On October 7, 2025, to mark the 70th anniversary of the 6 Gallery reading, Beatdom will release the first book-length study of that pivotal event. It was one of the most important moments in Beat history, yet until now very little was known about it. It has been mentioned in many hundreds of books, but none of these have managed to get the basic facts right. Based on years of research, David S. Wills has picked apart the myths and attempted to construct a history of this literary event, tracing its origins and showing how the various participants came to know each other at just the right time, in just the right place, so that the unlikeliest of things would happen–a poetry reading would change the world.
About the Book
The 6 Gallery reading of October 7, 1955, changed the world. On that night, a group of mostly unknown poets gathered on a small stage in a strange art gallery and read avant-garde poetry to a bohemian audience. Most famously, Allen Ginsberg gave the first reading of “Howl” but other poetic careers were born that night. In fact, that one poetry reading is often said to have birthed the San Francisco Renaissance and launched the Beat Generation into the public consciousness, which makes it all the more unusual that until now no one has ever really known what happened…
Despite its incontestable importance, the 6 Gallery reading has never been written about at length. It has for 70 years existed as an almost mythical, unknowable event. Many hundreds of books and articles have made reference to it as a pivotal moment in American literature, yet few have been able to provide any real detail and what little information does exist is almost entirely false. A Remarkable Collection of Angels intends to fix that. It is the first book dedicated to investigating the 6 Gallery reading, tracing the history of the building and the art galleries that inhabited it, while weaving together the stories of the men and women who forged an arts scene so vibrant that it resulted in this almost impossibly consequential night.
About the Author
David S. Wills is the author of books on William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson, and Haruki Murakami.
Contents
To give a better idea of how this book will approach the 6 Gallery reading, here’s the table of contents:
Pre-Order
This book will be available at the usual retailers from October 7, 2025. It is already available for pre-order via Amazon and you can pre-order it directly from Beatdom here:
A Remarkable Collection of Angels: A History of the 6 Gallery Reading Pre-Order
This is the first book entirely devoted to exploring the history of the 6 Gallery reading, one of the most important events in American literature.
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