V. Vale is a staple at Vesuvio Alley outside City Lights Bookstore in North Beach, manning his table of exquisitely odd books and zines.

As founder of RE/Search Publications, Vale has been documenting punk & counterculture movements since the 1970s, when he got his start with funding from Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg.

In the nearly 50 years since, Vale had continued to publish completely independently from the same neighborhood where he got his start.