On and off during 1961-62  Fred was roaming the country with Robin Galyan, hitchiking, hopping rides on freight trains,  and having adventures while trying to track down the likes of Neil Cassidy, Jack Kerouac and other Dharma Bums.  Throughout all these adventures he kept true to his ideals and goals.   He had always wanted to be a published author,  and  during these travels he wrote in his tattered notebook nearly every night.   He finally did get a collection of poems published,  a "self published" endeavor he, Robin,  Joan and several of his other friends together paid to get published.    Those were lean times and although it was under $1000 it was a LOT of money, but everyone believed in Fred and liked his poetry,  so ganging together to pay for publishing it was the right thing to do.

The book is a book of poems and i called "Songs of a Muses Slave".    It was considered "Beat Genre" at the time. 
It was not even issued a ISBN number,  and only 250 copies were printed.   

Gary, his brother, had a copy as did Doug Nelson.   Some of the pages were quite worn and nearly unreadable.
  They mailed xerox copies to Robin in 1998 who then hand typed them all out and first emailed a page a month to the classmates of Freds, then later put them up here on our website. 

If there ever was enough interest the book could be reprinted now,  with a proper ISBN number,  and perhaps Fred then be given the due he sought in those days.   It would be an honor to his memory and to his family to get that accomplished.    Will you help? 

So to read and enjoy this small book poetry,  click on the following:

Songs of a Muses Slave
by C. Frederick Shelley

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