Better Books was anindependent bookstore. It was founded byTony Godwin and was located at 94Charing Cross Road,London. The shop was a significant location in the 1960s counterculture movement in London.
It was founded by British publisherTony Godwin who took over the premises at 94Charing Cross Road, London, in 1946.[1]
In 1964, Tony Godwin visitedSan Francisco and theCity Lights Bookstore. He metLawrence Ferlinghetti and suggested a work exchange, whereby Ferlinghetti would send "one of his Beats over in exchange for an English salesman who needed some education". City Lights store managerDick McBride moved to theUnited Kingdom for six months to help "bohemianize" Better Books.[2]
Better Books had a string of influential managers including Bill Butler,Bob Cobbing andBarry Miles, who set about ordering a large quantity of books from City Lights andGrove Press.[3] Another manager, of the American and underground wing, was David Kozubei, who was later invited to the United States to run and radicalize a bookstore inAnn Arbor, Michigan, from whence he was recruited by theBorders brothers with a promise of a partnership which never materialized, to set up, stock, and manage their first flagship store, also in Ann Arbor.
Better Books was once described as a "miniArts Lab", and served as stage, cinema and gallery. Its cross-disciplinary approach welcomed new art forms such as assemblage, performance art, and radical poetry. Together with other alternative galleries, including 26Kingly Street and Miles'Indica Bookshop, Better Books was one of the hot spots of the London underground scene.[4]
It was home to theBetter Books Writers Nights and in March 1965 it housed thesTigma Environmental Exhibition, inspired byAlex Trocchi'sSigma, A Tactical Blueprint and featuring a contribution byJeff Nuttall.[1]
Allen Ginsberg arrived at Better Books in May 1965, and offered to read anywhere for free.[3] Ginsberg's first reading at Better Books was described by Jeff Nuttall as "the first healing wind on a very parched collective mind"[3] and inPeace News,Tom McGrath wrote: "This could well turn out to have been a very significant moment in the history of England - or at least in the history of English Poetry".[5] Shortly after the reading at Better Books, plans were hatched for theInternational Poetry Incarnation.[5]
Later, another shop called Better Books opened in Forrest Road, Edinburgh and became part of the city's "alternative" scene during the 1970s. It followed a similar policy to the London shop, and was used as a venue for poetry readings during theEdinburgh Festival.
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