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Crowe to tour France with new book
 Tuckasegee poet and author Thomas Crowe will be flying to Paris Jan. 14 for a two-week reading and promotional tour for a new book published in France by La Main Courante Publishers.
An anthology of poets who were part of the San Francisco Renaissance during the 1970s, the volume is titled “The Baby Beat Generation: The 2nd San Francisco Renaissance,” features Crowe’s poetry and a preface he wrote for the volume.
“This is an historic documentation of the 1970s literary scene in the San Francisco Bay Area, with photos, various memorabilia, poems, biographies, bibliographies, and a compact disc with several of the Beats and “Baby Beats” (the next generation of poets in direct line of the Beat tradition) recorded during those years,” said Crowe.
As part of the two-week reading tour, Crowe and six of the other Baby Beats included in the anthology will appear at 10 different locations in northern France to speak, read poems, and sign books. Readings have been booked in such well-known venues as the historic Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore in Paris, the American Library in Paris, the Modern Art Museum, the famed Cafe de la Mairie, and L’Alimentation, one of Paris’ hottest nightclubs, as well as variety of other locations between Paris and Lyon.
The Baby Beat Generation book is bilingual (French and English) and is 270 pages long. It was translated and edited by French poet and translator Mathias de Breyne, who also wrote the book’s introduction. De Breyne will accompany Crowe and his Baby Beat generation comrades on the tour and will act as both translator and reader of the French versions of the poems.
Tuckasegee poet a Thomas Crowe (second from left in book jacket photo) will depart Sunday for a two-week reading and book-signing tour of France to promote “Baby Beat Generation,” an anthology that includes some of his poetry.
“Mathias de Breyne has done an amazing job with this book,” said Crowe. “It took him almost three years to translate all the material that appears in this large volume, and he has done so with remarkable accuracy and poetic skill. This was not an easy job, as the styles and voices of the poets who appear in the pages of this book are very diverse, if not complex. If there is a French prize for translation, Mathias de Breyne should win it, hands down, in 2005 for his work with this book.”
In his preface, Crowe describes San Francisco during the 1970s and the flourish of literary and artistic activity that followed the famed 1960s “hippie” scene, while comparing it to Paris of an earlier era.
“From the early 1970s through the early 1980s, San Francisco was often compared to Paris at the turn of the century,” Crowe writes. “Young poets, artists and musicians were arriving, almost daily, from all over the country, and in fact the world to add their voices to the chorus of a growing international community of bohemian brethren. It was an exciting time, and we were literally living, eating, and sleeping poetry and the arts. A group of us had resurrected the old Beat literary magazine Beatitude, and you could find us in the bars down on Columbus Street and Broadway at night and in the cafes up on Grant Avenue during the day. A lifestyle that we often referred to as ‘the university of the streets.’”
Crowe said he is pleased that the book has been published.
“This book is something of a miracle,” he said. “It’s been 25 years since all this occurred. Much of the work of those who were on the front lines of the ’70s scene has gone unnoticed for a quarter century. That is, until now. It’s taken the French to recognize the impact and the importance of this scene and what we accomplished. This has often been the case in terms of progressive and alternative arts and counter-cultural activity in this country – that it has been embraced first and foremost by countries in Europe and abroad. My cohorts from those years in San Francisco had all but given up hope for any kind of recognition, thinking that they and their work had fallen between the cracks during the dominance of the academic scene here in the United States for the past three decades. We owe a huge debt of gratitude – to the French poet Mathias de Breyne and Pierre Courtaud at La Main Courante, and the French bookstores and venues who are part of this ‘Tour de France,’ as we are calling it – for this second chance.”
Crowe, who spent time living in France as an ex-patriot during the earlier part of the 1970s, before making his way to San Francisco, said he is looking forward to returning to France.
“The Baby Beat Generation” was released and in stores in France in late November and is now available in the United States. The volumen is being distributed by Small Press Distribution in Berkeley, Calif., and the American launch for the book was held at the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center in Asheville on Dec. 16. Other celebrations and events commemorating the book’s publication and the 1970s San Francisco Renaissance are being planned for New York and San Francisco later in the winter and the spring of 2006.
Crowe is the author of several books of poetry and translations. His book “Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods,” won the Ragan Old North State Award for the best book of nonfiction in the state of North Carolina for 2005. He will be reading and talking about “The Baby Beat Generation” in various bookstores and venues around Western North Carolina during the coming months.
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