Tag Archives: William S. Burroughs

little magazines

The Floating Bear

THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 24, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones (New York, September-October 1962)

The subtitle “A Newsletter” is the key to The Floating Bear’s chief contribution to literature of the 1960’s; it was a newsletter, a speedy line of communication between experimental poets. Diane di Prima, in the introduction to the reprint edition of Floating Bear, recalls Charles Olson’s tribute to the magazine: “The last time I saw Charles Olson in Gloucester, one of the things he talked about was how valuable the Bear had been to him in its early years because of the fact that he could get new work out that fast. He was very involved in speed, in communication. We got manuscripts from him pretty regularly in the early days of the Bear, and we’d usually get them into the very next issue. That meant that his work, his thoughts, would be in the hands of a few hundred writers within two or three weeks. It was like writing a letter to a bunch of friends.”

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little magazines

Yugen

YUGEN, No. 3, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen.

Edited by Beat poet LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen, Yugen was devoted to “A New Consciousness in the Arts and Letters”. Bringing together the Beats, Black Mountain poets, and the New York School poets of the late 1950s, Yugen took its name from the Japanese aesthetic term meaning “a profound mysterious sense of the beauty of universe … and the sad beauty of human suffering.”

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Yugen

Edited by Beat poet LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen, Yugen was devoted to “A New Consciousness in the Arts and Letters”. Bringing together the Beats, Black Mountain poets, and the New York School poets of the late 1950s, Yugen took its name from the Japanese aesthetic term meaning “a profound mysterious sense of the beauty of universe … and the sad beauty of human suffering.” Cohen, later Hettie Jones, had worked at the Partisan Review and brought with her a background in little-magazine design that gave Yugen an air of respectability and professionalism. The contents represented a new and untraditional approach to poetry. Jones and Cohen also founded Totem Press, which published important early books by Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Diane di Prima, Jack Kerouac, and many others. Like Yugen, Totem Press books typically feature calligraphic covers that mix American abstract expressionism and Japanese Zen painting.

1. YUGEN, No. 1, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages. Printed in New York by Troubador Press. Cover art by Peter Schwartzburg with calligraphy by Rachel Spitzer. Illustrations by Hector Stewart, Peter Schwartzburg, Tomi Ungerer, and Allen Ginsberg. Titles and composition by Rachel Spitzer and Michael Aleshire

  • Contents:
    1. Philip Whalen – “Further Notice”
      Philip Whalen – “Takeout, 4:II:58”
      Philip Whalen – “Takeout, 15:IV:57”
      Ed James – [untitled] “Mother, be soft and unremembered…”
      Ed James – [untitled] “Hawks will cry…”
      Judson Crews – “Potaphor in a Wretched Wind”
      Judson Crews – “When We Were Young”
      Tom Postell – “Gertrude Stein Rides The Town Down El to New York City”
      Tom Postell – “I Want a Solid Piece of Sunlight and a Yardstick to Measure it with”
      Allen Polite – “Beg Him to Help”
      Allen Polite – “Touching Air”
      Stephen Tropp – “Early Poem for 2 People”
      Bobb Hamilton- “Judgement Day”
      LeRoi Jones – “Slice of Life”
      LeRoi Jones – “Lines to Garcia Lorca”
      Diane Di Prima – “Poem”
      Diane Di Prima – “For Pound, Cocteau & Picasso”
      Ernest Kean – “The Glass is Shattered”
      Jack Micheline – “Steps”
      Allen Ginsberg – [untitled] “We rode on a lonely bus…”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Hitch-Hiking Key West”
      Allen Ginsberg – “In a Red Bar”
      Allen Ginsberg – “On Burroughs’ Work”

2. YUGEN, No. 2, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages. Printed in New York by Troubador Press. Cover art and titles by Tomi Ungerer. Illustrations by Peter Schwarzburg.

  • Contents:
    1. Gregory Corso – “A Spontaneous Requiem for the American Indian”
      Tuli Kupferberg – “4 Haiku”
      Thomas Postell – “Harmony”
      LeRoi Jones – “Suppose Sorrow was a Time Machine”
      Barbara Ellen Moraff – “Poem for Theo”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “The Colossus of Havana”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “The Trucks”
      Diane Di Prima – “The Lovers”
      Oliver Pitcher – “Tango”
      James Boyer May – “The Back of Mind”
      Harold Briggs – “Being”
      Bobb Hamilton – “A Sentence”
      Gary Snyder – “Chion-in”
      Ben Spellman – “Fool”
      George Stade – “To a Candidate for the Ph.D in Seventeenth Century Literature”

3. YUGEN, No. 3, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages. Cover art by Peter Schwartzburg. Illustrations by Stanley Fisher.

  • Contents:
    1. Gary Snyder – “Praise for Sick Women”
      Gary Snyder – “Another for the Same”
      William S. Burroughs – “Have You Seen Pantapon Rose?”
      Charles Farber – “Morning Highway”
      Barbara Moraff – “Poem for Tamara”
      Barbara Moraff – “In a Hospital Room from a Halfclosed Lid”
      Barbara Moraff – “Wednesday Understands That”
      C. Jack Stamm – “Now When I Hear”
      Philip Whalen – “Soufflé”
      Gilbert Sorrentino – “The Darkness Surrounds Us”
      Allen Ginsberg – “A New Cottage in Berkeley”
      Mason Jordan Mason – “The Curse of Ham”
      Diane Di Prima – “Lullaby”
      George Stade – “To the White Goddess”
      George Stade – “Advice to the Lovelorn”
      Peter Orlovsky – “First Poem”
      Fivos Delfis – ”A Bird” (trans. Charles Guenther)
      Ray Bremser – “Part III (Poems of the City Madness)”
      Robin Blaser – “Quitting a Job”
      Thomas Jackrell – “Got Them”

4. YUGEN, No. 4, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 28 pages. Cover art by Fielding Dawson.

  • Contents:
    1. Charles Olson – “The Librarian”
      Peter Orlovsky – “Second Poem”
      Frank O’Hara – “To Hell with It”
      Frank O’Hara – “Music”
      Max Finstein – “The Deception”
      Max Finstein – “Savonarola’s Tune”
      Fielding Dawson – “My Old Buddy, for Leonard”
      Allen Ginsberg – “A Crazy Spiritual”
      Ray Bremser – “Penal Madness (Part 1)”
      Edward Marshall – “Jonah at Danbury”
      Edward Marshall – “At Tudor City”
      Joel Oppenheimer – “In the Clutch, for M.F.”
      Joel Oppenheimer – “Fugue”
      Judson Crews – “White Hollyhocks”
      Michael McClure – “The Chamber”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “7.20.58 – for Sue”
      Gary Snyder – “from Myths & Texts”
      Jack Kerouac – “2 Blues and 4 Haikus”
      John Wieners – “Spring 1956”
      Robert Creeley – “New Year’s”
      Robert Creeley – “Saturday Afternoon”
      Gregory Corso – “Away One Year”
      LeRoi Jones – “Parthenos”
      Gilbert Sorrentino – “A Fixture”
      Mason Jordan Mason – “Yes Yes Yes”
      Gregory Corso – “For Black Mountain”

5. YUGEN, No. 5, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1959
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 40 pages. Cover art by Basil King. Illustration by Fielding Dawson.

  • Contents:
    1. William Carlos Williams, – “A Formal Design”
      Allen Ginsberg – “from Kaddish”
      Barbara Guest – “Sunday Evening”
      Barbara Guest – “The Crisis”
      David Meltzer – “15th Raga / for Bela Lugosi”
      David Meltzer – “from Night Before Morning / Book One”
      Max Finstein – “A Blue Whale’s Heart”
      Paul Blackburn – “Ramas, Divendres, Diumenga”
      Paul Blackburn – “A Purity Defined”
      Philip Whalen – “I Return to San Francisco”
      Diane Di Prima – “Earthsong”
      John Wieners – “A Poem for Virgins (excerpt)”
      Walter Lowenfels – “The Nightingale, for D.H. Lawrence”
      Michael McClure – “Rant Block”
      Rainer Gerhardt – “Fragment” (trans. Jerome Rothenberg)
      Rainer Gerhardt – “Voices” (trans. Jerome Rothenberg)
      Frank O’Hara – “Ode on Causality”
      César Vallejo – “Black Stone on a White Stone” (trans. Lillian Lowenfels)
      Bruce Fearing – “Scenic Viewpoint”
      Jack Kerouac – “Sitting Under Tree Number Two”
      Barbara Moraff – [untitled] “Like a bowlegged woman…”
      Gregory Corso – “Food”
      Larry Eigner – [untitled] “No-one here…”
      Joel Oppenheimer – “The Issue at Hand”
      Gilbert Sorrentino – letter to the editor

6. YUGEN, No. 6, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1960
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 52 pages. Cover art by Basil King.

  • Contents:
    1. Michael McClure – “The Column”
      Charles Olson – “As of Bozeman”
      Charles Olson – “The Distances”
      Charles Olson – “Letter, May 2, 1959”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “Trees / 6”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “Etude, with Chair”
      Philip Lamantia – “Blank Poem for Poe”
      Paul Blackburn – “Song of the Wires”
      Robin Blaser – “Out to Dinner”
      Hubert Selby, Jr. – “Episode from Landsend”
      David Meltzer – “4th Raga / for John Kelly Reed”
      Ray Bremser – “Backyards & Deviations”
      Ed Dorn – “The 6th”
      Ed Dorn – “The 7th”
      Rochelle Owens – “Groshl Monkeys Horses”
      Paul Carroll – “By Its Familiar Accent We Recognize The Ghost”
      Robert Creeley – “The Joke”
      Robert Creeley – “Letter”
      Robert Creeley – “What’s for Dinner”
      Tristan Tzara – “Wheat” (trans. Daisy Aldan)
      Gary Snyder – “A Walk”
      Gary Snyder – “Wild Horses”
      Gary Snyder – “After Work”
      Gary Snyder – “On Vulture Peak”
      Edward Marshall – [untitled] “We as scoffers undercut the sea…”
      LeRoi Jones – “Node”
      LeRoi Jones – “The A, B, C’s”
      Jack Kerouac – “Rimbaud”
      David Wang – “II. Invocation”
      Kenneth Koch – “From a Book of Poetry”
      Larry Eigner – [untitled] “Night. Everything falls flat…”
      Edward Dahlberg – “On Passions and Asceticism”
      Frank O’Hara – “Personal Poem”

7. YUGEN, No. 7, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1961
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 65 pages. Cover art by Norman Bluhm.

