The Beats (part 1)

I am more than a fan of the Beats, however loosely or broadly defined as you want to make it, I am also a collector of their works. Here again, I favor the chapbooks as they are more rare and often more interesting that full books but....


I will start out discussing :


Sapphobones
Kirby Doyle
The Poets Press
Kerhonkson, NY
(c)1966

Kirby Doyle is a mostly forgotten Beat era poet whose work deserves a second look. This is the first chapbook of his work, a fine chapbook published by The Poets Press with an unattributed illustration on front cover and inside. Pages not numbered. Apparently, the poems in this collection come from various magazine publications from the late 1950s into the 1960s. All of the poems in this collection later appear in The Collected Poems of Kirby Doyle (1983).

This is a well-made and RARE edition of Doyle’s work. Quite the item for collectors.

Empty Mirror
Allen Ginsberg
Totem/Corinth
New York, New York
©1961

Introduction by William Carlos Williams. 47 pages. Staple-bound. Cover image by Jesse Sorrentino. Early poems by Ginsberg. Printed by Totem Press in association with Corinth Books. Interesting to see this early collection, knowing as we do, what became of the young Mr. Ginsberg.

Beards and Brown Bags
Lenore Kandel
Stadtlichter Presse (in German)
Germany
© 2006

This tiny chapbook was sent to me by a German author and collector of Beat Generation books, he is involved with the Stadtlichter Presse, which produces German-language collections of Beat era books. He and I have been swapping books, and this is one that he sent me. I don’t have any of Kandle’s work prior, and now I have one entirely in German. I should have paid more attention to my high school German classes afterall!

11 pages short, illustration on front cover of naked lady in stockings and nothing else. #54 of 100 in this limited edition form. Originally published in Three Penny Press (1959) Illustration accompanied the piece when it first appeared.


Black is Black Blues
Ray Bremser
The Beau Fleuve Series #4
Intrepid Press
Buffalo, NY
© 1971

This tiny chapbook was created by Allen De Loach, editor of Intrepid. Photo on back cover by De Loach. One of 1000 printed. Unnumbered pages. Written in Jan 1970, NY. Much history with the Press, De Loach, Bresmer, and this series. Rare little item indeed.

honey spoon
ted joans
Handshake Press
Paris, France
© 1993

Handshake Press is the workings of poet & writer Jim Haynes, who has lived in Paris for the past 40 years. He became a friend of Ted Joans and published a number of Joans’ work, including this 6” X 5 1/4” book. Published in 1991 by Handshake Press and reprinted in 1993 (this copy is the reprinted one) in Vilnius, Lithuania. There is a photo of a much younger Joans inside back cover and illustrations in the beginning and end of the text. 75 pages. My copy is signed by Joans inside front.

Gasoline
Gregory Corso
Number Eight
The Pocket Poets Series
City Lights Books
San Francisco, CA
© 1958


4 1/4” X 6 ‘14” City Lights edition of ‘Gasoline’ with introduction by Allen Ginsberg. 48 pages. Cover red with white lettering. #8 in series. Great copy of great book.