San francisco oracle

The Oracle of the City of San Francisco , also known as the San Francisco Oracle, is a newspaper published in the Haight Ashbury area of San Francisco from September 1966 to February 1968. ^[1] The founders of the newspaper were the poet Allen Cohen (1940–2004) and the artist Michael Bowen . Cohen served as editor in chief, and Bowen served as art editor. Oracle was one of the early members of the Underground Press Syndicate .

Oracle played an important role in the development of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture . The newspaper combined poetry, spirituality and cultural diversity with a psychedelic , vibrant design. Oracle was one of the outstanding examples of psychedelia in the countercultural press. The newspaper published many famous poets, writers and other creative people of the beat generation : Allen Ginsberg , Gary Snyder , Lawrence Ferlinghetti , Michael McClour , Bruce Conner and Rick Griffin .

The first edition of the newspaper was published in 3000 copies. The circulation of the fourth issue was already 15,000, the fifth 50,000, and the sixth 60-75,000 copies. At the peak of its popularity, the newspaper was published in a circulation of 125,000 copies. According to publishers, the readership of the newspaper during this period was about 500,000 people. ^[2]