Suntree, Philip; Ratch, Jerry

Original Event Poster: North Beach Community Arts Sunday Poetry Series, Smaller Version (November 16, 1975)

San Francisco, CA: North Beach Community Arts, 1975. First Printing. Single Sheet. A flyer (measuring appx. 8 & 1/2” x 14”) advertising a 1975 reading featuring Baby Beat poet, Philip Daughtry (a/k/a/ Suntree; b. 1942) & noted Second San Francisco Renaissance Surrealist, Jerry Ratch. These posters were clearly designed by the same unnamed designer behind the Malvina Coffee House poetry series posters (See TMB Item #7795 & #7797), and the reading they advertised took place at the Savoy Tivoli. The Tivoli was a frequently mobilized venue by the authors and artists of the SSFR. A little more about the authors, beginning with Daughtry, can be learned courtesy of Thomas Rain Crowe in our book, Starting from San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books (Item No. 3071). "Philip actually studied with Galway Kinnell and Robert Bly before moving to the San Francisco Bay area. He had many mentors who were influential. A very literary and intelligent person, he soaked up everything he could get his hands on. He lived in Berkeley during the 1970s but often came to San Francisco, and I used to go over to Berkeley frequently to see him and his family and to hang out with the "Street Poets" scene that was going on over there, then. He was more interested in the Beat/Baby Beat scene in San Francisco than what was going on in Berkeley and so joined forces with us in North Beach and became one of the rotating editors of Beatitude magazine...Eventually, we became best friends and he was the one who introduced me to Gary Snyder and the Kuksu community up on The (San Juan) Ridge, which is where I ended up after leaving San Francisco. We have remained close friends ever since..." (pgs. 164-165). Ratch, for his part, was born in Chicago but cemented his legacy in San Francisco as one of the Second San Francisco Renaissance’s premier Surrealist poets. This poster, then attests to the vitality and variance of the SSFR scene just as it started to peak in late 1975. Note: this is the small-format version of TMB Item #7826. Broadside-Poster on Single Sheet: from the first-&-only printing of this scarce bit of SSFR/BBG ephemera. From the archive of Thomas Rain Crowe (b. 1949), the acclaimed American poet who was at the center of the Baby Beat Generation/San Francisco Renaissance during the 1970s. The TRC archive was acquired, assembled & curated by Third Mind Books as a single item (see our item No. 1010), & its vast number of individual pieces are now being offered incrementally throughout this new year of 2025. The TRC archive collectively represents the entire legacy of the BBG/SSFR, & its critical collaborations-mentorships by the key figures of the original Beat Generation/ San Francisco Renaissance. See also Starting From San Francisco (item No. 3071), published by TMB, to obtain a thorough understanding of this important literary phenomenon from TRC himself. In strong near fine condition with only with only mild-to-moderate edge-wear, a few light instances of age-toning, spotting & smudging; & some light bumping to fine-edges & corners of recto & verso side; otherwise, clean. Near Fine. [Item #7828]

Price: $30.00