Silver, Sam (Miller, Wayne)

Original Photograph: Wayne Miller at First San Francisco Poetry Festival (1976)

San Francisco, CA: Sam Silver, 1976. Original Photograph. Single Sheet. “The original core group of those who came up with the idea and began to act on it were [Lawrence] Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), [Neeli] Cherkovski (1945-2024), Peter LeBlanc (b. 1930) and myself. Over time others became part of the organizing dynamic in one way or another…Neeli was the bullhorn, the provocateur, for the event—talking up the idea and later doing PR work by just enthusiastically talking with people one to one about it. LeBlanc volunteered to create a large poster for the event, which was pasted all over the Bay area. This wonderful large poster is now a collector’s item. Lawrence was sort of the figurehead for the festival by being its “editor” during the process of creating a list of headliners. I was the nuts-&-bolts man. The workhorse doing the daily business of setting things in motion, making schedules, contacting poets, bringing necessary assistants onboard, etc. I was also the “businessman” of the group…along with John Ming Lee…Lawrence felt that San Francisco needed a major festival to put it on the international map and that the timing was right, as we had more or less proven from the overflow attendance to all our previous events…Was it a success? Most definitely…The Veterans’ Auditorium held upward of 3,000 people. On the first night we filled the auditorium to capacity. On the next night, we not only filled it to capacity but had people standing in the isles and in the foyer and up on the stage, breaking the fire code with staff at the venue calling the backstage phone, threatening to call the marshals and close down the event. Luckily, this never happened…We made a lot of money and were able to pay the poets a nice stipend, raise money for Beatitude Press, and also leave a little in the bank for future ideas and events” (from The Thomas Rain Crowe Archive, p. 72). An original photographic print (measuring appx. 8" x 10” including margins) featuring the American poet and educator, Wayne Miller (1926-2021) at the First Annual San Francisco Poetry Festival. Miller’s work in the 1970s is baubled (and richly) with reference to the poet’s own Native American heritage, which the poet explored artistically, as well as academically. For example, in 1976 (the year this photo was taken) Miller was a “Professor of Native American Studies” at the San Francisco Art Institute. This is an especially unique distinction, as it makes him one of the only Second San Francisco Renaissance poets who maintained direct links to academia while contributing unreservedly to the “movement literature” of the SSFR, as well as its crowning expression of “direct action” (e.g., the “1st Annual San Francisco Poetry Festival” referenced above). This is one of two photographs (See also, TMB Item No. 7928) of the great Native American SSFR eminence we have on offer: and both intimate & showcase the power of this prolific-&-underappreciated poet. 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. Original photographic print on single sheet: the first & only printing of an incredible documentary photograph. A faded blue copyright stamp is located at verso near top left-hand corner stating: “PHOTO COPYRIGHT | SAM SILVER | P.O. BOX 2001 | BERKELEY CALIF. 94702 | 415-848-0199 415-841-6500 | ONE TIME USE ONLY UNLESS | OTHERWISE SPECIFIED." Silver, like Pamela Mosher, was one among several photographer-friends that festival organizer Thomas Rain Crowe (b. 1949) kept in his Mim-Rev rolodex that he employed or invited to capture the Renaissance action. A second inscription, also in thin, blue pen ink & near top right-hand corner of same (along topmost fine-edge of verso), reads: “Wayne Miller / SF Poetry Fest, 1976.” In strong Near Fine condition with only slight rubbing & mute-to-faint scratching present (and lowly) at glossy recto; a few tiny bumps to edges & corners; minute-to-moderate age-toning & some staining present, throughout (with identifying notations, & related writings noted above). Near Fine. [Item #7926]

Price: $80.00