Musgrove, Keith; Nuttall, Jeff

The Limbless Virtuoso: Poems

London, England, UK: Writers' Forum, 1963. First Edition, First Printing. Stapled Sheets in Stiff Wrappers. With apparent hand-corrections by Keith Musgrove &/or Jeff Nuttall. A very rare & riveting work by English anarchist & poet Jeff Nuttall (1933-2004), a key figure in the roiling counterculture of the UK during the 1960s, and the mysterious Keith Musgrove. Involved in many arts & endeavors, Nuttall is best-known to Beat Generation devotees for his self-published underground literary journal, "My Own Mag," featuring many important contributions by Beat Generation Founding Father William S. Burroughs (1914-1997). Issues of this legendary (& legendarily fragile) Mimeo-Revolution era classic are now prized among collectors. (See item no. 8207) Unfortunately, the Musgrove trail was hard to pick up in research archives, but we're sure he was of equal mind and importance to the movements of the time. First published by the small publisher, workshop and writers' network Writers’ Forum in 1963, The Limbless Virtuoso contains ten early works by the English poets Musgrove and Nuttall during a time that saw significant political and social changes. This item is an exemplar of mixed, anarchic style with roughly printed columns of text, illustrations often overlapping them, etc. Originally sold for "one shilling," equaling 12 American cents in 1963, meaning it would have cost approximately $1.20 in 2025! From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed mate in the UK who managed the fabled Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England with Bill Butler (1934-1977, the famed American-expatriate bookseller & publisher). From the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Unicorn proffered & published many outstanding productions by WSB, J.G. Ballard et al., some of which have become the scarcest, all-but-unobtainable Beat-&-Beyond collectibles (see for example our iterm no. 8217). After prevailing against censorious harrassment efforts, Unicorn closed & Butler died in short order. Cupidi went on to found the Public House Bookshop in Brighton, which had a long & successful run but is also now closed, & he still resides there. We have been honored to obtain what Cupidi has termed "The Last Hurrah," all the remaining treasures of Unicorn & Public House, some of which have become the stuff of myth. In the poem "The Sailor's Farewell," either Musgrove or Nuttall has handwritten corrections in black ink to the letter "t" in they ("T"), and inserted the word "worst" between the preceding word "his" and before the period ending the sentence. Stapled Sheets in Stiff Wrappers: First edition, first printing though neither explicated as such at copyright page. A quintessential Jeff Nuttall/Keith Musgrove collectible, in its rarest contemporary form,with utmost distinguished & relevant provenance. In relatively fine-to-very fine condition with mild age-toning and rubbing to front, back wrappers & spine; mild wear mostly to fine edges of same; minor creasing mostly at bottom left front corner of front wrapper/bottom right corner of back wrapper, near spine; moderate age-toning mostly to blank margins/fine edges of inner front and back wrappers; staple rust stains at spine of page leaves and at inner front wrapper spine; minor age-toning to text block. Interior fine-to-very fine with an occasion of staining to title/last page; expected age-toning throughout; occasional printing ink errors to some page leaves. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #8204]

Price: $100.00