“I’ll print anything”
As a corollary to his Fuck You/ A Magazine of the Arts, Ed Sanders published a variety of books and broadsides under the Fuck You Press imprint. Sanders also employed the mimeograph machine at his Peace Eye Bookstore to print catalogs, a newsletter, and ephemera for the FUGS, the band he co-founded with Tuli Kupferberg and Ken Weaver.
The Peace Eye Bookstore was located at 383 East Tenth Street on the Lower East Side. On January 1, 1966, police raided Peace Eye Bookstore and charged Sanders with obscenity, charges he fended off with the aid of the ACLU. Notoriety generated by the case led to his appearance on the February 17, 1967 cover of Life Magazine, which proclaimed him “a leader of New York’s Other Culture.”
Books and Publications
1. POEMS FOR MARILYN, edited by Ed Sanders
First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, September 1962
Side-stapled in printed and illustrated covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 20 pages printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Illustrated by Ed Sanders.
Contents: Joel Oppenheimer (“Dear Miss Monroe”), John Keys (“Poem for Marilyn”), Taylor Mead (“from Taylor Mead’s Diary”), Al Fowler (“Marilyn”), Ed Sanders (“For Marilyn Monroe August 5, 1962”), John Harriman (“She was a/and Almost Saintly Woman”).
From the colophon: “This volume was hand typed & and by hand mimeographed on speed-o-print Sovereign Stencils catalogue number 851 with a model L Speed-o-print serial #416-3H
POEMS FOR MARILYN sneakily & evilly stomped out on Granitex Flame paper cat. no. 49884-A at a secret location in the lower east side USA
A FUCK YOU/ PRESS PUBLICATION.”
2. Bergé, Carol. THE VANCOUVER REPORT
First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, February 1964
Side-stapled in printed covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 20 pages printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Illustrated by Ed Sanders.
This is Carol Berge’s first book and is her account of the the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Seminar held at the University of British Columbia; other attendees included Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Margaret Avison, Philip Whalen, John Keys, and others.
From the colophon: “THE VANCOUVER REPORT / A FUCK YOU/ press PUBLICATION printed, published & zapped by Ed Sanders at secret location in the lower east side New York City, U.S.A. February 1964 year of the writhing squack
TOTAL ASSAULT ON THE CULTURE!”
3. Burroughs, William S. ROOSEVELT AFTER INAUGURATION
First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, January 1964
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 4.25″ x 5.5″, 24 pages, 500 copies, mimeograph printed by Ed Sanders. Illustrated by Allen Ginsberg. (M&M A9a)
According to Beatbooks catalog #89: The routine, created by Burroughs and Kells Elvins while students at Harvard and originally intended for inclusion in “The Yage Letters”, was censored by the English printers, and subsequently printed in Floating Bear No. 9 (M&M C33), resulting in its editor LeRoi Jones being jailed.
From the colophon: “a FUCK YOU/ press ejaculation printed, published, & zapped at a secret location in the lower east side, new york city
Jan 1964
TOTAL ASSAULT ON THE CULTURE!!”
4. MAXIMS AND APHORISMS FROM THE LETTERS OF D.H. LAWRENCE, compiled by Marguerite Harris
First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, September 1964
Side-stapled in printed and illustrated covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 19 pages printed recto only, 250 numbered copies, mimeograph printed. Illustrated by Ed Sanders.
From the colophon: “MAXIMS & APHORISMS printed, designed, & zapped in an edition of 250 copies at the [heiroglyphics] press in a secret location in the lower east side, New York City, U.S.A.
Sept. 1964”
Note: includes two poems, “The Thread of Love” and “The Race”, by Marguerite Harris.
5. Pélieu, Claude. AUTOMATIC PILOT
First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press and City Lights, November 1964
Side-stapled in printed and photo-illustrated covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 41 pages printed recto only. Illustrated by Ed Sanders. Cover photo by Jacques Henri Lartigue.
From the title page: “AUTOMATIC PILOT! printed, freaked, stomped, slurped, spurted, zapped, & ejaculated at a secret love-attack zone grope center in the Lower East Side, New York, U.S.A.
Nov 1964.
The FUCK YOU/ press in close & evil association, collusion & gropery with CITY LIGHTS BOOKS”
Note: this is Pélieu’s first book, translated from French to English by Mary Beach.
6. A VALORIUM EDITION OF THE ENTIRE EXTANT WORKS OF THALES, edited by Ed Sanders
First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, June 1964
Side-stapled in printed and illustrated covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 4 pages printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Introduction by Aristotle. Illustrated by Ed Sanders.
From the colophon: “a fuck you/ press publication printed, published & zapped by E. Sanders at secret location in the lower east side
new york city, u.S.a.
TOTAL ASSAULT ON THE CULTURE!”
7. BUGGER: AN ANTHOLOGY, edited by Ed Sanders
First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, November 1964
Side-stapled in printed and illustrated covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 23 pages printed recto only, 400 copies, mimeograph printed. Illustrated by Ed Sanders.
Contents: Szabo ([untitled] “kneeling, she bends over…”), Allen Ginsberg (“This Form of Life Needs Sex” ), Ed Sanders (“Corn Hole Poem”), Ted Berrigan ([untitled] “Dear Ed…”, “Buggery”), John Harriman (“Bugger 3”), Ron Padgett (“Buggery Poem”), Al Fowler ([untitled] “watching the ladies conjugate thru…”), John Keys (“Bugger”), Harry Fainlight (“O London”).
From the title page: “BUGGER printed, published, freaked, groped, slurped, sucked, fucked, edited, finger-stalled, supposited, & ejaculated by Ed Sanders at a secret Bugger scene in the lower east side, New York City, U.S.A.
November 1964
a fuck you/ FLAMING TUCHAS publication
TOTAL BUGGERY IN THE CULTURE!
Labor donated by bugger-freaks”
8. DESPAIR: POEMS TO COME DOWN BY, edited by Ed Sanders
First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, July 1964
Side-stapled in printed and illustrated covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 36 pages printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Illustrated by Ed Sanders.
Contents: Ted Berrigan ([untitled] “Dear Ed…”, “Three Stages of Despair”), Paul Blackburn (“The Quarrel”, “On the Rocks”), John Keys (“Allen Ginsberg on English Day: A Poem to Cry by while High”), Al Fowler (“Narration for a Home Movie taken by the Poet”), Harry Fainlight (“The Despair Poem”), Ed Sanders (“Despair Poem”), Szabo (“Spring Street Poem for C”).
From the colophon: “DESPAIR an issue with which to disappear into the vanishing asshole of the void
a FUCK YOU/ press publication printed, zapped, puked, & published by Ed Sanders at a secret lovefare bunker in the lower east side new york city U.S.A.
TOTAL ASSAULT ON THE CULTURE”