Beatitude—the quintessential Beat magazine—was “edited & produced on a kick or miss basis by a few hardy types who sneak out of alleys near Grant Avenue—the only responsible party being: John Kelly, publisher….” The magazine was founded in 1958 by Kelly, William J. Margolis, and jazz/surrealist poet Bob Kaufman, who said it “was designed to extol beauty and promote the beatific life among the various mendicants, neo-existentialists, christs, poets, painters, musicians and other inhabitants and observers of North Beach.”

Beatitude was initially printed on a mimeo machine at Pierre Delattre’s Bread and Wine Mission. Contributors included Allen Ginsberg, Lenore Kandel, ruth weiss, Philip Lamantia, Gregory Corso Richard Brautigan, and the editors, among dozens of others. There are 34 issues in the magazine’s first incarnation.