Bob Kaufman Broadside Poems

Three large-format poems represent some of the earliest published works of the “Black American Rimbaud.”

1959/60

by Bob Kaufman, author; City Lights, publisher

2023.0215.1.1–3

Home
Research & Collections
Collection Highlights
Bob Kaufman Broadside Poems

Known as the Black American Rimbaud, poet Bob Kaufman (1925–1986) grew up in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans, one of several children of Joseph Kaufman and Lillian Vigne. He joined the US Merchant Marine in 1942 and, after his last voyage in 1949, studied at the New School in New York. Kaufman moved to San Francisco in 1958 and quickly became involved in the San Francisco poetry renaissance based in the North Beach neighborhood. In 1959, he cofounded the literary magazine Beatitude, known for publishing writers such as Richard Brautigan and Michael McClure, who were overlooked by more established publishers.

A photo of Bob Kaufman taken in 1979, wearing a black fedora and red jacket. — Bob Kaufman, 1979, photo by Jean Dierkes Carlisle. HNOC, MSS 1085.4.10

Lightbox — Bob Kaufman, 1979, photo by Jean Dierkes Carlisle. HNOC, MSS 1085.4.10

Though Kaufman published the work of other poets, little of his own poetry was published. Kaufman considered his work, often inspired by jazz, to be part of an oral tradition, and he rarely wrote anything down.

The Historic New Orleans Collection recently acquired three of his earliest published poems. The three works were published individually by City Lights, founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. They were all printed by Troubadour Press in editions of 1,000 copies in a unique format: each is approximately 3 feet long and 8 inches wide, though the poems accordion-fold to a reasonable pamphlet size.

A photo of Kaufman's “Abomunist Manifesto” from 1959.

“Abomunist Manifesto” (1959) is an irreverent take on political proclamations, declaring itself “the first and last word from the abominable snowmen of poetry.”

HNOC, 2023.0215.1.1

Kaufman describes “Second April” (1959) as “an autobiographical journey springing out of the blind conjunction of such events as the Christ’s April crucifixion, death and resurrection by A-bomb, and the author’s own birth.”

Finally, “Does the Secret Mind Whisper?” (1960) was an atmospheric part of a novel-in-progress “in which the ‘characters’ are to appear—and disappear.” The novel was never published.

HNOC, 2023.0215.1.3

These poems precede other Kaufman works by five years: Solitudes Crowded With Loneliness (New Directions, 1965), Golden Sardine (City Lights, 1967), and Ancient Rain (New Directions, 1981) were his only books published in his lifetime.