Hirschman, Jack

Original Artwork with: The Venice Testament with: Shekinah

Venice, CA: Beyond Baroque, 1969. First Printing. “Never before in history has such a sweeping fervor for freedom expressed itself in great mass movements which are driving down the bastions of empire. This wind of change blowing through Africa, as I have said before, is no ordinary wind. It is a raging hurricane against which the old order cannot stand.”--Kwame Nkrumah. There are few writers who, over the course of their lives, have been as in-touch with and contributed to a scene as much as Jack Hirschman (1933–2021). Hirschman was a New York-born poet and activist who wrote more than 100 volumes of poetry and essays that exemplified the “fuck you” attitude of the Beat Generation; his poetic predecessors. Hirschman earned degrees from City College of New York and Indiana University, where he studied comparative literature. After attaining his degree, he went on to become a wildly innovative and popular professor at UCLA in the 1970s, before he was fired for participating in anti-war protest and speaking out against American imperialism in Vietnam. Hirschman lived in California ever since, making an artistic and political home in the North Beach district of San Francisco. He is known for his radical engagement with both poetry and politics: he was a member of the Union of Street Poets, a group that distributed leaflets of poems to people on the streets. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Union of Left Writers of San Francisco. The former poet laureate of San Francisco, Hirschman’s style was compared to poets ranging from Walt Whitman (1819-1892) to Hart Crane (1899-1932) to Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), and Beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997). His poems’ commitment to leftist politics draws comparisons to Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) and Pablo Neruda (1904-1973). A communist since 1980, Hirschman told Contemporary Authors, “It is vitally important at this time that all poets and artists collectivize and form strong socialist cadres in relation to working-class cultural internationalism. Offered today is [1] the 1969 poem The Venice Testament along with a [2] small square painting (1975) and [3] the poem Shekinah (1969). [1] The Venice Testament is a poem that, like many of Hirschman’s works, writhes in the surreal and political. The lines are cut up in odd meters that confound as much as they illuminate–the experimental avant-garde approach is fundamentally Hirschman and radiates with revolutionary zeal. [2] Small square painting is, like The Venice Testament, abstract, surreal, and expressionist. Swaths of red, blue, gold, brown, and black ink slash the small “canvas” infinitely intersecting and diverging creating a brilliant skein of color. In blue ink, near the bottom, Hirschman has written something indiscernible (perhaps in cyrillic) and beneath that has signed his initials and dated it 75 (1975). [3] Shekinah, is a xeroxed poem that is raw and visceral and cutting with its “fuck you” street poem attitude, signature to Hirschman’s style. “Shekinah” itself is a Hebrew word meaning “dwelling,” Hirschman, in leaning into his Jewish roots, paints an elaborate, dream-like account of displacement and alienation underpinned by revolutionary optimism. From the archive of Thomas Rain Crowe, scholar, writer and member of the Baby Beat Generation. 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. [1] Single sheet. First & presumably only printing. In very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges and slight fading at text block. [2] Small square sheet. First & presumably only printing. In very fine condition with minimal wear to fine edges and slight staining at back. [3] Loose sheets. First & presumably only printing. In very fine condition with minimal wear to fine edges and slight fading to text block. All three items are held together by a paperclip that has moderate-to-heavy rusting. Very Fine. [Item #7630]

Price: $75.00