Tau and Journey to the End: Number 59

Poetry. Two long-lost volumes from the classic Beat period. TAU is Philip Lamantia’s mystical second collection of poems, originally slated for publication in 1955, but suppressed by the poet due to his evolving religious beliefs. JOURNEY TO THE END contains the poems of the legendary John Hoffman (1928-1952), whose poems were read by Lamantia in 1955 at the 6 Gallery reading where Allen Ginsberg debuted Howl. Lamantia’s closest friend, a character in Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, and the inspiration for two lines of Howl, Hoffman moved between San Francisco and New York before his death in Mexico at the age of twenty-four. This volume includes biographical notes and Lamantia’s commentaries on Hoffman’s poetry.