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.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, in addition to organizing and participating in a number of political actions, Sanders continued to produce poetry, prose, broadsides, underground newsletters, periodicals, and films, some of which were published by his own small press operations ( Fuck You Press, and Poetry, Crime & Culture Press ). He also gained national notoriety at this time as a rock musician with the band the Fugs, a group he co-founded with friend and poet, Tuli Kupferberg . Between 1965 and 1970, the band recorded six albums and toured regularly, playing at small theaters, colleges, political rallies, and bookstores.

From the guide to the Ed Sanders Papers., undated, 1955-1976., (Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center .)