A Remarkable Collection of Angels: A History of the 6 Gallery Reading

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. Read more