The Holy Earth Megascene Issue Number 1

Santa Cruz, CA: Peeramid Press. Very Good-. 1982. 1st Edition; 1st Printing. Stapled wraps. B&W Illustrations; This is an oversized magazine (14" x 11" approx. ) Apparently only this first Issue was printed. This copy has been embellished by a former owner - both the front and rear inside covers have been hand colored (very nicely too). The magazine is in Very Good- condition and was issued without a dust jacket. The heavily illustrated covers are of glossy cardstock, and the contents are newsprint and has a stapled binding. The front book cover has some light bumping and rubbing to the spine ends and corners. There are noticeable spots of foxing to the front and rear book covers. `The text pages are clean, but lightly toned throughout. The Holy Earth Megascene was copyrighted by Jerry Kamstra. The contents are mostly poems - some new, some previously printed - by a number of beat poets, including Ferlinghetti , Jack Keroac, and others, there are local (to Santa Cruz, CA) area newer poet's works, and several articles by Jerry Kamstra regarding his reminiscences of the San Francisco Bay area, Santa Cruz area, and the beat and hippy contingent in these areas. "Kamstra wrote articles, reviews and feature stories for numerous periodicals, including San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Examiner, High Times, Scanlan’s Monthly, Beatitude magazine, Desperado and Good Times. Kamstra’s first published article was a homage to Beat novelist Jack Kerouac upon his death which appeared in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle in October, 1969, followed up with an article in the same publication November 16, 1969 titled “Jack’s ‘Road’ was the Beat Children’s Beacon" That same year, Kamstra went to Taos, New Mexico to interview actor, producer and director Dennis Hopper, who had just made the film Easy Rider, for an article assignment for Scanlan's Monthly, published by Warren Hinckle, political muckraker of the Gonzo journalism genre. Hinckle’s controversial magazine quickly brought heat from the FBI for lambasting the Nixon administration, so some of Kamstra’s articles were published under the pseudonym Roger Tichbourne to evade possible federal prosecution of the author for marijuana smuggling. During his time as a marijuana smuggler from 1966 to 1972, Kamstra sold his story of “Gringo Smugglers” first to Life magazine, who paid him a large advance on the story but refused to publish it once they realized he was the actual gringo smuggler documented in the story. Then Look magazine bought the article, yet reconsidered publishing it because it was too hot for their readership. An article published in Scanlan’s Monthly led to Kamstra’s novel Weed: Adventures Of A Dope Smuggler (Harper & Row, hardback edition, 1974 and Bantam Books paperback edition, 1975). The novel has been optioned by Hollywood producers five times in attempts to make a movie. The first option was from producer Tim Zinnemann in 1974 – intended to star actor Richard Gere in the lead role. Weed sold over 200,000 copies between the Bantam Books and Harper & Row editions combined." (from an online obituary) .