The Merry Pranksters decorate their bus for a 1966 Halloween party in San Francisco. Psychedelic trips attracted the pranksters and many like them to the city; others were drawn by self-sufficiency, homespun industry and a deep respect for craft. 

Though we live in an age that’s in thrall to technology, the happiest people I know are not the most tech-savvy. They’re artisans and artists, ceramicists, poets, booksellers, carpenters. They hike in the woods and row boats in the bay. Their hands are nicked and scratched from the work they do or how hard they play. They build things.

One evening recently, I dropped in on a birthday party at City Lights Bookstore that offered a hopeful counterpoint to our relentlessly ugly times. Andrew Hoyem, poet, printer, founder of Arion Press, literary curator, traveler, collector of art and artists, celebrated his 90th year by reading from “Resurgence,” his new book of poetry. 

Ninety years is occasion enough for a party, but it was Hoyem’s impact on fine art publishing and on San Francisco’s place in American letters that was the real subject of the evening’s festivities. Dapper in a “Sun Also Rises” beret and multicolored artist’s tie, he spoke softly, tentatively at first, but launched into each of the nine poems he read with a strong voice and........

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