Dick McBride was born in Washington, Indiana in 1928.
After years of travelling around Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Nebraska working in radio, Dick hit San Francisco in the early ’50′s to pursue writing more seriously.
In 1952, his first play “From Out The Whale’s Mouth” was staged at the Theatre San Francisco. The play received positive reviews from the San Francisco Chronicle and interviews on local TV followed.
Dick soon came into contact with Kenneth Patchen, who hosted poetry readings at his apartment in Green Street, San Francisco with his wife, Miriam.
“The first man who gave me any kind of modern lit guidance (another world of Giono, Celine, Sailone, Proust, Nathaniel West, even Saroyan and [surprise] Herman Melville…) was Kenneth Patchen, and I probably owe him more than I realize.”
Kenneth Patchen introduced Dick to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who offered him a job as store manager of City Lights Bookstore. Dick worked at City Lights from 1954 until 1969 and during this time became friends and poet-in-arms with Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg and Richard Brautigan, among others. He also worked as editorial assistant for the City Lights Journal.
He came to England for four months in 1964 to help “bohemianize” Better Books in London. Tony Godwin, the founder of Better Books, had met Lawrence Ferlinghetti in San Francisco and suggested a “work swap” whereby Ferlinghetti would send “one of his Beats over in exchange for an English salesman who needed some education.” In 1965, Better Books became the centre of the British Poetry Revival and the UK Underground.
In 1967 City Lights relocated their publishing operation to 1562 Grant Avenue. Dick ran this part of the business with his brother, Bob McBride and Martin Broadley for several years.
Dick 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. The business was based in Great Horwood, Bucks. and the books were stored in an old Church:
“Still think it’s a kick, all them dirty words (what used to be dirty words before the Beat/Hippie wash was hung out to dry) stored in an abandoned Methodist Chapel…”
In the summer of 1973, Bernard Stone and Dick McBride hosted a “Fourth of July Party” for Allen Ginsberg at the Turret Bookshop, London. Ginsberg’s “Fall of America” had been published earlier that year, and it seemed appropriate to hold a reading on the birthday of American Independence. The party is commemorated in his biography of Ginsberg “Cometh With Clouds” (Cherry Valley Editions 1982).
During the 1980s, he moved to Australia and returned to the UK in 1988, settling in West Malvern, Worcestershire.
In November 1996, Dick 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 Birmingham ArtsFest.
Dick also headlined the 2001 Leeds Voice Festival of New Writing, a 10-day festival of live literature, providing a platform for emerging spoken word artists.
In 2004 “Remembered America” was published by Rue Bella, who described the book as “…an uplifting reminder of the transcendent thrill of Beat poetry, mixed with a maturity hard earned by McBride in his long and colourful life”.
In 2006 he headlined the Words In Motion stage at the Big Chill Festival.
In 2008 Charlie Stewart produced a recording of Dick reading his poetry at his home in Colwall, Herefordshire. The recording was released as “Upbeat and Groovy: Poems 1960-2008″.
In 2009 Dick was invited to read at “The British Beat” event, part of the Back On The Road exhibition at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham. The event was curated by Dick Ellis and also featured readings by Jim Burns, Ian McMillan, David Tipton & Camelia Ellias.
He now lives in Colwall, Herefordshire, where he continues to write and perform.
I’m glad to see you’re still going strong. There’s hardly any of us left!…Ciao baby. Lawrence Ferlinghetti (2004)
