Burroughs, William S.; Pelieu, Claude; Weissner, Carl

So Who Owns Death TV?

San Francisco, CA: Beach Books Texts & Documents, 1967. First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. A gathering of three works, authored or heavily influenced by William S. Burroughs & his cut-up methods at their late-high point (in order): "Objective Galactic Time Demolition Plan 23" by Claude Pelieu (1934-2002), the French avant-garde artist & writer who with his wife Mary Beach was a friend of & collaborator with WSB & the publisher of this production (see below); "So Who Owns Death TV," the title piece by Carl Weissner (1940-2012), the German writer who was the foremost translator of WSB's works into that language (though this & all texts here are in English); & an untitled text beginning with "A boy as quoted in The Desperate Years assembled..." by WSB, an exemplary cut-up in which both linear & column formats are employed. Pamphlet of eight leaves staple-bound at top, forming 16 pages including covers. This copy is from the true first edition of (appx.) 3000 copies with all Talmudic bibliographical points as noted in Maynard & Miles (A13(a), pgs. 58-60), Shoaf (Section I, No. 12, pg. 32) & Schottlaender (A17(A), pg. 9). As mentioned therein, a small amount of copies (perhaps 200/3000) of this first printing were produced on black paper with silver text, this copy is from the majority printed on white paper with black text (except for red title on front cover & publisher's logo on back cover). A "black bag pamphlet" production of Beach Books Texts & Documents, distributed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books, all as stated on front cover. BBT&D is the imprint of Mary Beach & Claude Pelieu as noted above. Beach & Pelieu were the mother, stepfather & in-laws respectively of Pamela Beach Plymell & her husband, the Legendary Literary Outlaw Charles Plymell- both also close friends of & collaborators with WSB. We noticed that on the otherwise blank inner back cover is this fine print: "Vortex Printers/ Charley D. Plymell- Pamela Plymell/ 2180 Bryant/ San Francisco, California 94110." Among the Plymells' most famous of many accomplishments over a vast period as writers, editors, printers & publishers is that Charles was the stated printer of the very first 1968 edition of Robert Crumb's iconic Zap Comix No. 1 (see our item No. 2164), among the most coveted collectibles. To see Charles & Pamela's names here preceding & so close in time & place to Zap is thrilling to us as it should be to you the collector, & we note that none of the bibliographies mention this point. Also, this copy is from the collection of our good friend Brian Schottlaender, author of "Anything But Routine," the most complete & up-to-date WSB bibliography now in its fourth online edition, which we always consult for all our WSB-related rarities as above (please consider noting this point about the Plymells being the stated printers of this item in near-concurrence with Zap in your fifth edition now in progress, dear Brian). An outstanding, increasingly scarce & most significant WSB-related collectible, with distinguished provenance. In relatively fine condition with mild rubbing, scratching, spotting & a few short, faint creases to covers & stapled spine; very light wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same; staples in process of rusting with minimal bleeding mostly at interior; one very short, semicircular, barely penetrating & completely closed tear at upper front cover edge/ spine near left staple; mild browning to very thin edges of text block. Interior fine with light browning mostly to blank margins of page leaves; very slight wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; very small stamp of letters "d/p(?)" inside square near lower left corner of blank final leaf opposite inner back cover. Fine. [Item #4595]

Price: $100.00