Intransit: Philip Whalen issue: The Education Continues Along (inscribed to Joanne Kyger)
Eugene, OR: Toad Press, 1967. First edition. Softcover. A wonderful association copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper: "Merry Christmas to Joanne E. [Kyger] from the fatuous & fabulous !! Philip!! 22 : XII : 67." A lovely association between two central poets of the Beat generation and the San Francisco scene, both deeply influenced by and dedicated to Buddhism. Kyger and Whalen met in 1959 at the East-West House, a San Francisco Zen center where she lived and studied as she was about to journey to Japan to join and marry Gary Snyder. They were lifelong friends and correspondents, and Whalen was an early influence (see Linda Russo's "How You Want to Be Styled: Philip Whalen in Correspondence with Joanne Kyger, 1959–1964" in Among Friends: Engendering the Social Site of Poetry). Whalen was Gary Snyder's roommate at Reed College, read alongside him Allen Ginsberg at the famous Six Gallery Reading, and remained a key poet of the San Francisco Renaissance even as he devoted himself to Zen and became a priest. Kyger published her first book in 1965 after leaving Snyder and wrote more than 30 books of prose and poetry, settling in (and often writing about) Bolinas which many poets frequented. This issue of Intransit is devoted to Whalen and includes two pieces, "The Education Continues Along written in holograph and "Voyages, a TransPacific Journal," which is Whalen's transcribed journal as he traveled to Kyoto from San Francisco in 1966 (the year before this issue's publication). Kyger also published her journals related to Japan (and India), which makes for nice comparative reading. An issue of Intransit was also devoted to Gary Snyder. Yellow wrappers with red and black lettering ("Intransit" on the cover looks to be in Whalen's calligraphic hand), fibrous brown endpapers. We dare say this would make a great Christmas gift. Near fine. Item #2129
Price: $1,375.00 save 5% $1,306.25