Wallace Berman, Lenny Bruce and Dinner with the Cops

The Digger Papers was the final Diggers publication. The entire contents also appeared as issue no. 81 of Paul Krassner's The Realist, but this edition was printed separately for free distribution in San Francisco, as had their previous leaflets - some of which are reprinted here, along with new material. 


All the work in the Digger Papers is uncredited, in keeping with the Diggers non-attribution policy. I already knew that the book contained work by Gary Snyder and Richard Brautigan, but I was surprised to see a collage I recognized on one of the pages.

"Untitled" (Lenny Bruce) by Wallace Berman

I recognized this Wallace Berman collage, having seen it in the excellent 2009 exhibition at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery. It is also reproduced on p. 17 of Semina Culture. It accompanies a poem called "Take a Cop to Dinner". The poem is probably a reaction to a proposal by the Haight Independent Proprietors (HIP) to improve communication between the police and members of the Haight Community by having dinner with a cop. There is an account of this meeting, and the reaction of the Diggers to it on p. 292 of Emmet Grogan's Ringolevio, which I've been reading along with Peter Coyote's Memoir Sleeping Where I Fall. 


It is a fascinating and beautiful page. Wallace Berman and Lenny Bruce both had problems with censorship and police response to their work. In Berman's case, the seizure of copies of Semina in the Ferus Gallery raid led to him withdrawing from the art world of the "City of Degenerate Angels." I wasn't aware of any connection between Wallace Berman and the Diggers. From reading Peter Coyote's memoir, I know that Billy Jahrmarkt (of Batman Gallery infamy) was associated with the Diggers - perhaps there are other links as well. The Diggers produced some of the most beautiful radical publications of the sixties, and this is a fascinating association with the Semina Circle and their work. 


The Digger Papers. [San Francisco]: Free City, nd. [c. 1969]. Some spotty foxing and staining to the wraps, but very good. 


From our upcoming lucky catalog no. 13, out in a matter of hours.