  • Contents:
    1. LeRoi Jones – “Putdown of the Whore of Babylon”
      Gilbert Sorrentino – “2 Book Reviews”
      Bruce Boyd – “Summer Nightmusic”
      Bruce Boyd – “This is How the Wind Sings…”
      Bruce Boyd – “A Quarrel of Minstrels”
      Bruce Boyd – “Water”
      Bruce Boyd – “Song”
      Bruce Boyd – “Poem”
      Robert Creeley – “The New World”
      Kenneth  Koch – “Guinevere, or The Death of the Kangaroo”
      George Stanley – “Parallels”
      George Stanley – “Winter”
      George Stanley – “Shapes”
      Frank O’Hara – “Personism: A Manifesto”
      Gregory Corso – “On Chessman’s Crime”
      Gregory Corso – “For Black Mountain-2”
      B. Smith  – “Empty Bed Blues”
      Stuart Z Perkoff, – “To Orpheus”
      Stuart Z Perkoff – “Poem”
      Stuart Z Perkoff – “Pithecanthropus Erectus”
      Gilbert Sorrentino – “Some Notes…”
      John Ashbery – “From a Comic Book”
      John Ashbery – “Leaving the Atocha Station”
      Philip Whalen  – “Literary Life in the Golden West”
      Philip Whalen – “Sincerity Shot, 23:III:58”
      Philip Whalen – “A Manuscript in Several Hands 3:III:60”
      Larry Eigner – “K in the USA”
      Larry Eigner – letter to the editor
      Max Finstein – “For Fair Eleanor”
      Joel Oppenheimer – “Morning Song”
      Diane Di Prima – “The Jungle”
      Charles Olson – “Theory of Society”
      Edward Marshall – “Sept. 1957”
      Joel Oppenheimer – letter to the editor
      Allen Ginsberg – “The End”
      LeRoi Jones – “Public Notice”
      Norman Bluhm – untitled drawing
      Frank O’Hara – “Denouement”

8. YUGEN, No. 8, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen-Jones
New York: Totem Press, 1962
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 66 pages. Cover art by Basil King. Illustration by Aaron Roseman.

  • Contents:
    1. George Stanley – “The Message Held up to the Speeding Train on a Willow Hoop”
      George Stanley – “Punishment”
      George Stanley – “The Meteor”
      George Stanley – “The Implicit Acknowledgements”
      George Stanley – [untitled] “The larks…”
      George Stanley – “Valentine”
      George Stanley – “A False Start”
      Gilbert Sorrentino – book reviews of Duncan and Spicer
      Steve Jonas – “No. IV Orgasms”
      Steve Jonas – “Tensone with Relent”
      Steve Jonas – “Discourse”
      Steve Jonas – “To a Strayed Cat”
      Steve Jonas – “A Long Poem for Jack Spicer”
      William Burroughs – “The Cut Up Method of Brion Gysin”
      Speckled Red – “Red’s Dozens”
      George Stanley – book reviews of Finstein and Sorrentino
      Gilbert Sorrentino – “The Meeting”
      Gilbert Sorrentino – “The Memory”
      Edward Dorn – “Notes about Working and Waiting Around”
      Robert Creeley – “Some Notes on Olson’s Maximus”
      Edward Marshall – [untitled] “One writes when…”
      Edward Marshall – “Memory as Memorial in the Last”
      LeRoi Jones – “The Largest Ocean in the World”
      Charles Olson – “Place; & Names”
      Charles Olson – “Book ii, Chapter 37”

Online Resources:

· From a Secret Location – Yugen

· Reality Studio – Yugen

 

little magazines

CALL IT BIG TABLE

BIG TABLE, No. 1, edited by Irving Rosenthal and Paul Carrol.

“Big Table was launched in Spring 1959 following the suppression of the Winter 1958 issue of The Chicago Review. An exposé in the Chicago Daily News revealed editors Irving Rosenthal’s and Paul Carroll’s plans to publish work by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and other Beat writers, and the administration quashed the magazine…”

— from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side

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Big Table

“Big Table was launched in Spring 1959 following the suppression of the Winter 1958 issue of The Chicago Review. An exposé in the Chicago Daily News revealed editors Irving Rosenthal’s and Paul Carroll’s plans to publish work by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and other Beat writers, and the administration quashed the magazine.

Rosenthal and Carroll, along with other Chicago Review editors, resigned and with the suppressed material started Big Table. The first issue was edited by Rosenthal and Carroll, though Carroll had to withdraw his name in order to avoid being fired by Loyola University where he was employed. This issue contained work by Jack Kerouac (who named the magazine in a telegram: “CALL IT BIG TABLE”), Edward Dahlberg, and Burroughs (a section from Naked Lunch), and was summarily impounded by the US Post Office.

The lawsuit was unsuccessful and Big Table continued through 1960 and five issues. Rosenthal left the magazine after the first issue and Carroll stayed on as editor for the duration, publishing such writers and artists as Paul Bowles, Antonin Artaud, Leon Golub, John Logan, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Robert Fulton, Harry Callahan, Douglas Woolf, Aaron Siskind, Paul Blackburn, Franz Kline, Diane di Prima, and Gregory Corso.”

— from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side

1. BIG TABLE, No. 1, edited by Irving Rosenthal and Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Spring 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 158 pages, printed by The Profile Press of New York.

  • Contents:
    1. Irving Rosenthal – “Editorial”
      Jack Kerouac – “Old Angel Midnight”
      Edward Dahlberg – “Further Sorrow of Priapus”
      Edward Dahlberg – “The Garment of Ra”
      William S. Burroughs – “Ten Episodes from Naked Lunch”
      Gregory Corso – “Power, for Allen Ginsberg”
      Gregory Corso – “Army”
      Gregory Corso – “Police”

2. BIG TABLE, No. 2, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Summer 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 124 pages. Cover art by Leon Golub.

  • Contents:
    1. John D. Keefauver – “The Daring Old Maid on the Flying Trapeze”
      Serge Essenin – “The Tramp’s Confession”
      Lawrence Alloway – “Heroes & Monsters & Mothers”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Horseman”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Burnt Man”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Kaddish”
      John Logan – “Fire”
      Antonin Artaud – Three Exhortations”
      Alan Ansen – “Anyone Who Can Pick Up a Frying Pan Owns Death”
      Paul Bowles – “Burroughs in Tangier”
      William S. Burroughs – “In Quest of Yage”
      Gael Turnbull – “The Priests of Paris”
      Brother Antoninus – “Zone of Death”
      Andre Breton – “Despair”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Birth VII”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Orestes”
      Edward Dahlberg – “Because I Was Flesh”
      Paul Blackburn – “The Signals”
      Margarita Liberaki – “Wedding”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Abraham Lincoln”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Columnar Head”
      Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “The Great Chinese Dragon”

3. BIG TABLE, Vol. 1, No. 3, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 120 pages. Cover photograph by Aaron Siskind.

  • Contents:
    1. Allen Ginsberg – “Kaddish”
      John Rechy – “The Fabulous Wedding of Miss Destiny”
      Robert Duncan – “Evocation”
      John Ashbery – “How much longer will I be able to inhabit the Divine Sepulcher”
      John Ashbery – “April Fool’s Day”
      Aaron Siskin – “Terrors & Pleasures of Levitation: four plates”
      Edward Dahlberg – “Because I was Flesh”
      Robert Creeley – “The Way”
      James Wright – “A Whisper to the Ghost who woke Me”
      Paul Carroll – “Father”
      Norman Mailer – “Quick & Expensive Comment on the Talent in the Room”
      Paul Blackburn – “Banyalbufar”
      Edward Dorn – “The Air of June Sings”
      Renee Riese Hubert – “Sizes”
      Peter Orlovsky – “First Poem”
      Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “Her”
      Jean Genet – “The Beggars of Barcelona”

4. BIG TABLE, Vol. 1, No. 4, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Spring 1960
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 144 pages. Cover art by Robert Fulton.

  • Contents:
    1. William S. Burroughs – “But is all Back Seat of Dreaming”
      Richard G. Stern – “Two Talking”
      John Ashbery – “Europe”
      Douglas Woolf – “Wall to Wall”
      Franz Kline – “Plate: Mister”
      John Logan – “from Monologues of The Son of Saul”
      Robert Creeley – “The Awakening, for Charles Olson”
      Robert Creeley – “The Wife”
      Robert Creeley – “The Memory”
    2. Robert Creeley – “The Snow”
      Harold Norse – “I Am in the Hub of the Fiery Force”
      Harold Norse – “The Fire Sermon”
      James Wright – “Snow Storm in the Mid-West”
      James Wright – “A Young One in a Garden”
      Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “New York – Albany”
      Paul Blackburn – “The Idiot”
      Paul Blackburn – “Homage to the Spirit”
      Frank O’Hara – “Les Luths”
      Frank O’Hara – “Joe’s Jacket”
      Robert Duncan – “Four Pictures of the Real Universe”
      Denise Levertov – “The Rainwalkers”
      Gregory Corso – “Rembrandt – Self Portrait”
      Gregory Corso – “Emily Dickenson”
      Gregory Corso – “Walk”
      Kenneth Koch – “Lunch”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Message”
      William Hunt – Song from the End of the Earth”
      Michael McClure – “Two Poems from a Small Secret Book”
      Bill Berkson – “Poem”
      Paul Carroll – “34′-23′-35′”
      Diane Di Prima – [untitled] “I am a woman and my poems…”
      Philip Lamantia – “Still Poem 8”
      Philip Lamantia – “Cool Apocalypse”
      David Meltzer – “from Notes for a History”
      Gary Snyder – “The Manichaeans”
      Leroi Jones – “For Hettie in her Fifth Month”
      Charles Olson – “Maximus, to Gloucester, Sunday, July 19”
      Robert Creeley – “Olson & Others”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Notes on Young Poets”
      Paul Blackburn – “Writing for the Ear”
      Paul Carroll – “Five Poets in their Skins”

5. BIG TABLE, Vol. 2, No. 5, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, 1960
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 128 pages. Cover art by Harry Callahan.

