Bob Kaufman

American Poetry Review, The, May/Jun 2000 by Winans, A D

Bob Kaufman, known in France as the 'American Rimbaud," was one of the original Beat poets of the late fifties, who is rightfully regarded as the most influential black poet of his era. In San Francisco's North Beach, home of the West Coast Beats, he was regarded as the original bebop poet. As a jazz poet, he was unique. As a surrealist poet, he was among the best.

In the fifties, Kaufinan co-edited Beatitude. Magazine, with William Margolis, and read his work with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane DiPrima, Jack Micheline, and other noted poets of the day.

In North Beach, in a six-block area from lower Grant Avenue to upper Grant Avenue, there existed a large number of bars, cafes, and coffeehouses, frequented by poets, artists, and jazz musicians. While Grant Avenue was the center stage of creativity, the bevy of coffeehouses and bars extended from Broadway and Columbus all the way to the produce district, where the self proclaimed King of the Beats, Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, held court in a large warehouse on the fringe of the old produce district. Kaufman and his wife Eileen frequented the old warehouse, where downstairs, bare-to-the-waist black bongo and conga drummers filled the air with excitement, while upstairs couples openly fornicated on mattresses spread out along the roof.

Kaufman seldom talked about his childhood and upbringing in his native New Orleans, but we know from Eileen Kaufman that he was the youngest of thirteen children, born on April 18, 1925, the son of a German Jew and a black woman from Martinique. His grandmother came to the U.S. on a slave ship from the gold coast of Africa, and he was proud of his African roots. As a child, his mother saw to it that he regularly attended Catholic mass, but he would also join his father in the synagogue on the Sabbath, while at the same time learning the voodoo beliefs of his grandmother. Kaufman's religious upbringing was nothing less than a spiritual mosaic, although later in life he would mock God in several of his poems, openly declaring himself an atheist.

Kaufman was arguably the most intelligent of all the Beat poets and writers, including Ginsberg. He boarded a ship at the age of thirteen, and for twenty years sailed with the U.S. Merchant Marine, traveling around the world nine times. It was during one of these trips to Greenland, in one of the four shipwrecks he experienced in his sailing years, that he suffered frostbite, causing him to lose forty percent of his hearing.

Kaufman's literary education began at sea when a first mate lent him books to read, among them the works of Jack London. His formal education was obtained at an elementary school in New Orleans, and during the forties he attended the New School of Social Research in New York City It was while spending time in New York that Kaufman met Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, but it was not until later, in Big Sur, California, that he met Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady It was not uncommon to see Kerouac, Cassady and Kaufman carousing in North Beach during the fifties.

In May 1958, Kaufman met a young woman named Eileen, and a short time later they were married. In 1959 City Lights published a Kaufman broadside, Abomunist Manifesto, and shortly thereafter a second broadside, Second April, appeared. A year later City Lights issued a third Kaufman broadside; Does the Secret Mind Whisper. These early publications earned Kaufman a cult following in San Francisco's North Beach District.

In early 1959, Ron Rice directed a film titled The Flower Thief, which was shot in San Francisco, starring the North Beach bohemians, with Kaufinan playing the starring role. The film was later shown in Italy, where it won the Spoleto Festival Award in 1960.

In late 1959, and into the early part of 1960, Kenneth Tynan produced a film titled Dissent in the Arts in America. Kaufman appeared in the film, which was never shown in the U.S., after Tynan was called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was, however, shown in Europe, which partly accounts for Kaufman's popularity abroad.

In the spring of 1961, Kaufman was nominated for England's coveted Guinness Poetry Award, losing out to T S. Eliot. During the early sixties, Kauf man read his poetry at the Gaslight and other popular coffeehouses in New York's Greenwich Village, . but returned to San Francisco in the fall of 1963.

On a November afternoon in 1963, Kaufman watched the John F. Kennedy assassination on television. Friends of Kaufman claim that after watching the Kennedy assassination he took a Buddhist vow of silence, which lasted nearly twelve years, until the end of the Vietnam War. This is only partly true, for Kaufman did occasionally speak with friends, even if it was only to say hello or to bum a cigarette.

By the late fifties, Ginsberg, Corso, and the rest of the Beat gang had left North Beach, leaving behind Lawrence Ferlinghetti to mind City Lights Book Store. Other than Ferlinghetti, Kaufman was the last of the recognized original gang of Beats to regularly make the rounds of North Beach.