Various (Ferlinghetti, Lawrence (Editor); Artaud, Antonin; Burroughs, William S.; Camus, Albert; Corso, Gregory; Duncan, Robert; Ginsberg, Allen; Mailer, Norman; Merton, Thomas; Patchen, Kenneth; Russell, Bertrand; Snyder, Gary et al.)

Journal for the Protection of All Beings No. 1 (1961)

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1961. First Edition. Softcover. Signed, placed, dated & inscribed by Allen Ginsberg at his contribution to Richard Cupidi. "We hope we have here an open place where normally apolitical men may speak uncensored upon any subject they feel most hotly & cooly about in a world which politics has made. We are not interested in protecting beings from themselves, we cannot help the deaths people give themselves, we are more concerned with the lives they do not allow themselves to live, and the deaths other people would give us, both of the body & spirit." (Editors' Statement). Journal For The Protection Of All Beings was created to have contemporary writers submit essays and poems to shed light on the current situation in the world, with a focus on the existential threat of the atomic bomb and the constant threat of nuclear war. Journal for the Protection of All Beings was one of the first radical ecology journals. The brainchild of Michael McClure (1932-2020) and David Meltzer (1937-2016), it melded the anarchist thought of the 1950s with the pacifism evidenced in the very early journal The Illiterati, published in the late 1940s. In this maiden issue, venerable American author and Founding Father of the Beat Generation William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is interviewed by fellow Beat legends Gregory Corso (1930-2001) & Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), Ginsberg is interviewed by Corso, & there are other tantalizing, freethinking contributions by Albert Camus (1913-1960, "The Artist as a Symbol of Freedom"); co-editor Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021, "Picturesque Haiti"); Norman Mailer (1923-2007, "An Open Letter to JFK and Castro"); Meltzer ("Journal of Birth"); and Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder (b. 1930, "Buddhist Anarchism"), representing several generations of literary & philosophical radicalism. This issue also reprinted two famous documents, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s (1792-1822) “Declaration of Rights” and the famous statement by Chief Joseph (1840-1904) of the Nez Perce Indians. 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 also our best example with item no. 8217). After prevailing against censorious harassment 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. At the top right corner of page 21, the one-and-only Allen Ginsberg himself has signed, placed, dated & inscribed his contribution, in black ink, to Cupidi: "(signed) Allen Ginsberg | Brighton Nov, 16, 1979 | for Richard Cupidi." Oblong, Large-Format Magazine-Journal: first and only printing from 1961, with all points in Cook, No. 33, pgs. 35-36. Already a scarce & most-desirable collectible, Ginsberg's inscription, signature & date with its stellar association & provenance makes this copy among the rarest & most significant of this production. See also our item No.s 8210, 8211. In relatively near fine-to-fine condition with moderate age-toning, staining, spotting to front, back covers and spine; light creasing to top & bottom right corners of front cover; enclosed tear to top of spine; chipping to bottom of same; moderate age-toning and occasions of foxing to text block. Interior near fine-to-fine with expected age-toning to mostly blank margins and fine edges of page leaves with some occasions of spot-staining. Near Fine-Fine. [Item #8209]

Price: $500.00 save 15% $425.00