  • Contents:
    1. Douglas Woolf – “Stand Still”
      Frank O’Hara – “Naptha”
      Edward Dahlberg – “Because I was Flesh”
      Frederick Tristan – “The Bread Tree”
      Frederick Tristan – “The Whole Sea is yet to Come”
      Robert Duncan – “Apprehensions”
      Paul Bowles – “He of the Assembly”
      Kenneth Koch – “Farms’ Thoughts”
      John Rechy – “Between two Lions”
      Bill Berkson – “Poem for Frank O’Hara”
      Pablo Neruda – “Lone Gentleman” (trans. Clayton Eshleman)
      Pablo Neruda – “Death” (trans. Clayton Eshleman)
      John Updike – “Archangel”
      John Ashbery – “Night”
    2. John Ashbery – “A Last Word”
      Harold Rosenberg – “from Arshile Gorky”
      David Meltzer – “Rain Poem”
      David Meltzer – “Heroes: Zap, the Zen Monk”
      Alain Robbe-Grillet – “Scene”
      John Schultz – “Witness”

Online Resources:

From a Secret Location – Big Table

Reality Studio – Big Table

References Consulted:

Maynard, Joe and Barry Miles. William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography, 1953-73
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978

little magazines

Cleft, Edinburgh University

CLEFT, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Bill McArthur. Edinburgh, June 1963

Bill McArthur studied drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art, then took a degree in Fine Art at Edinburgh University. At Edinburgh he became known as an illustrator and cartoonist in the student press, and editor of the student magazines Gambit and Cleft.

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Cleft

Bill McArthur studied drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art, then took a degree in Fine Art at Edinburgh University. At Edinburgh he became known as an illustrator and cartoonist in the student press, and editor of the student magazines Gambit and Cleft.

Following his involvement in Gambit, McArthur went on to edit Cleft magazine from 1963 to 1964. With an irreverent sweep he downplayed the very function of small magazine in the first issue’s editorial:

” The field of the small literary magazine is, generally speaking, one of sequestered obscurity. It emanates a wilful negation of commercial contact; an opting out of the monetary contract. Drabness of intention and presentation characterize the production. Little attempt is made at communication and they tend to reflect, to a crippling extent, the particular predilections of the current editor. This opting out of the commercial aspect of magazine production has a useful side-kick in that it ensures the brevity of their existence. As a medium of communication they are of doubtful value.”

While McArthur’s prophecy may have been fatefully correct in certain respects, as the magazine itself was only to survive two issues, the publication was certainly anything but drab. The first issue contained contributions from a range of international writers including Norman Mailer, Eugene Ionesco, William Burroughs, Andrei Voznesensky, Anselm Hollo, and Louis Zukofsky. The second issue once again contained work by Burroughs and Mailer, as well as the first two paragraphs from the Noigandres Group’s Pilot Plan for Concrete Poetry.

1. CLEFT, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Bill McArthur 
Edinburgh: Cleft, June 1963
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 7” x 9.5”, 36 pages.

  • Contents:
    1. Kenneth White – “The Real Climate”
      Norman Mailer – “Four Poems”
      Eugene Ionesco – “The Motor Show”
      William Burroughs – “Martin’s Folly”
      Giles Gordon – “The Milkman”
      Andrei Vosnesensky (trans by Edwin Morgan) – “Three Poems”
      Hugh MacDiarmid – “The Poet We Hope For”
      Astrid Gillis – “Same Rain”
      Anselm Hollo – “The Seventh Lady”
      Iain Inglis – “The Sook”
      Alex Neish – “Leaving for Buenos Aires”
      L. Zukofsky – “Poem 29 (1938), from Anew”

2. CLEFT, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Bill McArthur
Edinburgh: Cleft, May 1964
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 7” x 9.5”, 32 pages.

  • Contents:
    1. Henry Miller – “O Lake of Light”
      William Burroughs – “A Distant Hand Lifted”
      Norman Mailer – “Greasing the Radar”
      Norman Mailer – “A Study of Cancer”
      Robert Garioch – “At Robert Fergusson’s Grave”
      Mike McClure – “Ghost Tantra 50”
      Anselm Hollo – “Mucho Malo”
      Anselm Hollo – “The Bees”
      Keith Howell – “Washington Square”
      Gary Snyder – “The Old Dutch Woman”
      Edwin Morgan – “Breath of Corruption”
      Edwin Morgan – “Chinese Cat”
      Edwin Morgan – “Siesta of a Hungarian Snake”
      Ian Hamilton Finlay – “The Practice”
      Jonathan Williams – “The Wreck on the A222…”
      Jonathan Williams – “Besides Buttercups”
      Andrei Vosnesensky (trans. by Edwin Morgan) – “Earth”
      Kenneth White – “Ten Thousand Yellow Buds”
      Alex Neish – “The Loneliness of it All”

Online Resources:

Reality Studio – Cleft 

References Consulted:

Clements, Marshall. A Catalog Of Works By Michael Mcclure, 1956-1965
New York: The Phoenix Book Shop, 1965

Maynard, Joe and Barry Miles. William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography, 1953-73
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978

Loujon Press

Jon and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb. Photographer unknown.

In the Fall of 1961, Jon and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb published the first issue of their avant-garde poetry and prose magazine, The Outsider. Handset and letterpress printed, the journal straddled the line between traditional books and modern works of art, and the journal made an outsized impact on the literary world, shining a light on the talents of Beat Generation, Black Mountain and other avant-garde and counterculture poets, writers, and artists of the era.

In all, Loujon Press published three issues of The Outsider (one a double issue), and two books each by poet Charles Bukowski and novelist Henry Miller. These publications received at least as much praise for their quality as physical artifacts as they did for the poems and prose that made up their editorial matter. It seems like a small catalogue, but the remarkable artistry, craftsmanship, and pioneering spirit have earned the press a much larger place in history.

As art writer Nathan Martin commented, “Loujon operated during a particular moment in the history of artistic publishing in America … and remains a distinctive and compelling entity at the intersection of fine-press publishing, counterculture literature, and the French Quarter from which it emerged.”

Loujon Press Checklist:

1. The Outsider, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Jon Edgar Webb
New Orleans: Loujon Press, Fall 1961
First edition, side-stapled and bound into printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 6” x 9”, 101 pages, 3100 copies, letterpress printed with handset type on a C&P handpress by Jon and Louise Webb. Associate Editor: Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb; Advisory Editors: Marvin Bell, Margaret Randall, Jory Sherman, Edwin Morgan, Melville Hardiment, Sinclair Beiles; Consultant: Walter Lowenfels; illustrations: F. Salantrie.

  1. Ephemera:
        1. Prospectus. 5.75” x 17.75” sheet folded once to make four pages, lists contributors and includes order form.
  • Offprints:
      1. Corso, Gregory. “The American Way” [offprint of page 9] [1]
      2. Bukowski, Charles. “A Charles Bukowski Album” [offprint of pages 47-54] (Krumhansl 6)
      3. Miller, Henry. Letters To Lowenfels. [offprint of pages 63-66] [2] (Shifreen & Jackson A140)
      4. Burroughs, William S. Operation Soft Machine. [offprint of pages 73-77] [3]
      5. McClure, Michael. Spontaneous Hymn To Kundalini [offprint of page 46] [4]
  • Contents:
    1. Edson, Russell. “Editorial” – 1:1, 3
    2. Webb, Jon Edgar. “The Editor’s Bit: Public Square” – 1:1, 4
    3. Beiles, Sinclair. “Metabolic C Movies” – 1:1, 5
    4. Gordon, Stuart. “Metabolic C Movies” – 1:1, 5
    5. Corso, Gregory. “The American Way” – 1:1, 9
    6. Webb, Jr., Jon Edgar. “A Peek Over The Wall” – 1:1, 15
    7. Giudici, Ann. untitled [“Be careful when you step…”] – 1:1, 17
    8. Giudici, Ann. untitled [“I was a child…”] – 1:1, 17
    9. Giudici, Ann. untitled [“Can you pause and stay…”] – 1:1, 18
    10. Di Prima, Diane. “Lord Jim” – 1:1, 19
    11. Grant, John. “On The Dot” – 1:1, 20
    12. Haines, Paul. “…Had Spent Laughing” – 1:1, 23
    13. Snyder, Gary. “Xrist” – 1:1, 24
    14. Turnbull, Gael. “A Hill” – 1:1, 25
    15. Olson, Charles. untitled [“Borne down by…”] – 1:1, 26
    16. Dorn, Edward. “Like A Message On Sunday” – 1:1, 27
    17. Ginsberg, Allen. “The End (to Kaddish)” – 1:1, 28
    18. Orlovsky, Peter. “Snale Poem” – 1:1, 29
    19. Hughes, Langston. “Doorknobs” – 1:1, 30
    20. Martinez, Juan. “Work Song” – 1:1, 31
    21. Sorrentino, Gilbert. “Ave Atque Vale” – 1:1, 35
    22. Lowenfels, Walter. “Good-Bye Jargon, Elegy for a Small Press” – 1:1, 36
    23. Lowenfels, Walter. “Welcome Home to Cubby” – 1:1, 37
    24. Corman, Cid. “Post Mortem” – 1:1, 38
    25. Corman, Cid. “Sempre D’amore” – 1:1, 38
    26. Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. “Underwear” – 1:1, 39
    27. Bremser, Ray. “On Prevalence” – 1:1, 42
    28. Randall, Margaret. “Series of Seven” – 1:1, 43
    29. Brand, Millen. “Swinging Off Swamp Creek” – 1:1, 44
    30. Creeley, Robert. “The End of the Day” – 1:1, 45
    31. Creeley, Robert. “Mind’s Heart” – 1:1, 45
    32. Creeley, Robert. “The Bird” – 1:1, 45
    33. McClure, Mike. “Spontaneous Hymn to Kundalini” – 1:1, 46
    34. Bukowski, Charles. “Hooray Say The Roses” – 1:1, 48
    35. Bukowski, Charles. “Pay Your Rent or Get Out” – 1:1, 48
    36. Bukowski, Charles. “Shoes” – 1:1, 49
    37. Bukowski, Charles. “I Am With the Roots of Flowers” – 1:1, 50
    38. Bukowski, Charles. “Go With the Rockets & the Blondes” – 1:1, 51
    39. Bukowski, Charles. “A Real Thing, a Good Woman” – 1:1, 51
    40. Bukowski, Charles. “To a High Class Whore I Refused” – 1:1, 52
    41. Bukowski, Charles. “Old Man, Dead in a Room” – 1:1, 52
    42. Bukowski, Charles. “Love in a Back Room on the Row” – 1:1, 53
    43. Bukowski, Charles. “Nothing Subtle” – 1:1, 53
    44. Bukowski, Charles. “And Then: Age” – 1:1, 53
    45. Sward, Robert. “Momma–, Mountain” – 1:1, 55
    46. Ristau, Harland. “M’sippi Town” – 1:1, 56
    47. Wilson, Colin. “Some Comments On The Beats & Angries” – 1:1, 57
    48. Sherman, Jory. “Dear Liz” – 1:1, 60
    49. Hedley, Leslie Woolf. “Naked In My Century” – 1:1, 62
    50. Miller, Henry. “Letters To Lowenfels” – 1:1, 62
    51. Jones, LeRoi. “The Southpaw” – 1:1, 67
    52. Jones, LeRoi. “Bo Peep” – 1:1, 67
    53. Jones, LeRoi. “X” – 1:1, 67
    54. Jones, LeRoi. “Boswell” – 1:1, 68
    55. Jones, LeRoi. “Dr. Jive” – 1:1, 68
    56. Bell, Marvin. “Portrait of a Skeleton” – 1:1, 69
    57. Bell, Marvin. “Winter Poem” – 1:1, 69
    58. Epstein, Lester. “Demonstrate Your Culture…” – 1:1, 70
    59. Epstein, Lester. “Moment” – 1:1, 71
    60. Epstein, Lester. “Cold Coffee” – 1:1, 71
    61. Zahn, Curtis. “Reprimand For A Compromised Love-Object” – 1:1, 72
    62. Burroughs, William S. “Operation Soft Machine” – 1:1, 74
    63. Kaja. “from: The Emerald City, For Gregory Corso” – 1:1, 78
    64. Crews, Judson. “Rel Bore Speng Lule” – 1:1, 79
    65. Crews, Judson. “Pastoral” – 1:1, 79
    66. Thompson, Tracy. “Stranger” – 1:1, 79
    67. Carroll, Paul. “What Did Your Face Look Like…” – 1:1, 80
    68. Oden, G. C. “Lay Your Head Here” – 1:1, 81
    69. May, James Boyer. “The Salutary Snare, for Colin Wilson” – 1:1, 82
    70. Schleifer, Marc D. “Here & There, for Marian’s Show” – 1:1, 82
    71. Pfisterer III, Frederick. “Dolorous Somewhere Behind” – 1:1, 83
    72. Frumkin, Gene. “The Fat Pigeon” – 1:1, 84
    73. Williams, Jonathan. “The Big House, For Sherwood Anderson” – 1:1, 84
    74. Corrington, William. “Hard Man” – 1:1, 85
    75. Boyle, Kay. “Print from a Lucite Block” – 1:1, 85
    76. Blackburn, Paul. “Death Watch: Veille D’hiver” – 1:1, 86
    77. Eshleman, Clayton. “Red Shoes (from Songs For Exile)” – 1:1, 86
    78. Kupferberg, Tuli. “Great” – 1:1,87
    79. Moraff, Barbara. “A Little Spur” – 1:1, 88
    80. Abrams, Sam. “Bodies Only” – 1:1, 88
    81. McGuire, Terence. “Mid-Morning” – 1:1, 88

