HERMAN, [Jan] Jacob (editor). The San Francisco Earthquake: Issues 1–5.

Shaking Up San Francisco

HERMAN, [Jan] Jacob (editor). The San Francisco Earthquake: Issues 1–5. San Francisco: City Lights Bookshop. Autumn 1967–1968.

Five volumes, 8vo. Publisher’s illustrated wrappers (vols 3 and 4 designed by Roy Lichtenstein), advertisements on verso of wrappers for City Lights and other counterculture publishers (such as the Unicorn Press); No. 1: pp. 63, [1 (City Lights advertisements)]; No. 2: 77, [3 (advertisements)]; No. 3: 78, [2 (advertisement and copyright page)]; No. 4: pp. 96; No. 5: three broadsheets loosely inserted; No. 1–4 have some light toning especially to whites of wrappers; No. 5 has expected toning to the cheap paperstock of the broadsheets, one broadsheets has some small holes to fold lines, previous owner’s note; near fine; ‘For your [?] - best Jacob’ (most likely the editor, Jacob Herman) to title page of No. 3; loosely inserted into the first three volumes is a subscriber’s advertisement.

First editions, a complete run of the short lived, literary and arts magazine which was distributed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Bookshop, and featured many of the greatest Beat Generation writers such as William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, and Claude Pélieu.

At the time of publication, Jacob Herman was Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s assistant, and worked alongside him at what was the epicenter of literary counterculture in San Francisco, the City Lights Bookshop. The San Francisco Earthquake published many of the writers which had a connection with the store. William Burroughs contributed to all five issues. In the first, his piece, ‘Word Authority More Habit Forming than Heroin’ explores his belief that language operates as a form of social control. What follows his introduction is an experimental piece of prose interspersed with grammatical symbols which criticises police brutality and nuclear weapons.

Published towards the end of the 1960s this counterculture production bridges the gap between the different movements of the Beats, Post-Beats, and Fluxus writers. The magazine also served as a literary and artistic meeting point; collages by Carl Weissner are reproduced in the broadsheets, and Roy Lichtenstein, a leading figure in the pop-art movement, designed the covers for issues No. 3 and No. 4.

SKU: 2125179