Kryss, T.L.

Music in the Winepress Parrots in the Flames

Ellensburg, WA: Vagabond Press, 1976. First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. Signed by T.L. Kryss. "Words are sardines packed / in a man's eyes / some say they are still used / like the boulder money / of the Easter Islanders / carried from place to place / on sagging poles, / that they are no more permanent / than the buildings / after the air raids on London" (from "Bell Too Heavy To Ring," the 8th poem in this unpaginated collection). Poet, Publisher, & player in the Cleveland "League" of the Mimeograph Revolution, Tom Kryss was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1948. It wasn't until 1966, though, that Kryss came into regular contact with d.a.levy and the owner of the all-important Asphodel Book Shop, Jim Lowell. Inspired by the thankless dedication of both, he began to contemplate what he might contribute to the mycelial Mimeo Landscape by establishing a press of his own. When fall of 1966 rolled around, Kryss left for Northwestern in pursuit of a degree in Journalism. His hunger for small press production could not be suppressed much longer, however. Kryss, "...like a seed, blown by happy chance onto fertile ground," soon found himself in Chicago--where he met the legendary underground poet-printer-publisher, Douglas Blazek. Blazek was "the real deal" at its rugged finest, -- an amalgam of laser-focused, levy-like craftsmanship and the beer-swilling swagger of a Charles Bukowski. Over the course of his life, Kryss would publish numerous works of his own and other like-minded Freedom Fighters for Poetry--releasing them through his Ghost Press, Cold Mountain, and Black Rabbit imprints. This collection from 1976 marks a full decade from Kryss' Mimeo Baptism, a decade from being "signaled through the flames" (to borrow a phrase from Lawrence Ferlinghetti) by levy and Lowell's revolutionary Cleveland. Chapbook in stapled wrappers, the (unstated) first and only printing; another Small Press Deep Cut from John Bennett's Vagabond Press that punches far above its weight class. [ISBN: 0-912824-13-1]. This copy is additionally signed by Kryss at title page. Signature in think black pen ink reads: "T.L. Kryss." Chapbook in fine condition with moderate shelf-wear to fine-edges, corners of front, back covers; small, since-flattened crease-indentation near top left-hand corner of front cover; a few scattered ink flecks to same; pronounced-to-significant rusting to staples at interior & exterior, though bleed remains contained. Fine. [Item #4827]

Price: $55.00 save 20% $44.00