Kayak 4

Santa Cruz, California: [publisher not identified], 1965. First Edition. Octavo; staple bound; illustrations; 22 cm Near fine, with mild sunning to edges; firmly bound. Stapled wraps.

See photos for tabel of contents or list of contrubutors. George Hitchcock (1900–1999) was an American poet, printer, and publisher best known as the founder of the Kayak Press and editor of Kayak, a fiercely independent poetry journal launched in 1964. Working largely from Big Sur, he championed a handmade, artisanal approach to printing that fused letterpress craft with an uncompromising literary stance, publishing and promoting voices often neglected by mainstream outlets. His own poetry, spare and incisive, reflects a modernist temperament shaped by isolation, rigor, and a distrust of literary fashion. Through Kayak and the press that surrounded it, Hitchcock exerted an influence disproportionate to its scale, becoming a key figure in the West Coast small-press movement of the mid-to-late twentieth century. | American poetry magazines; poetry journals, poetry serials. California poetry,1960s-1970s