First published May 1958, The Galilee Hitch-Hiker, a single poem with nine separately titled parts each with a common theme of the changing presence of Charles Baudelaire, was Brautigan's second poetry book publication.

A notation at end of poem states "San Francisco February 1958."

All nine parts of The Galilee Hitch-Hiker were collected and reprinted in The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster.
San Francisco, California: White Rabbit Press, 1958
Limited Edition: 200 copies
8.5" x 6.75"; 16 pages
Red wrappers with title and illustration printed in black
Sewn binding
Printed by Joe Dunn, founder of White Rabbit Press.
Reportedly, some or all copies were printed using the printing presses at the Greyhound Bus Company in San Francisco where Dunn worked as a printer.
Graham Mackintosh inscribed a copy of the book confirming this printing history (see below).

VIEW a larger image of this book cover.

THE WHITE RABBIT PRESS
1515 Jackson St. San Francisco 9
May 58
THIS EDITION LIMITED TO 200 COPIES
THE COVER IS BY KENN DAVIS
all rights reserved

VIEW a larger image of this colophon statement.

Front cover illustration by Kenn Davis. Of his work, Davis said,

The publishing company, White Rabbit Press, had no binding capabilities, so the printed contents of the book were delivered to Brautigan in boxes. "We sat around and needle and threaded the copies together, drinking wine and yakking," said Davis. Next was the problem of distribution." City Lights would take a few," said Davis,

Copy inscribed to Peter Cohon

For Peter Cohon,
A Saint in his own time,
Richard Brautigan

Copy inscribed by Graham Mackintosh attests to the book's printing history

Printed by
Joe Dunn
at Greyhound
Graham Mackintosh

Copy inscribed to Robert Yunch

This copy just is      
wishing and concerned one more week. Let's see what happens. Why
not? (happiness + happiness)

Richard Brautigan
Stinson Beach
September 8, 1984

Bob, Shallen, Eric Triston

Yunch was Brautigan's long-time friend and neighbor in Bolinas, California.
The date of this inscription is just one week prior to Brautigan's death.

Red wrappers with white outer parchment wrapper
Title printed in black on front wrapper
Title and illustration printed in black on front parchment wrapper

VIEW a larger image of this parchment wrapper.

White wrappers with no outer parchment wrapper
Kenn Davis drawing and book title printed in black on front wrapper

Reported stapled binding on first edition, possibly for advance or remainder copies.

Richard Price: Hippie Drawings. Germany: Hatje Cantz Velag, 2005. n. p.
A catalog of Price's drawings, published in conjunction with an exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ, London.
First edition 3,000 copies
Includes all nine parts of Brautigan's poem

• Cranium
• Diving Bell

• Swedish

All nine parts of this poem first published in this volume in the order listed below.
All nine parts of this poem were collected and reprinted in The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster.

"The Galilee Hitch-Hiker" Part 1
Baudelaire was
driving a Model A
across Galilee.
He picked up a
hitch-hiker named
Jesus who had
been standing among
a school of fish.
feeding them
pieces of bread.
"Where are you
going?" asked
Jesus, getting
into the front
seat.
"Anywhere, anywhere
out of this world!"
shouted
Baudelaire.
"I'll go with you
as far as
Golgotha,"
said Jesus.
"I have a
concession
at the carnival
there, and I
must be
late."

Baudelaire: Charles Baudelaire (1821-67), French poet.
"Jesus. . .fish . . . bread": cf. Matthew 14:13-21.
"Anywhere, anywhere out of this world!": the concluding lines of Baudelaire's prose poem "Anywhere Out of the World" in Paris Spleen (1869).
Golgatha: the site of Jesus' crucifixion. See Matthew 27:33.

Seven Watermelon Suns: Selected Poems of Richard Brautigan. The Cowell Press: University of California at Santa Cruz, 1974.
A collection of seven works by Brautigan, each printed as a separate 6" x 8.5" broadside with embossed color etchings by Ellen Meske. One of the seven poems reprinted was "The Galilee Hitch-Hiker." More . . .
"The American Hotel" Part 2
Baudelaire was sitting
in a doorway with a wino
on San Francisco's skidrow.
The wino was a million
years old and could remember
    dinosaurs.
Baudelaire and the wino
were drinking Petri Muscatel
"One must always be drunk,"
    said Baudelaire.
"I live in the American Hotel,"
said the wino. "And I can
    remember dinosaurs."
"Be you drunken ceaselessly,"
   said Baudelaire.

