It’s a wonder that the most intriguing publisher of American poets of the Beat Generation happens to be a German publisher, Stadtlichter Presse. Its “Heartbeat” series of 41 titles to date features not only the most notable Beats — Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Corso, and Ferlinghetti — in bilingual editions, but dozens of less famous Beats and Beat-era or Beat-related poets, such as Denise Levertov, Diane Di Prima, Joanne Kyger, Elise Cowen, Lenore Kandel, Philip Lamantia, Ron Loewinsohn, d.a. levy, William Everson, Richard Brautigan, Michael McClure, Ed Sanders, Alan Ansen, Robert Nichols, Edward Dorn, Bob Kaufman, Herbert Huncke, Peter Orlovsky, Tuli Kupferberg, Stuart Z. Perkoff, Neal Cassady, Kenneth Koch, and Harold Norse. It has also published others not in that series, such as Gary Snyder (four titles alone), Ira Cohen, and — wait for it — yours truly. Stadtlichter Presse’s founder-publisher Ralf Zühlke will give a talk next week in Berlin about what it takes to keep going despite the usual small-press difficulties. Wish I could be there.
Stadtlicher’s latest catalogue (cover design by Heike Küster), lists 92 titles in all, including its most recent publication in the Heartbeat series: “Menschliche Lieder” (“Human Songs”) by Kay Johnson.
