Dick McBride

Richard William McBride (May 8, 1928 – August 28, 2012) was an American beat poet, playwright and novelist. He worked at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers from 1954 to 1969.

Life

Born in Washington, Indiana, McBride spent years traveling around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Nebraska working in radio, before moving to San Francisco, in the early 1950s.

Kenneth Patchen introduced him to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who offered him a job as store manager at the City Lights Bookstore. He worked at City Lights for 16 years

In 1964, McBride moved to the United Kingdom for six months to help "bohemianize" Better Books in London for Tony Godwin.

In 1967, City Lights moved their publishing operation to 1562 Grant Avenue, McBride ran this part of the business with his brother Bob McBride and Martin Broadley for several years.

He returned to England in 1969, where he worked as the director of independent book distributors McBride Bros. and Broadley, selling books in England and to the Continent.

Then during the 1980s, McBride moved on to Australia. In 1988, he returned to the UK and settled in West Malvern, Worcestershire.

In November 1996, he was a guest at the Conegliano Poetry Festival, where he read his poetry alongside Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Andrey Voznesensky and Roger McGough. The festival was organised to honour City Lights and the Beats and to celebrate Allen Ginsberg's 70th birthday

In 2001 he collaborated with Celluloid on the "Last Beat" project, a live and recorded performance project that received airplay on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction. A UK tour followed, including a performance at the Birmingham ArtsFest.

In 2006 he headlined the "Words In Motion" stage at the Big Chill Festival at Eastnor Castle.

In January, 2009 McBride appeared at "The British Beat" event as part of the "Back On the Road" exhibition at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham. The exhibition featured the original manuscript scroll of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The event was curated by Professor Dick Ellis, Head of American and Canadian Studies at Birmingham University, and also featured readings by Jim Burns, Ian McMillan, David Tipton and Camelia Ellias.

McBride lived in Colwall, Herefordshire, where he continued to write and perform until his death in August 2012, aged 84.

Literary career McBride's first collection of poetry, Oranges, was published in 1960 by Wilder Bentley at the Bread and Wine Press in San Francisco, California. It was illustrated with woodcuts by the artist and actor, Victor Wong. The Bread and Wine Mission was started by Pierre Delattre and was home to Bob Kaufman's magazine Beatitude.

His most recent collection of poetry, Remembered America: Poems by Dick McBride, was published by Rue Bella in 2004.

Influences

McBride was strongly influenced by Kenneth Patchen, who introduced him to the work of Giono, Celine, Proust, Nathanael West and William Saroyan.

Musical collaborations and recordings In 2000-2001 Dick McBride collaborated with Celluloid on the “Last Beat” project, a live and recorded project that received airplay on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction. In 2008, Charlie Stewart produced Upbeat & Groovy: Dick McBride reads poems 1960-2008, a recording of Dick McBride reading his poetry at his home in Colwall, Herefordshire. The recording was limited to 150 copies.