2. The Outsider, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Jon Edgar Webb
New Orleans: Loujon Press, Summer 1962
First edition, side-stapled and bound into printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 6” x 9”, 112 pages, 3100 copies, letterpress printed on a 8″ x 12″ C&P new series motorized press by Jon and Louise Webb. Associate Editor: Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb; illustrations: Ben Tibbs, Frank Salantrie, Malcolm Paul Newman.

  • Offprints:
      1. Burroughs, William S. Wilt Caught In Time. [offprint of pages 3-4] [4]
      2. Miller, Henry. The Henry Miller To Lowenfels Letters. [offprint of pages 73-80] 2 (Shifreen & Jackson A140)
  • Contents:
    1. Burroughs, William S. “Wilt Caught In Time” – 1:2, 3
    2. Masters, R. E. L. “Editorial” – 1:2, 5
    3. Webb, Jon Edgar. “The Editor’s Bit” – 1:2, 6
    4. Bukowski, Charles. “Sick Leave” – 1:2, 7
    5. Johnson, Kay. “from: The Fourth Hour” – 1:2, 8
    6. Oppenheimer, Joel. “A Long Way” – 1:2, 10
    7. Oppenheimer, Joel. “The Present” – 1:2, 11
    8. Nemerov, Howard. “The Iron Characters” – 1:2, 13
    9. Edson, Russell. “There Was” – 1:2, 14
    10. Eigner, Larry. untitled [“the sky cross the desert…”] – 1:2, 15
    11. Eigner, Larry. untitled [“visiting yesterday…”] – 1:2, 16
    12. Eigner, Larry. untitled [“An easy death…”] – 1:2, 17
    13. Eigner, Larry. untitled [“all these cripples…”] – 1:2, 18
    14. Eigner, Larry. untitled [“that’s odd…”] – 1:2, 19
    15. Dorn, Edward. “The Argument Is” – 1:2, 20
    16. Corso, Gregory. “Poems From Berlin, First Week’s
    17. Impression” – 1:2, 21
    18. Bremser, Ray. “On The Nature” – 1:2, 24
    19. Mayes, Richard. “Lament” – 1:2, 28
    20. Johnson, Kay. “Poems From Paris” – 1:2, 29
    21. Frumkin, Gene. “The Poet On His Lunch Hour” – 1:2, 34
    22. Morgan, Edwin. “Jean Genet: A Legend, To Be Legible” – 1:2, 35
    23. Hollo, Anselm. “They Fatted The Calf” – 1:2, 40
    24. Stoloff, Carolyn. “Something Diseased” – 1:2, 42
    25. Jacobson, David B. “Lecture” – 1:2, 42
    26. Bukowski, Charles. “To A Lady Who Believes Me Dead” – 1:2, 43
    27. Johnson, Kay. “Quick, Someone’s Coming” – 1:2, 44
    28. Webb, Jon Edgar. “Suddenly Over” – 1:2, 45
    29. Major, Clarence. “Dream In Ruins” – 1:2, 45
    30. Field, Edward. “Ah, Linger A While, Thou Art So Fair” – 1:2, 46
    31. Mason, Mason Jordan. “Mysterious As Any Woman Be” – 1:2, 47
    32. Hazard, Geoffrey. “The Dubliner” – 1:2, 47
    33. Moraff, Barbara. “Dear Solomon” – 1:2, 48
    34. Musial, Frank. “Room” – 1:2, 48
    35. Giudici, Ann. “Remember?” – 1:2, 49
    36. Oden, G. C. “Low Calvary” – 1:2, 49
    37. Bell, Marvin. “Pipecleaner, For Thin Dorothy” – 1:2, 50
    38. Kaja. “from: The Emerald City, For Gregory Corso” – 1:2, 50
    39. Genet, Jean. “from: Le Pecheur Du Suquet” – 1:2, 52
    40. Purdy, A. W. “Love Poem” – 1:2, 53
    41. Madaio, Louise. “The Wine Is Red (from Black Olives)” – 1:2, 55
    42. McGrath, Thomas. “from: Letter To An Imaginary Friend” – 1:2, 59
    43. Corrington, William. “Surreal For Lorca” – 1:2, 61
    44. Williams, Jonathan. “The Anchorite” – 1:2, 62
    45. Lowenfels, Walter. “Editorial” – 1:2, 64
    46. Lamantia, [Philip]. “Last Days Of San Francisco” – 1:2, 66
    47. Kerouac, Jack. “Sept. 19, 1961 Poem” – 1:2, 68
    48. Margoshes, Dave. “Denise Levertov” – 1:2, 71
    49. Margolis, William J. “from: The Mendicant Notebook, Vi (For Maxine)” – 1:2, 72
    50. Miller, Henry. “The Henry Miller To Lowenfels Letters” – 1:2, 73
    51. Finlay, Ian Hamilton. “Art Student” – 1:2, 81
    52. Tagliabue, John. “Now And Then In The Fluorescence A Slight Jerking Motion” – 1:2, 82
    53. Tagliabue, John. “’I Got Important Contacts’ Willy Loman Says” – 1:2, 82
    54. Tagliabue, John. “Side Show / U.S.A.” – 1:2, 83
    55. Tagliabue, John. “Those Mysterious Events That Stir Us” – 1:2, 83
    56. Tagliabue, John. “Tall Blonde Girl And Ballet Dancer – 1:2, 83
    57. Patchen, Kenneth. “letter to the editor and untitled paintings” – 1:2, 84
    58. Micheline, Jack. “Street Call New Orleans” – 1:2, 94
    59. Allen, Richard B. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 97
    60. Borenstein, Larry. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 103
    61. Jaffee, Allan & Sandra. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 103
    62. Russell, Bill. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 104
    63. Hentoff, Nat. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 104
    64. Wilson, John S. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 107
    65. Sperling, Jr., Godfrey. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 107
    66. Hobson, Wilder. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 107
    67. Giudici, Ann. “Didn’t He Ramble, For Steve Angrum” – 1:2, 111

3. The Outsider, Volume 1, Number 3, edited by Jon Edgar Webb
New Orleans: Loujon Press, Spring 1963
First edition, side-stapled and bound into printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 6” x 9”, 138 pages, 2100 copies, letterpress printed by Jon and Louise Webb. . Associate Editor: Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb; illustrations: Jackson Hensley, Ben Tibbs, Frank Salantrie.

