Lenore Kandel | |
|---|---|
 Kandel holding a copy ofThe Love Book | |
| Born | January 14, 1932 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | October 18, 2009 (aged 77) |
| Education | LA City College,The New School for Social Research |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, Activist |
| Years active | 1960–1970 |
| Notable work | The Love Book (1966) Word Alchemy (1967) |
| Movement | Beat Generation,Hippie,Diggers (theater) |
| Parent | Aben Kandel (Father) |
Lenore Kandel (January 14, 1932,New York City – October 18, 2009,San Francisco,California) was an American poet, affiliated with theBeat Generation andHippie counterculture.
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Although Kandel was born in New York, her family lived inBucks County, Pennsylvania during her childhood. Afterward, she moved toLos Angeles to live with her father, screenwriterAben Kandel. Her brother, prolific screenwriterStephen Kandel, was best known for co-creatingHarry Mudd, a prominent recurringStar Trek character.
She returned to New York to attendThe New School for Social Research on scholarship for three and a half years before she dropped out. She moved to San Francisco in 1960. She began living in the East-West House co-op, where she metJack Kerouac, who later immortalized her asRomana Swartz, "a big Rumanian monster beauty", in his novelBig Sur (1962). In the novel, she is described as being the girlfriend of Dave Wain, who was based onLew Welch. "Dave" describes how she walked around the "Zen-East House" (East-West House) wearing only purple panties. Kerouac described her as "intelligent, well read, writes poetry, is aZen student, knows everything [...]" (Big Sur, p. 75).
Her first works of poetry were the chapbooksAn Exquisite Navel,A Passing Dragon, andA Passing Dragon Seen Again, published in 1959. Several of her poems also appeared inBeat and Beatific II in 1959.
Kandel was briefly notorious as the author of a short book of poetry,The Love Book. A small pamphlet consisting of four poems,The Love Book provoked censorship with its three-part poem, "To Fuck with Love." Police seized the work as being in violation of state obscenity codes, from bothCity Lights Books and "The Psychedelic Shop" in 1966. Subsequently, Kandel gained cause célèbre status.[1] She herself defended her verse as "holy erotica."[2] A jury declared the book obscene and lacking in any redeeming social value in 1967 and sales increased; Kandel thanked the police by giving one percent of all profits to the Police Retirement Association.[2] The decision was overturned on appeal and the book continued to sell well.[2]
In 1964, she participated in The Berkeley Poetry Conference organized by Richard Baker, Program Coordinator, University of California Berkeley, Liberal Arts Extension, along with poets Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Creeley, and many others. Kandel was a speaker at theHuman Be-In in theGolden Gate Park polo fields on January 14, 1967. The only woman to speak from the stage, Kandel defiantly read fromThe Love Book. It was her 35th birthday, and McClure later stated, "The entire crowd of 20,000 or 30,000 people sang 'Happy Birthday' to her."[3]
Kandel published her only full-length book of poems,Word Alchemy, in 1967. She was one of 15 people interviewed inVoices from the Love Generation (Little, Brown and Company, 1968). In 1976, Kandel recited a poem at the iconic concertThe Last Waltz performed byThe Band (but was not included in the film or soundtrack).[4]
In 1970, Kandel suffered massive spinal injuries in a motorcycle crash with her then-husband Billy "Sweet Wiliam" Fritsch (poet,stevedore, and member of theDiggers (theater) andHells Angels). Despite having to cope with excruciating pain for the remainder of her life, she continued to write and maintain social ties.
She died at home on October 18, 2009, of complications fromlung cancer, with which she had been diagnosed several weeks earlier.[5]
In 2012,Collected Poems of Lenore Kandel was published. It features 80 of her poems, many of which had never before been published.[6][7]
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Kandel appears in theDigger filmNowsreal (1968), sewing a Hells Angel patch on William Fritsch's jacket.
Kandel appears in theKenneth Anger filmInvocation of My Demon Brother (1969), with William Fritsch, smoking a marijuana cigarette contained in a miniature skull.
In the 2013 filmBig Sur, Kandel is portrayed byStana Katic.
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