10 Comments
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Pam Plymell's avatar

As a teenager I picked up Reality Sandwiches at Shakespeare and Company in Paris. It changed our lives. Mary and Claude and I moved to San Francisco that fall. I guess that shows how effective the Pocket Series can 8.

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Tony Frisco's avatar

I agree - a eureka moment I went from San Francisco to Paris to follow in the footsteps of the Beat Hotel and rediscover surrealism - Camus & Sartre not to mention Nouvelle Vague. Best to you and Charles

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vincent tinguely's avatar

While Kerouac wasn't published in the City Lights Pocket Poets series until 1971, Ferlinghetti did published a truncated version of his Book of Dreams in 1961.

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Simon Warner's avatar

Thanks, Vincent, for remembering that detail.

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DeathPaletteZom's avatar

The Grolier Club edition is on Amazon, where it’s described as a 47-page pamphlet. The more recent edition is on the Maze Books site.

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williamphaynes/elliott's avatar

Always interesting insite into the beats

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Tony Frisco's avatar

Literary historian Raskin makes the big score Pocket Poets were a huge influence on me. Especially Red Cats which culminated for me in attending the vaunted reading of Russia poets Andre Voznesensky and Babi Yar author Yvgeny Yevtushenko. - They were movie stars in a world of mere mortals- their reading @ Fillmore Auditorium was to me a revelation and initiation into the sanctified church of world poetry … San Francisco venerates it’s Beat History and culture and this was the most memorable reading I attended Frisco Tony

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Simon Warner's avatar

Positive words, shimmering memories, Tony.

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Simon Warner's avatar

Thank you for that extra information.

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Simon Warner's avatar

In the comment by Pam Plymell below, the final ‘8’ should be ‘be’.

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