  • Offprints:
      1. Miller, Henry. The Henry Miller To Lowenfels Letters. [offprint of pages 79-85] [5]
  • Contents:
    1. Webb, Jon Edgar. “Editorial: The Editor’s Bit” – 1:3, 0
      Patchen, Miriam. “Letters to the editors” – 1:3, 2
      Patchen, Kenneth. “Editorial” – 1:3, 3
      Johnson, Kay. “The White Room” – 1:3, 7
      Snyder, Gary. “Some Square Comes” – 1:3, 15
      Snyder, Gary. “Madly Whirling Downhill” – 1:3, 15
      Kearns, Lionel. “Stress-Axis Poems” – 1:3, 16
      Creeley, Robert. “More On Kearns” – 1:3, 20
      Woolf, Douglas. “Visitation” – 1:3, 22
      McClure, Michael. ” -Three Mad Sonnets (from 13 Mad Sonnets)” – 1:3, 29
      Sward, Robert. “Donna Is Her Name” – 1:3, 31
      Sward, Robert. “Museum” – 1:3, 32
      Sward, Robert. “Mr Attis & Lady C” – 1:3, 31
      Burroughs, William. “Take It To Cut City – U.S.A.” – 1:3, 35
      Boyd, Sue Abbott. “Journey” – 1:3, 40
      Boyd, Sue Abbott. “The Following Morning” – 1:3, 40
      Weeks, Robert Lewis. “Grand Opening” – 1:3, 41
      Layton, Irving. “On Re-Reading The Beats” – 1:3, 42
      Genet, Jean. “A Colloquy (from Le Pecheur Du Suquet)” – 1:3, 44
      Fisher, Roy. “Chirico” – 1:3, 46
      Fisher, Roy. “Something Unmade” – 1:3, 47
      Webb, Jon Edgar. “The Girl There” – 1:3, 49
      Wakowski, Diane. “The First Day” – 1:3, 54
      Norse, Harold. “The Pine Cone” 1:3, 55
      Solomon, Carl. “The Madman In The Looking Glass” – 1:3, 56
      Cuscaden, R. R. “Charles Bukowski: Poet In A Ruined Landscape” – 1:3, 62
      Corrington, William. “Charles Bukowski: Three Poems” – 1:3, 66
      Bukowski, Charles. “The Tragedy Of The Leaves” – 1:3, 67
      Bukowski, Charles. “The Priest And The Matador” – 1:3, 68
      Bukowski, Charles. “Old Man, Dead In A Room” – 1:3, 71
      Bukowski, Charles. “The House” – 1:3, 72
      Bukowski, Charles. “Event” – 1:3, 73
      Bukowski, Charles. “Dinner, Rain & Transport” – 1:3, 74
      Bukowski, Charles. “Letters to the editors” – 1:3, 77
      Miller, Henry. “The Henry Miller Lowenfels Letters” – 1:3, 79
      Eigner, Larry. “Then:” – 1:3, 86
      Corrington, William. “Communion (from Prayers For Mass In The Vernacular)” – 1:3, 87
      Jouffroy, Alain. “Fatherland” – 1:3, 88
      Hollo, Anselm. “Thalidomide” – 1:3, 90
      Moraff, Barbara. “Two For Syd” – 1:3, 97
      Motley, Willard. “The Burial” – 1:3, 98
      Miller, Raeburn. “The Drowned Boy” – 1:3, 101
      Rubin, Larry. “Etiquette For Americans” – 1:3, 102
      Neish, Alex. “Review: Naked Lunch” – 1:3, 104
      Charters, Samuel B. “Jazz In New Orleans: 1899 To 1957” – 1:3, 109
      Borenstein, E. L. “Jazz In New Orleans: 1957 To 1963” – 1:3, 117

4. Bukowski, Charles. It Catches My Heart In Its Hands / New & Selected Poems 1955-1963
New Orleans: Loujon Press, October 1963
First edition, sewn signatures in printed wraparound jacket, designed and printed by Jon Edgar Webb and Louise Webb, introduction by William Corrington, illustration by Frank Salantrie, dedicated to “Gypsy Lou” Webb, 7.5” x 10”, 102 pages, 777 copies, letterpress printed, published as Gypsy Lou Series #1.
(Dorbin A5)

  1. Ephemera:
      1. Publication announcement: 5” x 10.25”, with Miller quote (Shifreen & Jackson B145)
  • Contents:
    1. “The Tragedy Of The Leaves”, “I Cannot Stand Tears”, “Shoes”, “A Real Thing, A Good Woman”, “To The Whore Who Took My Poems”, “Worm”, “The State Of World Affairs From A 3rd Floor Window”, “The Japanese Wife”, “For Marilyn M.”, “The Life Of Borodin”, “Winter Comes In A Lot Of Places In August”, “No Charge”, “Truth’s A Hell Of A Word”, “The Sun Wields Mercy”, “A Literary Romance”, “Reprieve And Admixture”, “Conversation In A Cheap Room”, “Letter From The North”, “Okay, But Later”, “A Minor Impulse To Complain”, “The Dog”, “Nothing Subtle”, “The Twins”, “The Day It Rained At The Los Angeles County Museum”, “2 P.M. Beer”, “Hooray Say The Roses”, “The Sunday Artist”, “Old Poet”, “To A High Class Whore I Refused”, “Dinner, Rain And Transport”, “Poem For These 4”, “Regard Me”, “I Am With The Roots Of Flowers”, “The Race”, “Vegas”, “Pay Your Rent Or Get Out”, “Love Is A Piece Of Paper Torn To Bits”, “The House”, “I Wait In The White Rain”, “The Kings Are Gone”, “It Is Not Much”, “Side Of The Sun”, “The Talkers”, “A Pleasant Afternoon In Bed”, “9 Rings”, “Blasted”, “A Song For Sadists With A Place To Sit Down”, “The Priest And The Matador”, “Love And Fame And Death”, “My Father”, “People Come Thru…”, “The Gift”, “The Bird”, “The Singular Self”, “Counsel”, “The Ox”, “Wrong Number”, “Sundays Kill More Men Than Bombs”, “A Farewell Thing While Breathing”, “A Rat Rises”, “A 350 Dollar Horse And A Hundred Dollar Whore”, “Bull”, “I Write This Upon The Last Drink’s Hammer”, “The Virgins Of Christmas”, “I Think Of Hemingway”, “Old Man, Dead In A Room”

5. Bukowski, Charles. Crucifix In A Deathhand / New Poems 1963-65
New York: Lyle Stuart, April 1965
First edition, sewn signatures in printed wraparound jacket, designed and printed by Jon Edgar Webb and Louise Webb, etchings by Noel Rockmore, dedicated to Marina Louise Bukowski, 8.5” x 12.25”, 102 pages, 3100 copies, letterpress printed, published as Gypsy Lou Series #2.
(Dorbin A6)

  1. Ephemera:
      1. Publication announcement: 5.25” x 10”, with Miller quote (Shifreen & Jackson B164)
      2. Order form: 5” x 8.25”
  • Contents:
    1. “Sound Down the Street”, “I Think of Mice Cooling It”, “Butterfly”, “Sing to Gods or Kangaroos”, “View from the Screen”, “Not with Boldness”, “Crucifix in a Deathhand”, “When the Berry Bush Dies I’ll Swim Down the Green River with My Hair on Fire”, “Mother and Son”, “Sunflower”, “Grass”, “Fuzz”, “Seahorse”, “A Report upon the Consumption of Myself”, “No Lady Godiva”, “The Workers”, “Beans with Garlic”, “Mama”, “Machineguns, Towers and Timeclocks”, “Good Morning, Brother, How Are You?”, “Something for the Touts, the Nuns, the Grocery Clerks and You”, “The Loss, The Loss, The Loss”, “Sway with Me”, “Lack of Almost Everything”, “No Argument”, “No. 6”, “This”, “Don’t Come Round but if You Do”, “Startled Into Life like Fire”, “Stew”, “Qp”, “Lilies in My Brain”, “Itch, Come and Gone”, “I Am Dead but I Know the Dead Are Not Like This”, “Swept Away in Orangepeel And Whistle Yowl”, “At the End of Feet The Blackbird Walks”, “Let Them Go”, “Like a Violet in the Snow”, “All I Ask Is a Faint Chance”, “Letter from Too Far”, “See this Flower!”, “Pansies”, “I Was Born to Hustle Roses Down the Avenues of the Dead”, “Farewell, Foolish Objects”, “Man in the Sun”, “I Kneel”, “The Swans Walk my Brain in April it Rains”, “The Girls on Sunset Blvd.”, “Woman”, “Confession for those Who Do Not Breathe at Funerals”, “Like All The Years Wasted”, “They, all of Them, Know”, “A Nice Day”.

6. Miller, Henry. Order And Chaos Chez Hans Reichel
Tucson: Loujon Press, December 1966
First edition, perfect bound in printed wraparound jacket in printed slipcase, leather editions bound by the Schuberth Bookbindery of San Francisco, introductory statement by Karl Shapiro, introduction by Lawrence Durrell, photograph of Miller by Ina Paulandre tipped in, 9” x 9.75”, 87 pages, 1425 copies, letterpress printed, published as Gypsy Lou Series #3.
(Shifreen & Jackson A157a-g)

  1. Variant Issues:
      1. Crimson Oasis limited issue: 26 lettered copies signed, quarter leather binding (Shifreen & Jackson A157a)
      2. Blue Oasis limited issue: 99 copies signed, quarter leather binding (Shifreen & Jackson A157b)
      3. Cork issue: 1399 copies (Shifreen & Jackson A157c)
      4. Orange Oasis limited issue: 3 copies (Shifreen & Jackson A157d)
      5. Black Oasis limited issue: 11 copies lettered using letters to spell HENRY MILLER, quarter leather binding, bound in postcard from Miller to Jon Webb (Shifreen & Jackson A157e)
      6. Green Oasis limited issue: 11 copies lettered using letters to spell HENRY MILLER, quarter leather binding (Shifreen & Jackson A157f)
      7. Cork issue: 26 lettered copies (Shifreen & Jackson A157g)
  1. Ephemera:
      1. Publication announcement: 20” x 26” featuring a photograph of Miller and his bicycle (Shifreen & Jackson B181)
      2. Award announcement: 8.5” x 10”, printed in brown ink, TDC [Type Director’s Club] awards for typography, type direction, and design (see Shifreen & Jackson A157c)
      3. Award announcement: 8.5” x 9”, same as above but printed in blue ink and with slightly different text

7. The Outsider, Vol. 2, No. 4/5, edited by Jon Edgar Webb
New Orleans: Loujon Press, Winter 1968-69
First edition, issued in both wrappers and hardcover in printed dust-wrapper and photo-illustrated paper wrappers, 7.25” x 10.25”, 200 pages, 500 copies. Associate Editor: Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb, illustrations: Ben Tibbs, Frank Salantrie, Kelsie Harder. Laid into this edition is “a sprig of flora from within a mile of Geronimo’s grave”, picked by Gypsy Lou and sealed in wax paper with letterpress printed partial wrap-around band.

