Dick Mc Bride (poet) - Literary Career

Literary Career

McBride's first collection of poetry, Oranges, was published in 1960 by Wilder Bentley at the Bread and Wine Press in San Francisco, California. It was illustrated with woodcuts by the artist and actor, Victor Wong. The Bread and Wine Mission was started by Pierre Delattre and was home to Bob Kaufman's magazine Beatitude.

Ballads of Blood was published in 1961 by the Golden Mountain Press, San Francisco.

McBride's first book, Lonely the Autumn Bird: Two Novels, was published by Alan Swallow in 1963. It consists of two short novels: the title novel Lonely the Autumn Bird and Tilt.

In 1966, his second novel, Memoirs of a Natural-Born Expatriate, was published by Alan Swallow. It tells the story of a man who (like the author) works at City Lights Bookstore.

In 1982, Charles Plymell's Cherry Valley Editions published Cometh With Clouds a short biography of Allen Ginsberg. It contains a foreword by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Jacqui – Love Poems was privately produced in 1994. The second edition was published by McBride's Books in 1997 and is dedicated to his second wife, Jacqui.

McBride's third novel, The Astonished I (Memories & Wet Dreams) was published by McBride's Books in 1995. It is a recollection of the authors time in San Francisco. It is dedicated to his friend Tim Prael and contains an introduction by Charles Plymell.

The first chapter of the book recalls a conversation with Jack Kerouac, who had phoned City Lights to talk to Ferlinghetti about publishing Visions of Cody. A slightly different version of the first chapter was originally published in Transit and then The Beat Journals, both published by Kevin Ring's Beat Scene Press.

The second chapter of The Astonished I describes the first reading of "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (a lament for the death of Dylan Thomas) by Kenneth Rexroth at the Cellar in Green Street, San Francisco.

His most recent collection of poetry, Remembered America: Poems by Dick McBride, was published by Rue Bella in 2004.