North Beach, San Francisco - 1959
Bob Kaufman began Beatitude magazine with John Kelley,
and William Margolis . Few local poets were considered acceptable
by the established publishers of that time (for various and sundry reasons)
Thanks to the creation of Beatitude magazines many were published for the very first time.
The original beatitude magazines were designed with the simplest of formats,
8.5" x 11" mimeographed sheets, illustrated front cover of construction paper and
No back cover and then stapled together and originally sold for 20 or 30 cents an issue.
Issues 1-7 published weekly at 14 Bannam Alley. Issues 8 until cessation of publication
at the end of the year were published monthly at the Bread and Wine Mission,
510 Greenwich Street, San Francisco, California.
Although the first incarnation of the magazine only published 17
issues,it has had a lasting impact on the Beat literary movement nationally.
Beatitude #1
cover artist Mel Fowler
HELLO, ST. FRANCIS.
Hello, St. Francis.
Like, you're the only
saint I dig.
This may be
pretenious of me,
or like, not really cool,
but man,
I know those birds and flowers, too....
....William J. Margolis
This was the first poem in the first issue of Beatitude,May 9, 1959.
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Beatitude 1
Contents
Ginsberg
Kaufma
Margolis
Brautigan
Pike
Uronovitz
Stock
DeSilver
Hartman
Green
Mann
Richardson
Delattre
Gardner
Gould |
Number 1, May 9, 1959
25 cents per copy
A weekly miscellany of poetry
and other jazz designed to extol
beauty and promote the beatific
or poetic life among the various
mendicants, neo existentialists,
christs, poets, painters, musi-
cians, and other inhabitants and
observers of North Beach, San
Francisco, California, United
States of America.
|
Edited cooperatively by various
types from Grant Street, Mill
Valley, and other scenes.
Published weekly by John Kelly
from offices at 14 Bannam Alley
Manuscripts are solicited but
cannot be returned unless accom-
panied by the usual return jazz
like, stamps & envelopes
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The purpose of this project, begun in late 2007 was to create a list as complete as possible of the original Beatitude
magazines as well as those that have been published since it has become its own tradition. Now thanks to the people who
were so kind as to send in cover photos and tables of contents
scanned from their own rare copies of Beatitude Magazines
to be shared with others who are interested in the subject plus other information gleaned from those who were there at the beginning as well as clues gathered from overheard conversations out and about, and other rather mystical happenings,
including being in the right place at the right time, plus the good suggestions from friends and messages from people I did not
know but had long admired whose emails filled with fine words of encouragement buoyed my intention to continue with this
project until completion.
I am happy to report that The
List of Original Beatitude Magazines is now very close to completion.
There are just three Beatitude Magazine covers and contents still to find !
They are #19, #20 and #27.
CONTACT BEATITUDEPOETRY.COM
webmaster@beatitudepoetry.com
SPECIAL THANKS to
VINCE STORTI, San Francisco poet, artist and editor of the North Coast Review,
who generously shared his own collection of Beatitude Magazines which provided a start for this special project.
