Charles Plymell

Charles Plymell

Plymell in 2015
Born Charley Plymell
(1935-04-26) April 26, 1935
Holcomb, Kansas, United States
Occupation poet, publisher, author
Literary movement Postmodernism, Underground Comix

Charles Plymell (born April 26, 1935, in Holcomb, Kansas) is a poet, novelist, and small press publisher. Plymell has been published widely, collaborated with, and published many poets, writers, and artists, including principals of the Beat Generation.

He has published, printed, and designed many underground magazines and books with his wife Pamela Beach, a namesake in avant-garde publishing. He published former prisoner Ray Bremser and Herbert Huncke, whom he identified with from the hipster 1950s. He was influential in the underground comix scene, first printing Zap Comix artists such as Robert Crumb and S. Clay Wilson, whom he first published in Lawrence, Kansas.

Plymell received a citation for being a distinguished poet by Governor Joan Finney of Kansas and was cited in the 1976 World Book Encyclopedia as a most promising poet.

Biography

Charley Douglass Plymell was born in Finney County, Kansas during the worst dust storms of that time. He was born in a converted chicken coop near Holcomb. His grandfather, Charley Plymell, was deeded a homestead in Apache Palo lands by President Cleveland. The stage line began in Plymell, a few miles south of Garden City where now stands the Plymell Union Church and Pierceville-Plymell Elementary school. Like many, his face was covered by wet rags as his mother went out to shoot jackrabbits and gather cactus for meals.

His father and mother were later divorced and his father bought a nice home for his sisters and him to go to school in Wichita while his father traveled. In Wichita in the 50's Plymell dropped out of his first year at North High School, lied about his age, traveled the western states in a new car his father bought him, working on pipelines, dams, factories and riding bareback broncs and Brahma bulls in rodeos.

When back in Wichita he became a hipster, took Peyote and Pot and Benzedrine, the drugs of the day. And was into Jazz , R&B, “Race music” across the tracks in Wichita partying with names that later became world famous. He worked at factories and took courses at Wichita University. Allen Ginsberg credited him with inventing the Wichita Vortex.[1] Plymell’s Vortex in his own words does not relate to Ginsberg’s Wichita Vortex Sutra but took place west of Wichita near the center of the US at Space Needle Crossing in the Chalk Pyramids. His Vortex is spiritual/mythical and based on when he heard the Voice of the Game Lord which he later authenticated through his mentor and influence, Loren Eiseley. His other influences are Harte Crane, Ezra Pound, and Coleridge. He did not meet the Beats until 1963. His Vortex is written about in his Tent Shaker Vortex Voice. Before that he considered himself a hipster and outsider.

Plymell moved to a quiet Russian neighborhood in 1962 at the corner of Haight and Ashbury. After the neighborhood filled with hippies and was taken over, Plymell moved to a famous flat 1403 Gough St. It was there at Plymell’s LSD party that the Beats met the Hippies. Promptly Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassidy moved in with him where Plymell played Bob Dylan to Ginsberg for the first time.[2] It was during that time Plymell made two films [3] that were in Ann Arbor Film festival and his collages which opened at the Batman Gallery where fellow Wicihtans Bob Brannaman and Bruce Conner had shown. Plymell’s show sold out except for a few pieces that ended up in Australia. Billy Jahrmarkt gave Plymell his classic 1951 MGTD.[4]

He has published, printed, and designed many underground magazines and books with his wife Pamela Beach, a namesake in avant-garde publishing. He published Ray Bremser and Herbert Huncke, whom he identified with from the hipster 1950s. He was influential in the underground comix scene, first printing and designing with Zap Comix artists such as Robert Crumb and S. Clay Wilson, whom he first published in Lawrence, Kansas.

Recently Plymell’s book Benzedrine Highway was published by Norton Records/Kicks Books. He has been writing poems used as songs by Andrea Schroeder (Berlin); Mike Watt & Sam Dook (U.K.) They recently featured one of his songs on their CUZ tour. He has also written songs for Clubberlanggang, and is working on a book with his poems for Neal Cassady and Bob Branaman put to Rockabilly by Bloodshot Bill of Norton Records. Plymell holds an M.A. Degree in Arts and Sciences from The Johns Hopkins University, 1970.

Books

Anthologies

References

  1. ↑ Allen Ginsberg, Introduction to Apocalypse Rose by Charles Plymell, Published by Auerhahn Press in 1966. "Plymell and his friends inventing the Wichita Vortex contribute to a tradition stretching back ....”
  2. ↑ Allen Ginsberg quote from the Martin Scorsese film No Direction Home: Bob Dylan Documentary);
  3. ↑ (NY film co-op)
  4. ↑ Plymell, Charley. Kansa, Land of the Wind People.

External links

Interviews

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