  1. Ephemera:
      1. Order form: 5” x 8.25”
  • Contents:
    1. Kaprow, Allan. “Moving, A Happening” – 2:4/5, 0
      Goodger-Hill, Trevor. “Editorial” – 2:4/5, 1
      Plymell, Charles. “In Kansas” – 2:4/5, 2
      Taylor, David. “Panda” – 2:4/5, 3
      Edson, Russell. “The Toy Maker” – 2:4/5, 19
      Edson, Russell. “The Cult” – 2:4/5, 19
      Perchik, Simon. untitled [“He Wants To Know…”] – 2:4/5, 20
      Perchik, Simon. untitled [“The Kids Were First…”] – 2:4/5, 20
      Major, Clarence. “Weak Dynamite” – 2:4/5, 22
      Wantling, William. “That Night” – 2:4/5, 24
      Bartlett, Elizabeth. “The Walnut Tree” – 2:4/5, 26
      Greenberg, Alvin. “Taking A Stand” – 2:4/5, 27
      Severy, Bruce. “How We Do Things” – 2:4/5, 28
      Severy, Bruce. “Mud” – 2:4/5, 28
      Severy, Bruce. “From 400 Yards” – 2:4/5, 28
      Goodger-Hill, Trevor. “A Personal History” – 2:4/5, 30
      Creighton, John. “Green Hides, Lines To A Pale Lady” – 2:4/5, 32
      Eigner, Larry. untitled [“March The Route…”] – 2:4/5, 35
      Eigner, Larry. untitled [“The Great American Ballot-Box…”] – 2:4/5, 36
      Bukowski, Charles. “Kaakaa & Other Imolations” – 2:4/5, 37
      Bukowski, Charles. “Beef Tongue, for J.T.” – 2:4/5, 39
      Bukowski, Charles. “Like A Flyswatter” – 2:4/5, 41
      Bukowski, Charles. “The Last Round” – 2:4/5, 42
      Di Prima, Diane. “From: Spring and Autumn Annals: A Celebration for Freddie” – 2:4/5, 45
      Levertov, Denise. “Late June 1968” – 2:4/5, 51
      Levertov, Denise. “Not to Have” – 2:4/5, 51
      Durrell, Lawrence. “?” – 2:4/5, 52
      Mccord, Howard. “Descent into Birth” – 2:4/5, 53
      Meltzer, David. “This is a Nation of Keepers Who Had No Time to Become Gods” – 2:4/5, 54
      Cooperman, Stanley. “New York: February, 1968” – 2:4/5, 55
      Cooperman, Stanley. “Cappelbaum’s Halloween” – 2:4/5, 56
      Katz, Steve. “One Kind of Tune” – 2:4/5, 58
      Katz, Steve. “& A More Similar Tune” – 2:4/5, 58
      Randall, Margaret. “Erongaricuaro, for My Friends at the Molino” – 2:4/5, 59
      Wright, Jay. “Pastel” – 2:4/5, 60
      Morris, Richard. “Foreword to Keslie Artwork” – 2:4/5, 61
      Harder, Kelsie. untitled [“Cartoons”] – 2:4/5, 61
      Hamburger, Michael. “Travelling” – 2:4/5, 77
      Stoloff, Carolyn. “Wind and the Earth” – 2:4/5, 79
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“It Came on Me…”] – 2:4/5, 80
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“An Old House…”] – 2:4/5, 80
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Oh It Wasn’t So Much…”] – 2:4/5, 81
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Too Many Years Pass…”] – 2:4/5, 82
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Leaving This Clumsy Town…”] – 2:4/5, 82
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Could I Believe…”] – 2:4/5, 83
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Heaped Between The Letters The Postcards…”] – 2:4/5, 83
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“The Madness Is Power And What…”] – 2:4/5, 83
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“I Spoke To Jenny…”] – 2:4/5, 84
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Legendary Men In The Forest…”] – 2:4/5, 84
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“And When They Killed Him…”] – 2:4/5, 84
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Finding New Bones…”] – 2:4/5, 85
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Some Jerk With Baltic-Brained…”] – 2:4/5, 86
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“This Tender Minute…”] – 2:4/5, 86
      Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Some Of Us…”] – 2:4/5, 87
      Haines, John. “Under The Barracks” – 2:4/5, 88
      Haines, John. “In The Styrofoam Mountains” – 2:4/5, 88
      Haines, John. “From The Rooftops” – 2:4/5, 89
      Kelly, Robert. “Landing Cod (From The Common Shore)” – 2:4/5, 90
      Gast, David K. “Teresa” – 2:4/5, 93
      Patchen, Miriam. untitled [“Letter To The Editors”] – 2:4/5, 94
      Sandberg, David. untitled [“Please Do Not Ring Or Knock…”] – 2:4/5, 96
      Thomas, Norman. untitled [“If You Visit Patchen…”] – 2:4/5, 97
      Antoninus, Brother. untitled [“Word Of The Outsider’s Homage…”] – 2:4/5, 98
      Ginsberg, Allen. untitled [“I Met Kenneth Patchen At City Lights…”] – 2:4/5, 99
      May, James Boyer. untitled [“Kenneth Patchen’s Physical Presence…”] – 2:4/5, 100
      Norse, Harold. untitled [“He Is Part Of Youth…”] – 2:4/5, 105
      Brand, Millen. untitled [“I Used To Know Kenneth In The Village…”] – 2:4/5, 106
      Macdiarmid, Hugh. untitled [“I Have Been To The United States…”] – 2:4/5, 108
      Glover, David. untitled [“I Recall The First Thing I Ever Read…”] – 2:4/5, 109
      Rexroth, Kenneth. untitled [“Kenneth Patchen Is One Of…”] – 2:4/5, 112
      Corrington, John William. untitled [“I Still Remember…”] – 2:4/5, 113
      Porter, Bern. untitled [“Kenneth’s Monumental…”] – 2:4/5, 116
      Detro, Gene. “Interview: Patchen Interviewed” – 2:4/5, 117
      Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. untitled [“Kenneth Patchen & E.E. Cummings…”] – 2:4/5, 129
      Yates, Peter. untitled [“Know Him, This Man…”] – 2:4/5, 129
      Meltzer, David. untitled [“Here Is A Man Speaking…”] – 2:4/5, 130
      Young, Lafe. untitled [“Now, Nostalgically, I Realize…”] – 2:4/5, 131
      Conroy, Jack. untitled [“Since My Friend Webb…”] – 2:4/5, 132
      Eckman, Frederick. untitled [“A Decade Ago In A Review…”] – 2:4/5, 133
      Miller, Henry. untitled [“The First Thing One Would Remark…”] – 2:4/5, 134
      Blazek, Douglas. “A Few Small Things” – 2:4/5, 138
      Enslin, Ted. untitled [“As If It Were My Eye…”] – 2:4/5, 139
      Purdy, Al. “The Jackhammer Syndrome” – 2:4/5, 140
      Shelton, Richard. “The Crossing” – 2:4/5, 142
      Shelton, Richard. “& The Scars Will Be Covered” – 2:4/5, 143
      Wild, Peter. “Engine” – 2:4/5, 144
      Wild, Peter. “Snake Skin” – 2:4/5, 144
      Wild, Peter. “Saturday Afternoon On Sugar Loaf Mtn” – 2:4/5, 145
      Miller, Brown. “The Dark Oval” – 2:4/5, 146
      Duberstein, Helen. “Joke” – 2:4/5, 147
      Flaherty, Douglas. “Mrs. Godkin’s Son” – 2:4/5, 148
      Wilson, Keith. “All The Vanished Faces” – 2:4/5, 149
      Wilson, Keith. “The Wind Dragon in Spring” – 2:4/5, 150
      Holland, Barbara A. “Dust-Devil Man” – 2:4/5, 151
      Fowler, Gene. “The Natural History of Woman” – 2:4/5, 152
      Frumkin, Gene. “Poem for Childhood” – 2:4/5, 157
      levy, d.a. “For The Pigs, Rats & Adorable other Beasts of Saintly Cleveland, O” – 2:4/5, 157a
      Merton, Thomas. “Tibud Maclay” – 2:4/5, 158
      Bly, Robert. “Blown-Up German Fortifications Near Collioure” – 2:4/5, 159
      Norse, Harold. “Return to Pompeii” – 2:4/5, 160
      Gardien, Kent. “Poem Based on a List by Luis Bunel” – 2:4/5, 161
      Higgins, Dick. “Four Degrees” – 2:4/5, 164
      Antin, David. “Sociology” – 2:4/5, 166
      Hollo, Anselm. “Bouzouki Music” – 2:4/5, 168
      Krauss, Ruth. “Drunk Boat” – 2:4/5, 169
      Kryss, T.L. “Circus” – 2:4/5, 170
      Kryss, T.L. “The Withered Lemming of the River” – 2:4/5, 170
      Dowden, George. “Morning Song for My Girl by the Sea” – 2:4/5, 171
      Brown, Michael. “The Seventh Month” – 2:4/5, 172
      Kandel, Lenore. “Muir Beach Mythology / September” – 2:4/5, 173
      Perchik, Simon. “Four Photo-Poems” – 2:4/5, 174
      Shustak, Larence. untitled photography – 2:4/5, 175
      Knowles, Allison. “Journal of the Identical Lunch” – 2:4/5, 182
      Williams, Emmett. untitled [“North is this Way…”] – 2:4/5, 184
      Mac Low, Jackson. untitled [“Peace of Resembling…”] – 2:4/5, 186
      Johnson, Kay. “The Emerald City, For Gregory Corso” – 2:4/5, 188
      Cocteau, Jean. “Creation Before Life” – 2:4/5, 190
      Johnson, Ray. “Face Collage” – 2:4/5, 192
      Hansen, Al. “Gat” – 2:4/5, 193

8. Miller, Henry. INSOMNIA OR THE DEVIL AT LARGE
Albuquerque, Loujon Press, 1970
First edition, portfolio case with photo-illustrated sliding lid and housing 12 printed reproductions of Miller watercolors and a spiral bound book, 7 separate issues planned but far fewer were reportedly produced, published as Gypsy Lou Series #4.
(Shifreen & Jackson A175a-h)

  1. Variant Issues:
      1. Issue A: 12 copies, with 12 prints plus an original watercolor and book all signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175a)
      2. Issue B: 26 lettered copies, with 12 prints inscribed to the buyer and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175b)
      3. Issue C: 192 copies [planned but likely that no more than 10 were published], with 12 prints and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175c)
      4. Issue D: 192 copies [planned but likely that no more than 10 were published], with 9 of 12 prints and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175d)
      5. Issue E: 192 copies [planned but likely that no more than 10 were published], with 6 of 12 prints and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175e)
      6. Issue F: 192 copies [planned but likely that no more than 65 were published], with 3 of 12 prints and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175f)
      7. Issue G: 192 copies [planned but later increased to 385], with 12 prints unsigned and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175g)
      8. Economy Issue: 199 copies, with 12 prints and the book without the box (Shifreen & Jackson A175h)
  1. Ephemera:
      1. Publication announcement: 19” x 25” (Shifreen & Jackson B213)

Notes:
[1] Though not present in Robert Wilson’s Corso bibliography, this offprint has been examined.
[2] According to a Ken Lopez catalog entry, his copy of the Miller offprint is seven unbound leaves printed on both sides from volumes 1 and 2 of The Outsider and published in a set of 200 in 1963. However, Shifreen & Jackson describe the sets as 13 unbound leaves printed on rectos only.
[3] Listed in Michael McClure’s own online bibliography and confirmed by Denise Enck of Empty Mirror Books, though not present in any printed bibliography to date.
[4] First reference to the Burroughs offprints appear in Jon Edgar Webb: The Editor’s Bit and Obit by Nicky Drumbolis and are further discussed in Signatures, also by Nicky Drumbolis. Subsequent research turns up no extant copies and in later correspondence with Drumbolis, he adds, “In my Signatures study, I infer that the Burroughs piece ‘Operation Soft Machine/Cut’ may have been issued, based on layout; acknowledging further, that no copy had been recorded by Maynard and Miles.”
[5] While the existence of this offprint and another containing the full set of Miller letters from the first 3 issues of The Outsider are noted in Jon Edgar Webb: The Editor’s Bit and Obit, no evidence of these offprints has been identified.

