Austin, Larry
SOURCE: Music of the Avant Garde
Composer / Performer Edition, Davis and Sacramento CA: 1973
Complete eleven-issue run of this arguably the greatest publication to emerge from the mid-century experimental music scene. Elaborately-produced and edited by Larry Austin (UC-Davis instructor and director of its New Music Ensemble), SOURCE aimed not only to document the experimental music scene that centered primarily on the West Coast (Mills College, etc.), but to expand the very idea of the musical score: "Our idea of a 'score' is broad. To us it is transcribed information about the composer's music-making process and contains a way of imparting this information to those who might recreate the composition" (Austin, issue 1). Much like frequent contributor John Cage's 1969 book NOTATIONS, SOURCE argued in part that the score should be viewed as much as a visual art as a musical one. This was reflected in the magazine's production: a Dick Higgins score riddled with actual bullet holes, John Cage's "Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel" printed in color on glassine, and perhaps most infamously Nelson Howe's "Fur Music," which utilized actual tipped-in fur swatches and included the instruction "to focus attention on the exploration of the tactile qualities of fur, but with the added requirement that the tactile sensation be *heard*." Contributors across the run include: John Cage, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Harry Partch, David Tudor, Morton Feldman, Robert Ashley, Pauline Oliveros, Dick Higgins, Nam June Paik, Steve Reich, Harold Budd, Lejaren Hiller, Max Neuhaus, Larry Austinm, among many others. 11 numbers in 10 volumes, 10.77'' x 14''. Original spiral-bound pictorial wrappers all. Issues 7/8 printed tete beche. Various paginations. Printed offset throughout on various paper stocks, with numerous custom elements: die-cut and folded sheets, glassine inserts, and a variety of tipped-in items. Contents complete with all inserts, records, and like. Minor soil and rubbing here and there. Small dampstain to front cover of issue one. Occasional chipping to plastic binding. Overall, remarkably well kept. Very good plus to near fine overall.
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Limited first edition, signed by Ginsberg, of these excerpts from Ginsberg's letters to Kerouac and selections from Kerouac's then-unpublished journals. 11'' x 8.5''. Original side-stapled wrappers. [18] leaves printed rectos only. Published for friends in an edition of 200 copies. Signed by Ginsberg on title page. Light edgewear, very faint touches of soil to covers. SEPARATE WAY
Scarce first edition of Reznikoff's poetry collection, the final publication from The Objectivist Press. In a 1968 interview with L.S. Dembo, Reznikoff defined the Objectivist writer as one "who does not write directly about his feelings but about what he sees and hears; who is restricted almost to the textimony of a witness in a court of law; and who expresses his feelings indirectly by the selection of his subject matter and, if he writes in verse, by its music." And: "I can only say what I saw and heard, and try to say it as well as I can." 7.5'' x 5''. Original yellow cloth with printed paper spine label. In original unclipped ($1) printed grey dust jacket. 37, [1] pages. Light bumping and moderate soil to boards. Light edgewear and one tiny closed tear to jacket. THE RIVERSIDE INTERVIEWS: 1. Allen Ginsberg
Limited first edition, signed by Ginsberg, of Selerie's extensive three-part interview with Ginsberg, conducted in 1979 before and after a reading at Battersea Arts Centre in London. 11.5'' x 8.25''. Original side-stapled black and white photographic wrappers. [2], i-v, 51 leaves printed rectos only. Black and white photographic illustrations. Edition of 600 copies. Morgan, Bibliography of Secondary Sources, J3005. Signed by Ginsberg on acknowledgments page. Light edgewear. The Compleat Mister Infinity
Signed first edition of Spiegelman's self-published mini-comic, produced around the time of the artist's move to San Francisco and immersion in the underground comics scene. Gary Arlington's San Francisco Comic Book Company was the nation's first comics-only store and the hub of underground comics culture, offering meeting space and photocopying capabilities to artists like Spiegelman, Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Trina Robbins, and Bill Griffith. In 2012, Spiegelman told the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: "San Francisco was the capitol of comix culture in the '60s and early '70s; and Gary Arlington's hole-in-the-wall shop was, for me, the capitol of San Francisco." 2.5'' x 8.5''. Side-stapled black and white pictorial wrappers. Illustrated in black and white. 10 pages. Signed by Spiegelman in blue pen on front cover. HOW DID I GET HERE? THE ASCENT OF AN UNLIKELY CEO
