Kyger, Joanne

Broadside: The Fool in April: A Poem in Two Parts

San Francisco, CA: Coyote's Journal, 1966. Limited Edition. Folded Sheet. “It all rushes by under her. | The dead being taken to the church | and carried in as a heavy weight. Everywhere | she is looking | it is Christ who has died which does not mean | she has died | yet. A door she tried to go around and up | when there were flowers all over the hills, designs on the ceilings.” (Opening stanza, “The Fool In April,” Part 1) This piece comes from the great Joanne Kyger (1934-2017), the prolific poet connected to the Beat & Beyond pantheon but who never claimed any of the scenes. Kyger was already a member of the San Francisco poetry scene when she met Gary Snyder (b. 1930), the canonical Beat Generation/ San Francisco Renaissance-&-Beyond American poet & environmentalist. She joined Snyder in Japan and married him there, then went to India with him, Allen Ginsberg, and Peter Orlovsky, a period she documented in her The Japan and India Journals 1960–1964. After she left Snyder in 1964, Kyger returned to San Francisco and dived back into the poetry scene. “The Fool In April” is one of her first published works, and the limited first printings that can be found are in either pamphlet or broadside format, depending on folding; this one is formatted as a single sheet folded to make a four-page pamphlet. Published by the literary journal Coyote’s, which published poetry, prose-poetry & prose by many of the greats of the Black Mountain School, Beat Generation, San Francisco Renaissance-&-Beyond; and was edited by James Koller (1936-2014), the esteemed American poet, novelist & publisher. It was printed by Andrew Hoyem (b. 1935), the great typographer, printer, and preservationist. From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed friend in the UK who managed the fabled Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England with Bill Butler (1934-1977, the famed American-expatriate bookseller & publisher). From the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Unicorn proffered & published many outstanding productions by William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard et al., some of which have become the scarcest, all-but-unobtainable Beat-&-Beyond collectibles (see for example our item No.s 8217, 8366). After prevailing against censorious harassment efforts, Unicorn closed & Butler died in short order. Cupidi went on to found the Public House Bookshop in Brighton, which had a long & successful run but is also now closed, & he still resides there. We have been honored to obtain what Cupidi has termed "The Last Hurrah," all the remaining treasures of Unicorn & Public House, some of which have become the stuff of myth. Folded single sheet. Limited Edition of 200 copies as stated at colophon. In relatively Near Fine condition with some spotting and staining to front, back covers; moderating creasing & bumping to edges & corners of same, with a small amount of paper loss to bottom right edge of cover; moderate age-toning inside and out. Fine. [Item #8570]

Price: $50.00