Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. California Studies. SAN FRANCSCO BEAT is an essential archive of the Beat Generation, a rich moment in a fortunate place. America—somnolent, conformist, and paranoid in the 1950swas changed forever by a handful of people who refused an existence of drudgery and enterprise, opting instead for a life of personal, spiritual, and artistic adventure. In these intimate, freewheeling conversations, a baker's dozen of the poets of San Francisco talk about the scene then and now, the traditions of poetry, and about anarchism, globalism, Zen, the Bomb, the Kabbalah, and the Internet. Thirty years ago, poet David Meltzer interviewed his poet friends for The San Francisco Poets. Now in SAN FRANCSCO BEAT he has combined these classic interviews with recent follow-up. SAN FRANCSCO BEAT features major new interviews with Philip Lamantia, Joanne Kyger, Gary Snyder, Jack Hirschman, Diane di Prima, Jack Micheline, Philip Whalen, and David Meltzer himself.

Author City: SAN FRANCISCO, CA USA

David Meltzer is a poet associated with both the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance. A pioneer of jazz poetry readings, Meltzer also formed a psychedelic folk-rock group. He continues to perform with the music and poetry review, Rockpile. He has edited many anthologies, including SAN FRANCISCO BEAT: TALKING WITH THE POETS (City Lights Publishers, 2001), and has published 11 erotic novels. He also taught for many years in the poetics program at New College of California. In 2005, Penguin Books published David's Copy: The Selected Poems of David Meltzer. His recent work includes WHEN I WAS A POET (City Lights Publishers, 2011).