Memoirs of "The Smog Inspector"

Correspondence and draft materials in the collection indicate that Mel Weisburd worked well into the twenty-first century on an undated memoir entitled "The Smog Inspector," which sought to chronicle his biographical and literary experiences, epsecially in the Los Angeles poetry scene of the 1950s. Central among the stories Weisburd tells here are remembrances of his encounters with the Beat movement, and specifically his experience of Allen Ginsberg's scandalous live reading of "Howl" during an L.A. event hosted by Coastlines. There, Ginsberg memorably responded to the taunts of a heckler by stripping naked and challenging his tormentor to do the same. Ginsberg's poetry generated mixed emotions for Weisburd and McGrath, and what truly happened at the live reading was a point of contention between Weisburd's circle and those who followed the Venice West poet Lawrence Lipton. After the Ginsberg event, Weisburd writes on the next page, "the literary underground was split into two factions."

Weisburd revisted his effort to write and publish a memoir for the rest of his life. His papers include correspondence with various publishers discussing the book's possibilities. Lamentably, it was never completed. Manuscripts and correspondance in the collection also illustrate other efforts over the years to write longer works bridging his scientific and literary interests, including a proposed book on the topic of LSD, and a science fiction novel.