Various (Stettner, Irving (Editor); Bowles, Paul; Krim, Seymour; Miller, Henry; Mrabet, Mohammed et al.)

Stroker No. 13 (1979)

New York, NY, USA: Stroker, 1979. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. (Shifreen & Jackson, C634-C638, p. 826). In the late 1970s, Henry Miller (1891-1980) wrote the following adulatory passage to Irving Stettner (1922-2004), the great Brooklyn, NY-born poet, publisher, and watercolorist: “It makes me feel good to know there is a comparatively unknown little magazine in the heart of Second Avenue (ghetto to the world) in which l am granted full freedom of speech.” In the last three years of Miller’s life, he published in one place and one place only: Stettner’s “Stroker Magazine,” — in and of itself a supreme compliment to the lauded artist and close friend of Miller: noted “Enfant Terrible” & one of literature’s acknowledged Gonzo Minutemen. Offered here is the thirteenth issue of Stroker, a real doozy — as it contains several high-impact, curiosity-piquing pieces by the oft-banned author of “Time of the Assassins” & “The Tropic of Cancer.” Miller’s legacy is multifaceted and indisputable: a hallmark of any eminence, to be sure. For a legacy to be “multifaceted and indisputable,” it must be “elliptical,” — by which Your Devoted Vice President of Third Mind Books means the following: the discipleship that author has earned must be the product of several different “ports of entry” (to invoke TMB’s Patron Saint-Demon, the great William S. Burroughs [1914-1997]). This writer’s “port of entry” was provided by Miller’s “Time of the Assassins,” — a work first published in 1962 that contains record of Miller’s absorption of Rimbaud’s influence on his own life and work; his behavior and temperament (artistic & otherwise). Miller’s contributions — comprised of “Childhood in Brooklyn” (pp. 4-11), “On Love,” (p. 19), “Bonnie and Clyde: A Toccata for Half-Wits” (pp. 26-34), as well as a grand total of three ink drawings (p. 23; & p. 30) — enrich the issue immeasurably. For the serious Beat Reader / student of mid-century American literary-&-poetic development, other ornaments similarly bauble the issue: including those by Seymour Krim (“from CHAOS”) and the noted associate of Paul Bowles, Mohammed Mrabet (Front Cover Drawing, & two letters: “My Friend Stettner,” dated “28/ix/79,” & a second letter, dated “17/x/79” ). The list of contributors and contributions (in full) reads as follows: Blaise Cendrars (“Poem Written When a Girl the Poet Loved Was Burned to Death in a Fire in St. Petersburg, Russia”); Marianne Goldscheider, (“Dear Editor” [re: Stroker 10]); Barbara Kraft (“Homage á Van Gogh”); Seymour Krim (listed above); Henry Miller (listed above); Mohammed Mrabet (listed above); Eddie Schwartz (untitled, reprinted ‘Handwritten Letter’); Craig Peter Standish (“An Open Letter to All and Sundry”); Stettner, himself (“Chocolate Soldier in Tokyo, Pt. 1”); Twinka Thiebaud (“On Love,” ‘written’ in collaboration with Miller & simultaneously published in “TABLE TALKS WITH HENRY MILLER”); Tommy Trantino (“Ink Drawing”); & lastly, Kenneth Warren, with three poems (“The Wandering Boy,” “Corporeal,” and “Points”). Small-format literary journal in stapled wrappers: the first & only printing of Irving Stettner’s classic late-70s periodical. In strong Very Good condition with minute-to-moderate shelf-wear, light bumping & some low-impact exhibits of bump-creasing to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; moderate-to-enunciated age-toning (spotting, rubbing, etc. — all age-affiliated artifacts in both essence & fact) to same; some crinkling-creasing at/along spine-edge at interior (between FC verso & Title/Contents page, specifically—an artifact that limits itself to this section of the magazine and is not even faintly enunciated anywhere else in this copy of Stroker 13); otherwise a clean & alluringly collectible copy of Stettner’s (statement-making) Stroker Magazine. Very Good. [Item #6654]

Price: $50.00