association: as it’s additionally inscribed & signed by the way-leading Literary Leftist to his mentee-&-friend, Thomas Rain Crowe. Hirschman's signature and inscription, in medium-bold black pen ink (on verso of front cover) reads: “For Tom + Nan (TRC's long time partner), / Love + Solidarity, / Jack.” In fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear, light bumping, & some light creasing to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge, otherwise pristine. Fine. [Item #7534]

Price: $75.00