Gary Snyder appeared last week at the Central Library in Los Angeles, as part of a tribute to his late friend Lew Welch. Snyder was in top form, about as focused and hard-hitting and charming as any man standing at a lectern could hope to be. We all should be so smart at eighty. Or fifty. Or twenty.
Here's one little anecdote from his Q & A. Reminiscing about his youth, he said:
Back in l947, when I was seventeen years old, [unclear] I got my seaman's papers to join the Merchant Marine, and on the wall of the Marine [something] and Steward's Union in l947 it said:
No Red Baiting — No Race Baiting — No Queer Baiting
And it said $100 for the first offense. Second offense, you're out of the union.
How do you like that?
Murmurs of amazement from the crowd.
Freedom is just another word for not being verbally abused.
Kit Stolz 
OMG – I didn’t know who GS was until my american wife sorted me out. Ouch! Well, I do have some Beat cred – having seen Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti et al at the Royal Albert Hall in London 1964/5(?). BTW I got your Wikii rolling maybe…and posted about the sympathy of nature on Urbanwildland – check out the new mobile version, its beta and COOL!
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