Sanders, Ed

James Edward Sanders was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 17, 1939. In 1958, at the age of 17, he left the University of Missouri, hitchhiked to New York City, and enrolled at New York University . Between 1961 and 1963, Sanders participated in a number of nonviolent demonstrations against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. At a peace vigil in August 1961, Sanders was fined and later jailed for refusing to pay. While in jail, Sanders wrote his first book, Poem from Jail, a poem in nine parts published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti 's City Lights Books .

In 1962, Sanders opened Peace Eye Bookstore in the East Village neighborhood of New York City. The bookstore quickly became a gathering place for local activists, poets, artists and musicians. Sanders began publishing a literary journal that same year; Fuck You/A Magazine of the Arts featured poems by Sanders and many important writers of the Beat Generation, including William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, Diane DiPrima, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Frank O'Hara, Charles Olson, Joel Oppenheimer, Gary Snyder, and John Wieners . In 1966, after thirteen issues, the journal ended when it was seized, along with a number of publications and personal materials, when Sanders was charged with obscenity by the New York City police.

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