Various (Brainard, Joe; levy, d.a.; Lowell, Jim et al.)

James R. Lowell Defense Fund (Two Copies)

Cleveland, OH: d.a.levy, 1967. First Printing. Single Sheet. “Among the many obscene (?) [sic] publications seized by the police in their recent ‘hitlerian anti-intellectual’ blitz on cleveland’s Asphodel Book Shop were…” begins this 4 pp. corner-stapled document relating to the December 1966 raid on Jim Lowell’s (1932-2004) Asphodel Book Shop in Cleveland, OH. There are two copies of the document offered here — which was officially titled, The James R. Lowell Defense Fund by its editor, d.a.levy (1942-1968). It pertains to the December 1966 raid on the Asphodel Book Shop in Cleveland: a major event in the life of the Mimeograph Revolution in America during the 1960s. The document goes on to list thirty titles that were stolen [and never returned] from the Asphodel by the law enforcement offers who ‘visited’ the store that night. levy continues by noting the following: “It is not known which of these books will be taken to court — what is important is the fact that most of these publications were mimeo mags & none of them contained obscene materials — the books were confiscated for the purposes of harassment Only [sic].” Prospective buyers [& all interested parties, really] might benefit from knowing that there is a similar item to this one in our holdings at present, as well: [TMB Item No. 7891 — A Tribute to Jim Lowell, featuring a publisher’s press release that similarly advertises where the money needs to be sent. On the final page [of this copy] of the The James R. Lowell Defense Fund, there’s an excellent poem — (titled, “People of the World: Relax!”) — by the American artist & poet, Joe Brainard (b. 1942-1994) who is most often associated with figures like Kenward Elmslie (1929-2022), & the Second Generation of “NY School” poets. The second copy of The James R. Lowell Defense Fund, excepting the verso side of the 4 pp. document’s final page, is the same as the first. On the second copy, the final page reprints a series of notorious excerpts from an article by Hilbert [here misspelled “Hilbetr”] Black — the “Cleveland Chief Police Reporter” — titled, “GRAND JURY NAMED BEATNIK POET IN SECRET INDICTMENT ON FILTH.” While the episode it refers to will functionally break levy’s psyche, and result in d.a.’s premature & violent suicide in November, 1968, the article at least is frequently hilarious (or at least reads that way now). Your Devoted VP-of-Operations here at TMB’s personal favorite sentence of The James R. Lowell Defense Fund, in totality is the following: “Two months of searching coffee houses and other known beatnik hangouts by police have failed to find levy,” the Chief Police Reporter writes unironically. In a most American flourish at the document’s end, levy slots an advertisement for his “new cleveland poem, KIBBUTZ IN THE SKY” [sic] — one of the most expertly-titled (& expertly-crafted) works in all of levy’s catalog. Stapled Single Sheets: both copies from the first-&-only printing [despite variations noted above] of this wildly rare, Mim-Rev rarity. In strong near fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear, some light bumping (& since-flattened bump-creasing), enunciated, variously throughout [i.e.] evenly spread across recto & verso sides of both copies & sheets; expected quotient of age-toning, as well as some creasing [of both the horizontal & vertical varieties; some running through length of page where initially folded in thirds; see pictures]; otherwise, clean. Near Fine. [Item #7985]

Price: $200.00