"One must always be drunk . . . Be you drunken ceaselessly": from Baudealire's prose poem "Get Drunk" in Paris Spleen (1869).
"1939" Part 3
Baudelaire used to come
to our house and watch
me grind coffee.
That was in 1939
and we lived in the slums
of Tacoma,
My mother would put
the coffee beans in the grinder.
I was a child
and would turn the handle,
pretending that it was
    a hurdy-gurdy,
and Baudelaire would pretend
that he was a monkey,
hopping up and down
and holding out
a tin cup.
"The Flowerburgers" Part 4
Baudelaire opened
up a hamburger stand
in San Francisco,
but he put flowers
between the buns.
People would come in
and say, "Give me a
hamburger with plenty
of onions on it."
Baudelaire would give
them a flowerburger
instead and the people
would say, "What kind
of a hamburger stand
is this?"

San Francisco Express Times 1(49) Dec. 24, 1968: 8-9.
Included eleven poems by Brautigan: "The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster," "The Day they Busted the Grateful Dead," "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," "Discovery," "At the California Institute of Technology," "Boo, Forever," "The Sidney Greenstreet Blues," "The Flowerburgers Part 4," "A Baseball Game Part 7," "December 24," and "The Garlic Meat Lady."
"The Hour of Eternity" Part 5
"The Chinese
read the time
in the eyes
of cats,"
said Baudelaire
and went into
a jewelry store
on Market Street.
He came out
a few moments
later carrying
a twenty-one
jewel Siamese
cat that he
wore on the
end of a
golden chain.

"The Chinese read the time in the eyes of cats": the opening sentence of Baudelaire's prose poem "The Clock" in Paris Spleen (1869).
"Salvador Dali" Part 6
"Are you
or aren't you
going to eat
your soup,
you bloody old
cloud merchant?"
Jeanne Duval
shouted,
hitting Baudelaire
on the back
as he sat
daydreaming
out the window.
Baudelaire was
startled.
Then he laughed
like hell,
waving his spoon
in the air
like a wand
changing the room
into a painting
by Salvador
Dali, changing
the room
into a painting
by Van Gogh.

Dali: Spanish surrealist painter (1904-1989).
cloud merchant: see the fourty-fourth prose poem in Baudelaire's Le Spleen de Paris [Paris Spleen], "La Soupe et Les Nuages [The Soup and The Clouds]."
Jeanne Duval: Baudelaire's mulatto mistress and the subject of many of his poems.
Van Gogh: Vincent van Vogh (1853-90), Dutch painter.
"A Baseball Game" Part 7
Baudelaire went
to a baseball game
and bought a hot dog
and lit up a pipe
of opium.
The New York Yankees
were playing
the Detroit Tigers.
In the fourth inning
and angel committed
suicide by jumping
off a low cloud.
The angel landed
on second base,
causing the whole infield
to crack like
a huge mirror.
The game was
called on
account of
fear.

San Francisco Express Times 1(49) Dec. 24, 1968: 8-9.
Included eleven poems by Brautigan: "The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster," "The Day they Busted the Grateful Dead," "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," "Discovery," "At the California Institute of Technology," "Boo, Forever," "The Sidney Greenstreet Blues," "The Flowerburgers Part 4," "A Baseball Game Part 7," "December 24," and "The Garlic Meat Lady."
"Insane Asylum" Part 8
Baudelaire went
to the insane asylum
disguised as a
psychiatrist.
He stayed there
for two months
and when he left,
the insane asylum
loved him so much
that it followed
him all over
California,
and Baudelaire
laughed when the
insane asylum
rubbed itself
up against his
leg like a
strange cat.
"My Insect Funeral" Part 9
When I was a child
I had a graveyard
where I buried insects
and dead birds under
a rose tree.
I would bury the insects
in tin foil and match boxes.
I would bury the birds
in pieces of red cloth.
It was all very sad
and I would cry
as I scooped the dirt
into their small graves
with a spoon.
Baudelaire would come
and join in
my insect funerals,
saying little prayers
the size of
dead birds. In addition to the specific reviews detailed below, commentary about this book may also be included in General Reviews of Brautigan's work and his place in American literature, or reviews of his Collections.


READ the full text of this review. READ the full text of the reference to Brautigan.