Various (Durrell, Lawrence; Lamantia, Philip; Leger, Ferdnand; Miller, Henry; Patchen, Kenneth; Porter, Bern; Williams, William Carlos et al.)

The Happy Rock: A Book about Henry Miller

Berkeley, CA: Bern Porter, 1945. Limited Second Edition. Hardcover. "Henry Miller is still more or less unknown to the general publics of England and America. It is not entirely his fault in spite of the fact that the proportion of so-called "unprintable" words employed in the construction of his three great books (Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn) is fairly high. It is, in fact, due entirely to the power and vehemence of his purely descriptive writing that he is as well known as he is." (from Lawrence Durrell, "The Happy Rock," pg. 1) A collection of essays on the life & work of Henry Miller (1891-1980), the great American author & artist whose earlier works were an influence & inspiration to the Beat Generation. Compiled, published & with a contribution by Bern Porter (1911-2004), an astounding American polymath who wrote, published, performed, was an avant-garde pioneer of Mail Art & Found Poetry, & even a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project which led to the first atomic weapons during World War II. With contributions by Lawrence Durrell (quoted above), Philip Lamantia, Miller himself, Kenneth Patchen, Porter, William Carlos Williams & many others. Indeed, the roster of contributors here demonstrates the attraction to Miller by pre-Beat-Surrealist writers & their future mentors. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket (with reproduction of a Miller portrait drawing by Ferdinand Leger on front cover), one of an edition of 2250 copies published during 1947 (the date indicated at illustrated title window at front cover board). The colophon/copyright page (referring to the 1945 edition of 750 copies) calls for a hand-written number, this copy is un-numbered. With all points in Shifreen & Jackson, B29(b), pg.576. Not mentioned in S&J but of note, the page leaves in this volume are grouped into several colors- perhaps because of early postwar paper quotas/shortages or avant-garde whimsey? A now-classic & most-intriguing Miller-related collectible in its penultimately rarest near-contemporary form. Book in relatively quite fine-to-very-fine condition with only a touch of rubbing, browning to front, back cover boards & cloth spine; light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; mild rubbing, moderate browning to edges of text block. Interior fine-to-very-fine with light browning, occasional spotting to blank grey paste-downs, endpapers & page leaves. Dust jacket (again relatively) fair-to-good with mild-to-moderate rubbing, browning, spotting & mostly faint scratching to front, back covers, esp. spine & flaps; mild-to-significant wear at edges & corners of same incl. tiny bumps, creases & chips with varying loss of paper esp. at upper left front cover/spine, lower left front cover/spine & outer front cover/flap edges & corners. Fine- Very Fine / Fair- Good. [Item #6624]

Price: $50.00