Burroughs, William S.

Cobble Stone Gardens

Cherry Valley, NY: Cherry Valley Editions, 1976. First Edition. "Boys lean over iron balconies in the summer night whispering and giggling, turn in black waters of the old swimming hole with ivory flash of ambiguous limbs, roar past each other in stolen cars with woppish cries and crash into the viaduct cracking concrete to its bloody steel bones. Boys whiz through the air out of autos, roller coasters, crashing planes, falling jumping waving to each other. A great white smile folds into snow capped mountains." (pg. 18) A later work by William S. Burroughs, Founding Father of the Beat Generation-&-Beyond, & one of the most important, influential literary & cultural figures who ever lived & wrote. A post-cut-up mixture of early memoir & exemplary Burroughsian feverish fantasy, this slender but very intense volume is dedicated to WSB's parents, Mortimer & Laura Lee Burroughs; & the title refers to the quaint little gift shop in Florida that they owned & conducted. With vintage images of WSB & his older brother Mortimer Jr. overseen by their father on front cover, frontispiece of Laura Lee Burroughs & various historic images throughout. Trade-format softcover, first edition as stated on copyright page. A very limited hardcover signed edition was issued simultaneously with this first printing. Shoaf, Section I, No. 33a, pg. 42; Schottlaender, A34, pg. 14. Publisher Cherry Valley Editions is the imprint of Legendary Literary Outlaws (& our dear friends) Charles Plymell & his wife, Pamela Beach Plymell. CVE also published WSB's Tornado Alley (1989, see Item No. 5065), & the Plymells, along with Pamela's mother Mary Beach & stepfather Claude Pelieu, were his close friends & collaborators. From the collection of Kevin Ring, publisher of Beat Scene magazine & other indispensable productions, many of which are available here (& also our good friend). An essential classic WSB collectible, in its rarest original trade form & with distinguished provenance. In relatively very fine condition with only mild rubbing, browning & faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; very light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same; mild browning, spotting to edges of text block. Interior very fine with only slight browning to blank inner covers & endpapers; tiny bumps & very small, faint creases at upper corners of a few page leaves. Very Fine. [Item #5072]

Price: $75.00