First edition of this personal reflection on the place where skateboarding meets entrepreneurship, by "the most famous and influential skateboarder of all time" (jacket). Tony Hawk, the most famous name in skateboarding, ollied his way to the top of the game with skills on the halfpipe and in his creation of a personal brand. In HOW DID I GET HERE?, Hawk and his business partner (and sister) Pat recall interesting moments on the way to superstardom. 9'' x 6''. Original black boards with bronze metallic spine lettering. Original unclipped ($24.95) color pictorial dust jacket with embossed elements, designed by Jaimie Muehlhausen. Illustrated throughout in black and white with 8 leaves of color plates. 188 pages, including index. Tiny tear to top of front fold. Trace rubbing, shelfwear here and there. Clean and bright overall. Near fine in very good plus jacket. THE TOE QUEEN POEMS
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Sanders, Ed First printing of the Artists' Workshop Press edition of 1966, from the original Fug Press edition of 1965. Prepared by Ed Sanders, Ken Weaver, and Betsy Klein, with notes by Sanders. Includes table of contents and list of the Fugs' then-current band lineup: Tuli Kupferberg, Ed Sanders, Len Weaver, Steve Weber, Peter Stampfel, Vinny Leary, and Moe Mahoney. Lyrics credited to various band members except where copyright is shared with William Blake and God. 11'' x 8.5''. Original side-stapled yellow self-wrappers. Mimeographed throughout on multi-colored stock. [3], 27, [2] pages printed rectos only. One of 500 copies. Mild toning, a couple tiny chips to front wrapper. Else clean and sound. TOWERS DOWN: Two Poems
di Prima, Diane; Matson, Clive Scarce limited edition chapbook containing di Prima's and Matson's poetic reponses to the 2001 attacks on and by the United States; both works also appeared in the antiwar anthology AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND. 8'' x 5.5''. Original saddle-stapled grey-green wrappers. Unpaginated. Printed at Geary Print Shop in an edition of 300 copies for an anniversary reading at Bird & Beckett Books on September 11, 2002. WHEN THE SUN TRIES TO GO ON
Koch, Kenneth; Rivers, Larry Signed limited handbound edition of this illustrated book by frequent New York School collaborators Rivers and Koch, the product of friendly poetic competition between Koch and Frank O'Hara. Originally composed in 1953 but not published until 1969, WHEN THE SUN TRIES TO GO ON "was Koch's most concerted effort to simulate in poetry the effects of Abstract Expressionism. It was an attempt to present language at its most animated, liberated from the need to make ordinary sense." 7.25'' x 5.5''. Original yellow cloth with paper spine label and collage mounted on front board. Ochre endpapers. In original acetate protective jacket. Illustrated by Rivers. 113, [3] pages. Edition of 200 copies handbound in boards, signed by the author and artist. This copy no. 97, signed by Koch and Rivers at colophon. THE FUCK YOU / QUOTE OF THE WEEK [Complete Set of Three]
Sanders, Ed; Fainlight, Harry; Ashbery, John; Koch, Kenneth Complete set of Ed Sanders's short-lived "Quote of the Week" from his notorious press, featuring three brief selections from Harry Fainlight, John Ashbery, and Kenneth Koch. Run off over the course of several weeks in the fall of 1964, these three gossipy, insular, self-referential broadsides are among the most ephemeral and quintessentially FU productions to be pulled off of Sanders' Lower East Side mimeograph. The first, dated Sept. 5th, is by Harry Fainlight (1935-1982) and transcribes a piece of a conversation Fainlight delivered at Bickfords in Times Square: "I have piles / I thought it was / gonorrhea / it's terrible / I have to / do all / kinds of / sordid blow job / scenes / now." The second, dated Sept. 14th, records poet John Ashbery's reaction (overheard at a party at Bill Berkson's on East 57th Street) to Ed Sanders' recently-issued TOE-QUEEN POEMS. And the third, dated September 23rd, finds Kenneth Koch having just read Harry Fainlight's first Quote of the Week: "It's shit. It's all shit." All of these Quotes are individually scarce, and this is the first time we've seen them offered as a set. Rare thus. 11'' x 8.5''. Three mimeographed broadsides printed recto only on pink paper. Mild toning to edges. Right edge of one mildly worn. Another folded in half. Overall, clean and sound. FINGER PRINT CLUES
Collins, Charles S. First edition of this pamphlet on proper handling of crime scene evidence, written for police use by Charles Stockley Collins of Scotland Yard, leading expert in the field and identifier of the first man convicted for murder in Britain by fingerprint evidence. 6.5'' x 4''. Original printed saddle-stapled wrappers. Black and white illustrations. 23, [1] pages. Some rusting to staples; trace edgewear. Tight. BUGGER
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SKIPPY DUMPY
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