References consulted

Dorbin, Sanford. A Bibliography of Charles Bukowski
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1969

Drumbolis, Nicky. Jon Edgar Webb: The Editor’s Bit & Obit
Toronto: ECS, 1993

Drumbolis, Nicky. Signatures
Toronto: Letters, n.d.

Krumhansl, Aaron. A Descriptive Bibliography of The Primary Publications of Charles Bukowski
Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1999

Maynard, Joe and Barry Miles. William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography, 1953-73
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978

Shifreen, Lawrence J. and Roger Jackson. Henry Miller: A Bibliography of Primary Sources
Ann Arbor: Roger Jackson, 1993

Wilson, Robert. A Bibliography of Works By Gregory Corso 1954-1965
New York: The Phoenix Bookshop, 1966

little magazines

The Outsider and Loujon Press

The Outsider, No. 1, edited by Jon and Louise Webb. New Orleans, Fall 1961.

In the Fall of 1961, Jon and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb published the first issue of their avant-garde poetry and prose magazine, The Outsider. Hand-set and letterpress printed, the journal straddled the line between traditional books and modern works of art, and the journal made an outsized impact on the literary world, shining a light on the talents of Beat Generation, Black Mountain and other avant-garde and counterculture poets, writers, and artists of the era…

>>> further reading >>>

William S. Burroughs – Books, Pamphlets, and Broadsides

>> return to WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS main page >>

SECTION A:
This index includes books, pamphlets, and broadsides (excluding foreign language translations, interviews and some miscellaneous prose) from 1957 to 1973: roughly the period of time covered by the Maynard and Miles Bibliography (ref. M&M).

1. Lee, William. JUNKIE
a. First edition:
New York: Ace Books Inc., 1953
Perfect-bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 4.25” x 6.5”, 320 pages, bound back to back with Maurice Helbrant’s Narcotic Agent. Publisher’s note by Carl Solomon (not credited).
(M&M A1a) *

William Burroughs’ first book, written under the pseudonym ‘William Lee’ (his mother’s maiden name).

According to Beatbooks catalog #92: Ace Books was owned by Carl Solomon’s uncle, A.A. Wyn, a connection made by Allen Ginsberg who was acting as Burroughs’s agent at the time. The publication of Nelson Algren’s novel The Man With The Golden Arm in 1949 inspired a trend for books about junkies, many of them mass-market paperbacks sold in newsagents rather than bookshops, and with commercial success in mind Wyn agreed to publish Burroughs. Though written in a noir-ish hard-boiled style, Junkie is autobiographical (the “Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict”), and lacks the kind of plot that readers of the genre attracted by Al Rossi’s lurid cover art might have expected.

Burroughs’s picaresque and frequently humorous narrative, with its hip talk and junkie jargon, is also told from the detached point of view of the hipster-addict, a neutrality which Wyn sought to counter-balance by yoking it to a reprint of Helbrant’s 1941 account of his “War Against the Dope Menace”. Burroughs was initially appalled at this appendage, but his motivation for writing Junkie was, as he later wrote, money and recognition, though neither were forthcoming at first as the book was largely ignored at the time of publication. More significantly, by mixing an orthodox narrative of drug experiences with occasional forays into set-pieces, or routines, Junkie also paved the way for Naked Lunch.

b. First UK edition:
London: Digit Books, 1957
Perfect-bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 4.5” x 7.25”, 160 pages.
(M&M A1b) *

According to Beatbooks catalog #92: First UK edition, and the first edition of Junkie as a separate item. Front cover art by Al Rossi, based on his earlier artwork for Ace Books. His sensational back cover art depicts a blonde with hypo and rolled-down stocking, and it was probably this, at least in part, that provoked the British censors to suppress the book after publication and order all the remaining copies to be pulped.

2. Burroughs, William. LETTER FROM A MASTER ADDICT TO DANGEROUS DRUGS
a. First edition:
Shrewsbury: British Journal of Addiction, 1957
Side-stapled sheets, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 13 pages,  50 copies.
(see M&M C1) *

An offprint of the Burroughs article appearing in the January 1957 issue of British Journal of Addiction (Vol. 53, No. 2) edited by John Yerbury Dent (M&M C1). This is Burroughs’ first appearance in print under his own name.

3. Burroughs, William S. THE NAKED LUNCH
a. First edition:
Paris: Olympia Press, July 1959
Sewn signatures bound in printed wrappers in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 4.5″ x 7″, 232 pages, 5000 copies. Dust jacket designed by Burroughs. Issued as No. 76 in the Traveller’s Companion Series. Preliminary issue with price on lower wrapper not canceled with over-stamp.
(M&M A2a)

According to Beatbooks catalog #89: Price on lower wrapper not canceled (copies distributed following the revaluation of the Franc in January 1960 had the printed price stamped over).

b. First US edition, revised:
New York City: Grove Press, 1962
Hardcover in paper and cloth-bound boards with gilt-stamped spine in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 5.5″ x 8″, 256 pages, 3500 copies. Printed prospectus issued.
(M&M A2b)

The contents of this edition differ from the Olympia first edition. This Grove Press edition includes as the Introduction, “Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness” [first published in Evergreen Review, Vol. 4, No. 11 (January-February 1960) (M&M C12)] and, as the Appendix,“Letter from a Master Addict to Dangerous Drugs” [first published in The British Journal of Addiction, Vol. 53, No. 2 (January 1957) (M&M C1)].

According to BeatBooks catalog #20, publication of this edition triggered obscenity trials in Los Angeles and Boston.

4. Burroughs, William S. EXCERPT FROM PANTAPON ROSE
a. First edition:
San Francisco: Wallace Berman, 1959
Broadside, 4″ x 5″, letterpress printed by Wallace Berman.
(see M&M C11)

This broadside is laid into Semina, No. 4, edited by Wallace Berman (M&M C11).

5. Burroughs, William and Brion Gysin. THE EXTERMINATOR
a. First edition:
San Francisco: Auerhahn Press, 1960
Sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 6.25″ x 9.25″, 64 pages, 1000 copies, letterpress printed, designed and printed by Dave L. Haselwood and James F. McIlroy. Illustrated by Brion Gysin. Printed announcement issued.
(M&M A4a)

The first collection of cut-ups, containing material that Burroughs and Gysin completed before Minutes To Go was published.

b. First edition, second printing:
San Francisco: Dave Haselwood Books, 1967
Sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 6″ x 9″, 51 pages, 1000 copies. Illustrated by Brion Gysin.
(M&M A4b)

6. Burroughs, William, Sinclair Beiles, Gregory Corso, and Brion Gysin. MINUTES TO GO
a. First edition:
Paris: Two Cities Editions, April 1960
Sewn signatures bound in illustrated wrappers, 5.25″ x 8.25″, 64 pages, 1000 copies. Cover design by Brion Gysin.
(M&M A3a)

This is the second collection of cut-ups to be published.

b. First US edition:
San Francisco: Beach Books, Texts & Documents, 1968
Perfect-bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.25″ x 8.5″, 66 pages, 1000 copies, distributed by City Lights Books.
(M&M A3b)

This edition is a facsimile of the first edition but for the addition of a Claude Pelieu collage.

7. Burroughs, William. THE SOFT MACHINE
a. First edition:
Paris: The Olympia Press, June 1961
Sewn signatures bound in printed wrappers in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 4.25″ x 7″, 184 pages, 5000 copies. Dust jacket designed by Brion Gysin.
(M&M A5a) *

b. First US edition, revised:
New York City: Grove Press, 1966
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with silver-stamped spine in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 5.5″ x 8″, 184 pages, 18,000 copies. Cover art by Burroughs. Author photo by Charles Henri Ford.
(M&M A5b) *

According to Beat Books catalog #48: Burroughs completely rewrote the text for this edition, partly as a response to criticisms that the first edition had been difficult to read.

According to Am Here catalog #3: This constitutes the revised expanded edition advertised but never published by Olympia.

8. Burroughs, William. THE TICKET THAT EXPLODED
a. First edition:
Paris: Olympia Press, December 1962
Sewn signatures bound in printed wrappers in printed and photo-illustrated dust jacket, 4.25″ x 6.75″, 184 pages, 5000 copies. Dust jacket designed by Ian Sommerville. Illustrated by Brion Gysin.
(M&M A6a)

b. First US edition, revised:
New York City: Grove Press, June 1967
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with black-stamped spine in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 5.25″ x 8″, 218 pages, 10,000 copies. Dust jacket designed by Kuhlman Associates. Author photo by Martha Rocher.
(M&M A6b) *

The Grove Press edition is a second version, a rearrangement of the first Olympia text with additions and expansions, plus “The Invisible Generation”, a piece incorporating two earlier articles from International Times (see M&M C157 and C162).

9. Burroughs, William. DEAD FINGERS TALK
a. First edition:
London: John Calder in association with Olympia Press, November 1963
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with gilt-stamped spine in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 5.25″ x 8″, 220 pages, 4000 copies. Cover photos by Ian Sommerville.
(M&M A7a)

Contains sections from The Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine, and The Ticket That Exploded along with some previously unpublished material.

10. Burroughs, William. and Allen Ginsberg. THE YAGE LETTERS
a. First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, November 1963
Sewn signatures bound in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 5″ x 7.25″, 68 pages, 3000 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications.
(M&M A8a) *

According to Beatbooks catalog #89: An “early epistolary novel” by Burroughs, “detailing picaresque incidents of search for telepathic-hallucinogenic-mind-expanding drug Yage” (back cover blurb). The letters date from 1953 and record Burroughs’ journeys through the Amazon jungle. Includes two drawings by Allen Ginsberg and his letters to Burroughs from 1960.

11. Burroughs, William S. ROOSEVELT AFTER INAUGURATION
a. First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, January 1964
Saddle-stapled in printed 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.

