Back in 2016 we reported on a curious story – the discovery of (a signed edition of) Allen’s 1943 Eastside High School graduation year book, and along with it a copy of his “Class Poem” – “We leave the youthful pennants and the books/Discard there little compasses and rules…”
In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of his graduation, Soheyl Dahl and Sore Dove Press of San Francisco have published a limited edition (26 lettered copies) of the poem. Each folio is printed on hand-made paper and carries an original acrylic painting by Dahl. Also included are two photos of Allen, one from the yearbook, and one, a detail from a photograph taken in 1953 by William S Burroughs in New York
Dahl, the founder of Sore Dove Press, was born in Iran in 1954. After completing his education in England in 1978, he arrived in the U.S the following year
Founded in 1986 Sore Dove Press specializes in the publication of Beat writers and in portfolios and limited editions (posters, photographs, chapbooks, boxed editions, broadsides, artwork).
Class Poem Folio is not the only Ginsberg title Sore Dove have published. We’ve drawn your attention in the past to If Not Forever – A Letter to Jack Kerouac (edited by Bill Morgan) (from 2008)
Among other Beat materials:
Beat Photographs – I and Beat Photographs – II (from 2022). and, from back in 2006, Meat/Beat – A Broadside Series
Class Poem Folio – Copies are available at $80