Huge Dreams republishes two books, out of print for thirty years, which together are a cornerstone of the Beat movement — The New Book/A Book of Torture and Star. Both were influential in expanding poetry into a larger world — the West Coast Beat phenomena, which focused on nature, the environment, antiwar activities, individual anarchism, Zen Buddhism, jazz, and a kind of romantic mystical thought. With these books Michael McClure brought an animal energy and a knowledge of art and physical human nature that was new to the scene.The New Book/A Book of Torture was written spontaneously while McClure was in a dark night of the soul” brought on by psychedelics. A single long poem of experience and exploration