12. Burroughs, William. THE COLDSPRING NEWS
a. First edition:
Flint: Fenian Head Centre Press, March 1964
Broadside,7.25″ x 12.5″.
(see M&M C124)

This broadside also appears folded and bound into The Spero, Vol. 1, No. 1 edited by Douglas and Kathy Casement (Fenian Head Centre Press, 1965) with the addition of a copyright notice at the bottom. (M&M C124)

13. Burroughs, William S. PRY YOURSELF LOOSE AND LISTEN
a. First edition:
Tangier: Ira Cohen, Spring 1964
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5″ x 8″, 14 pages.
(see M&M C68-C71)

An offprint collecting all the Burroughs appearances in Gnaoua, No. 1, edited by Ira Cohen.

14. Burroughs, William S. NOVA EXPRESS
a. First edition:
New York City: Grove Press, November 1964
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with black-stamped spine in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 5.5″ x 8.25″, 190 pages, 10,000 copies, printed at The Book Press. Foreword Note by Burroughs. Cover design by Roy Kuhlman. Author photograph by Martha Rocher.
(M&M A10a)

According to Burroughs’ Foreword Note: The section called “This Horrible Case” was written in collaboration with Mr. Ian Sommerville, a mathematician—Mr. Sommerville also contributed the technical notes in the section called “Chinese Laundry”—An extension of Brion Gysin’ cut-up method which I call the fold-in method has been used in this book which is consequently a composite of many writers living and dead.

15. Burroughs, William. VALENTINE’S DAY READING
a. First edition:
New York: American Theatre for Poets, February 1965
Side-stapled in printed cover sheet, 8.5″ x 11″, 14 pages, mimeograph printed.
(M&M F12)

Includes “Transcript of Dutch Schultz’s Last Words” and the first column from The Coldspring News, “On The Back Porch of his Farm”.

16. Burroughs, William. TIME
a. First edition:
New York: “C” Press, 1965
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 32 pages, 1000 copies (886 in a trade edition; 100 numbered and signed; 10 lettered A-J, hardbound, with original manuscript page by Burroughs and original drawing by Gysin, signed; and four hardcover numbered copies hors commerce). Cover art by Burroughs. Illustrated by Brion Gysin. Edited by Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, and Joe Brainard.
(M&M A11a)

b. Pirate edition:
London: Urgency Press Rip-Off, May 1972
Top-stapled with printed cover sheet, 8″ x 13″, 32 pages, 45 copies. Edited by Roy Pennington. Published on the occasion of the Bickershaw Festival.
(M&M A11b)

17. Burroughs, William S. WILT CAUGHT IN TIME
a. First edition:
New Orleans: Loujon Press, c.1965
Broadside, 6″ x 9″, letterpress printed by Jon Edgar Webb and Gypsy Lou Webb.
(see M&M C46)

An offprint of the Burroughs contribution to The Outsider, No. 2, edited by Jon Edgar Webb and Gypsy Lou Webb (M&M C46).

According to Jeff Weddle in “The Loujon Press: An Historical Analysis”: Burroughs’ submission for issue two originally bore the title, “Cuts from ‘Word Line’ William Burroughs for Hassan i Sabbah.” The piece was done using Burroughs’ distinctive, jumbled, “cut-up” technique and had no easily discernible narrative flow or quickly grasped meaning. Perhaps for these reasons, Webb heavily edited and re-titled the piece, casting it as a poem in The Outsider number two. Burroughs’ manuscript bears a notation, again in Webb’s hand, stating that the piece was “condensed and rearranged into “wilt caught in time,” the title under which it appeared in the magazine. While Webb’s version of Burroughs’ piece bears little resemblance to the author’s original submission, no record has been uncovered showing Burroughs’ response to Webb’s heavy editing of his work.

18. Burroughs, William S. HEALTH BULLETIN: APO-33
a. First edition:
New York: Fuck You Press, 1965
Side-stapled sheets with printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 54 pages, 10-20 copies, mimeograph printed by Ed Sanders.
(M&M A12a) *

According to Sanders “maybe as many as ten or twenty” copies were distributed before he halted publication due to Burroughs’ dissatisfaction with the copy he’d received.

b. Second edition:
San Francisco: Beach Books, Texts, & Documents, 1966
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 24 pages, 3000 copies.
(M&M A12b)

This printing is a photo-offset reproduction of Burroughs’ manuscript and scrapbook pages, featuring the three-column cut-up style, compiled by Mary Beach and Claude Pélieu.

19. Burroughs, William S. THE INVISIBLE GENERATION
a. First edition:
London: Project Sigma, December 1966
Broadside, 11.5″ x 17″, 1000 copies, offset printed.
(see M&M C159)

This item was not given a Sigma index number and no evidence exists to show distribution except by International Times itself which provided the offprints. Reprinted from International Times, No. 3 (November 1966) (M&M C157).

20. Burroughs, William S. THE INVISIBLE GENERATION (continued)
a. First edition:
London: Lovebooks Ltd, December 1966
Broadside, 22.5″ x 30.25″, 200 copies, silk-screened, designed by Michael English so that part of the card could be cut out and assembled to make a word-machine. Published as International Times, No. 5.5.
(see M&M C160) *

21. Burroughs, William S., Claude Pélieu, and Carl Weissner. SO WHO OWNS DEATH TV?
a. First edition:
San Francisco: Beach Books, Texts, & Documents, 1967
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 5.5″, 12 pages, 3000 copies; there was a variant issue of 200 copies on black paper printed in silver ink.
(M&M A13a)

b. Second edition, expanded:
San Francisco: Beach Books, Texts, & Documents, 1967
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 5.5″, 20 pages, 3000 copies. This expanded edition includes photo-collages by Jean-Jacques Lebel and Liam O’Gallagher.
(M&M A13b)

22. Burroughs, William S. SCIENTOLOGY REVISITED
a. First edition:
New York: Scientology East, c.1968
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 8 pages.
(not in M&M) *

Reprinted from Mayfair, Vol. 3, No. 1 (January 1968) (M&M C187)

23. Burroughs, William S. THE DEAD STAR
a. First edition:
San Francisco: Nova Broadcast Press, November 1969
Broadside  (8″ x 26.75″), folded and stapled into printed wrappers, 4.74″ x 8″, 2000 copies. Edited by Jan Herman. Published as Nova Broadcast, No. 5
(M&M A14a)

The first US publication of a piece done in Burroughs’ familiar scrapbook, photo-collage 3-column newspaper style, originally published in Jeff Nuttall’s My Own Mag ‘Dutch Schultz’ issue.

24. Burroughs, William S. THE LAST WORDS OF DUTCH SCHULTZ
a. First edition:
London: Cape Goliard Press,  May 1970
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with red-stamped spine in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 6.25″ x 9.75″, 88 pages. Cover art and illustrations by R.B. Kitaj.
(M&M 17a) *

A film-script inspired by the official transcript of the last words of mobster Dutch Schultz, recorded by a police stenographer as he lay dying in hospital.

25. Burroughs, William S. ALI’S SMILE
a. First edition:
Brighton: Unicorn Books, October 1971
Hardcover in buckram-bound boards with gilt-stamped cover, 6.25″ x 8″, 44 pages, 99 copies numbered and signed, printed by Richard Moseley at Graphic Workshop. Issued in a carton which also contains a 12-inch LP record of Burroughs reading the second draft of the text.
(M&M A19a, G6) *

b. First edition, second printing:
Gottingen: Expanded Media Editions, October 1973
Perfect-bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.75″ x 7.5″, 40 pages. Bilingual edition with German text translated by Carl Weissner. Photographs of the author by Udo Breger. Published as Expanded Media Editions, No. 12.
(M&M D28)

26. Burroughs, William S. THE WILD BOYS: A BOOK OF THE DEAD
a. First edition:
New York: Grove Press, 1971
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with gilt-stamped spine and blind-stamped front cover in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 5.5″ x 8.25″, 184 pages.
(M&M A20a) *

27. Burroughs, William S. ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION 1970-71
a. First edition:
Cambridge: Blackmoor Head Press, October 1971
Perfect-bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8″ x 10.25″, 76 pages, 500 copies. Printed for Henri Chopin and his Collection OU by Ian Ormiston at the Blackmoor Head Press. Cover art by Brion Gysin. Text in English and French; French translation by Jean Chopin. Published as Collection OU, No. 2.
(M&M A21a)

28. Burroughs, William S., Brion Gysin, and Ian Sommerville. LET THE MICE IN, edited by Jan Herman
a. First edition:
West Glover, Vt.: Something Else Press, February 1973
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with silver-stamped spine and front cover in printed dust jacket, 6.25″ x 9.25″, 74 pages, 500 copies (plus 1000 copies in wrappers), designed and printed by Graham Mackintosh at Noel Young Press in Santa Barbara.
(M&M A22a-b)

Includes texts and cut-ups by Burroughs (“The Invisible Generation”, “Word Authority More Habit Forming Than Heroin”, and “Parenthetically 7 Hertz”), and Ian Sommerville, plus several sepia photographs of the authors, the Dream Machine, etc.

29. Burroughs, William S. EXTERMINATOR! A NOVEL
a. First edition:
New York: Viking Press, August 1973
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with white-stamped spine and black-stamped front cover in printed and illustrated dust jacket, 5.25″ x 8″, 170 pages, 7500 copies.
(M&M A23a) *

Note: A collection of short routines and other material, mostly from The Wild Boys.

30. Burroughs, William S. WHITE SUBWAY
a. First edition:
London: Aloes Books, September 1973
Perfect-bound in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 6.25″ x 8.25″, 74 pages, 1000 copies (25 of which are numbered and signed).
(M&M A24a)

A collection of various pieces, its title taken from a section of The Soft Machine, including cut-up and three-column style texts (“Who Is the 3rd…?”, “The Last Post Danger Ahead”, and “From a Distant Hand Lifted”), originally published in little literary magazines such as Gnaoua, Spero, Underground Telegram, Kulchur, Arcade, Lines, Bulletin from Nothing, and Birmingham Bulletin. Also includes a piece by Alan Ansen, and Paul Bowles’s essay, “Burroughs In Tangier”.

31. Burroughs, William S. MAYFAIR ACADAMY SERIES MORE OR LESS, edited by Roy Pennington
a. First edition:
Brighton: Urgency Press Rip-Off, 1973
Saddle-stapled in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 5″ x 8.25″, 104 pages, 650 pages. Printed on different colour papers, stapled and trimmed at the press operated by Bill Butler’s partner, Mike Hughes, above the Unicorn bookshop in Brighton.
(M&M A25a)

Note: Reprints ten of the Burroughs ‘Academy Bulletins’ from Mayfair magazine (there were 21 in the series all together), along with other articles he wrote for them, together with an essay on Burroughs “originally presented as an M.A. thesis in Philosophy” by the book’s publisher, Roy Pennington.

…

[* not in archive]