Ed Sanders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ed Sanders (born August 17, 1939) is an American poet, singer, social activist, environmentalist, author and publisher and has been a long time member of the band The Fugs. He has been called a bridge between the Beat and Hippie generations.[1]
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[edit] Biography
Sanders was born in Kansas City, Missouri. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and he almost died. He dropped out of the University of Missouri in 1958 and hitchhiked to New York City’s Greenwich Village. He wrote his first major poem, Poem from Jail, on toilet paper in his cell after being jailed for protesting against nuclear proliferation in 1961.
In 1962, he founded the avant-garde journal, Fuck You: A Magazine of the Arts. Sanders opened the Peace Eye Bookstore (147 Avenue A in what was then the Lower East Side), which became a gathering place for bohemians and radicals.
Sanders graduated from New York University in 1964, with a degree in Classics. In late 1964 he founded The Fugs with Tuli Kupferberg. The band broke up in 1969 and reformed in 1984.
In 1965, in front of a packed crowd in the middle of Times Square, he performed his now famous Henri Matisse concept album using not only his patented finger synthesizers[2] but also a stringed instrument made from the very umbilical cord that nearly killed him at birth. A young Dee Snider from Twisted Sister was in attendance and cites the performance as one of the most inspiring moments of his youth. He often credits Sanders for inadvertently creating Snider's well known rock persona.
On October 21, 1967, he helped Abbie Hoffman in his attempt to exorcise the Pentagon.[3]
In 1971, Sanders wrote The Family, a profile of the events leading up to the Tate-LaBianca murders. He obtained access to the Manson Family by posing as a "Satanic guru-maniac and dope-trapped psychopath[4]."
In 1997 he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award[5].
As of 2006, Sanders lives in Woodstock, New York where he publishes the Woodstock Journal[6] with his wife of over 36 years, the writer and painter Miriam R. Sanders. He also invents musical instruments including the Talking Tie, the microtonal Microlyre and the Lisa Lyre, a musical contraption involving light-activated switches and a reproduction of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
[edit] Selected bibliography
- Poem from Jail, San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1963
- Peace Eye (1966)
- Fuck God in the Ass (1967)
- Shards of God (1970)
- The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion (1971, New Edition, 1990)
- Egyptian Hieroglyphics (1973)
- Tales of Beatnik Glory, Volume 1 (1975)
- Investigative Poetry (1976)
- 20,OOO A.D. (1976)
- Fame & Love in New York (1980)
- The Z-D Generation (1981)
- The Cutting Prow (1983)
- Hymn to Maple Syrup & Other Poems (1985)
- Thirsting for Peace in a Raging Century: Selected Poems 1961–1985 (1987)
- Poems for Robin (1987)
- Tales of Beatnik Glory, Volumes 1 & 2 (1990)
- Hymn to the Rebel Cafe (1993)
- Chekhov (1995)
- 1968: A History in Verse (1997)
- America, A History in Verse, Vol. 1 (1900–1939) (2000)
- The Poetry and Life of Allen Ginsberg (2000)
- America, A History in Verse, Vol. 2 (1940–1961) (2001)
- America, A History in Verse, Vol. 3 (1962–1970) (2004)
[edit] Selected solo discography
- Sanders' Truckstop 1969
- Beer Cans on the Moon 1972
- Yiddish-speaking socialist of the Lower East Side 1991
- Songs in ancient Greek 1992
- American Bard 1996
[edit] Discography with the Fugs
- See Fugs Discography
[edit] References
- Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk)
[edit] External links
- Works by or about Ed Sanders in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- The Woodstock Journal
- Photo Ed Sanders Performing With The Fugs, NYC, 1967 by Michael Maggid
- Feature on Ed Sanders from Paste Magazine by Matt Fink.
