Two-Way Mirror
A Poetry Notebook
One of the key poets of the Beat generation, Meltzer is very well-known and respected, and the author of more than 50 books of poetry and prose
Unpretentious, highly accessible guide to poetics that is as appropriate for high school as it is for MFA programs
Author is the recipient of the SF Bay Guardian's Lifetime Achievement Award
Includes black and white interior images gathered by Meltzer from thrift shop text books which, along with its colorful and packaging, gives it a flashy "McSweeney's" look.
With an afterword by the author, reexamining his thoughts 35 years later
David Meltzer is a poet associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance. He was the youngest poet included in Donald Allen's seminal anthology, The New American Poetry: 1945-1960. A child prodigy, Meltzer performed music on radio and TV in NY in the late '40s. In 1957, after a few years in L.A. as part of Wallace Berman's Semina circle, Meltzer moved to San Francisco. A pioneer of the jazz-poetry reading, Meltzer also formed the psychedelic folk-rock group Serpent Power in the late '60s, recording for Vanguard Records. In addition to writing many books of poetry and editing many anthologies, Meltzer has published 11 erotic novels, including the acclaimed Agency Trilogy. His most recent book, When I Was a Poet, was published in 2011 as volume 60 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series.
