BEATITUDE #17 (Oct-Nov 1960)

San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1960. First edition. Very good +.. First City Lights issue of the San Francisco literary mag, the brainchild of Allen Ginsberg, Bob Kaufman, and John Kelly. Originally conceived as a weekly newsletter for the North Beach literary scene, the first issue of BEATITUDE was issued in April 1959. Though it quickly abandoned that schedule, the little mag soon became an important outlet for beat literature and is now one of the defining publications of the early mimeo revolution. As Bob Kaufman put it: "Designed to extoll beauty and promote the beatific life among the various mendicants, neo-existentialists, christs, poets, painters, musicians, and other inhabitants and observers of North Beach." Originally printed out of the Bread and Wine Mission run by Congregationalist minister Pierre Delattre (who also published in the magazine), BEATITUDE included the work of its founders, as well as Jack Kerouac, Michael McClure, and numerous other notable San Francisco poets and writers. This issue marks the first under the auspices of City Lights and features Allen Ginsberg, Jack Spicer, Bob Kaufman, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and others. All issues of BEATITUDE's original run (it ceased publication in the early 1960s, but resumed in the late) are now rare. [Clay and Phillips 80-81]. Wraps. 4to. Side-stapled photographic cover wraps. Offset duplicated rectos only. Very good plus. Minor wear. Else sound and clean. [22]pp. plus cover.