BLACK PANTHERS 1968 ~

BLACK PANTHERS 1968

Howard L. Bingham

Ammo Books, 2009

~

essays by 

Howard L. Bingham, Tessa Hicks, Mar Hollingsworth,

 Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Bernard Kinsey, Gilbert Moore

"On the steps of the Capitol, Bobby Seale read a statement, an executive mandate: "The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense calls upon the American people in general, and black people in particular, to take careful note of the racist California Legislature aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very same time that racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder, and repression of black people and at the same time that the American government is waging a racist war of genocide in Vietnam." 

May 2, 1967

 

Nearly a half century later substitute "California" for Ferguson - St. Louis, MO. and

 "Vietnam" with Iraq or Afghanistan 

— we haven't learned our lesson.

http://www.blackpanther.org/

This book can still be found, very reasonably priced at $20, shrink wrapped and stunning hardback, showcasing Bingham's portrait of the Panthers in their prime.

MALCOLM COWLEY ~

Malcolm Cowley
The Long Voyage
Selected Letters 1915-1987
edited by Hans Bak
Harvard, 2013

Behind every great man there is, these days, perhaps a woman, or another man. And vice-versa. Behind every great book there has been a great editor, and Malcolm Cowley was one of the greatest in 20th century American literature. His banner list of writers include Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Kerouac, Tillie Olsen, and John Cheever for starters. And on the Kerouac front, Cowley not only brought On the Road forth from where he worked at Viking, he went back to Kerouac after Viking initially rejected the book and impressed upon his colleagues to have another look.
 There's your editor.