Allen Cohen, Founder of Underground SF Newspaper, Dies

[Kadie]

Allen Cohen, Founder of Underground SF Newspaper, Dies

May 2 (AP) — Counterculture pioneer Allen Cohen, who helped put Haight-Ashbury on the map as founder of the San Francisco Oracle during the 1960s, has died of liver cancer. He was 64.

snip...
The same year, Cohen was arrested on obscenity charges for selling a collection of erotic poetry called "The Love Book." He was convicted and fined $50.

After the last issue of the Oracle came out in 1968, Cohen moved to a commune in Albion, near Mendocino. He co-wrote a poetic and photographic book on the birth of his son called "Childbirth is Ecstasy" in 1970. Cohen continued writing poetry after moving back to San Francisco into the 1970s.

Recently, Cohen was the coeditor of "An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind," a poetry anthology dealing with the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. The book won the 2003 PEN National Literary Award


more... http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/050204ap_nw_cohen_obit.html

[lucidmadman]

1. Bad news...

...but thanks for posting this.
I knew Allen vaguely in the late '70s. We worked the same part-time 'Mcjob'. He was funny, hopeful, smart, not everyone there knew who he was...
Random memory from that time: Riding the Van Ness bus and this guy gets on carrying a Christmas tree. The tree comes in the door first and then the guy, it's Allen Cohen. The bus driver's seen everything. He doesn't care that the tree's bigger than the guy. I remember the s__t-eating grin on Allen's face when he saw and recognized me back in the bus...

[jcldragon]

2. Waaaaaaaa!

I loved The Oracle!