Butler, Bill

My One Leaf Head

Brighton, England: Unicorn Press, 1969. Limited First Trade Edition. "Enough quiet | space | off inside my one-leaf | head | arranging the stones | poems far shadows | clouds | or hawks floating silent | wind | echoing the sun" ("1," My One Leaf Head, dated "19 VI 69"). My One Leaf Head is a book of poetry from author, poet, publisher, & expatriate Bill Butler (1934-1977), the proprietor of the fabled Unicorn Bookshop, a beacon of the 1960s-1970s counterculture analogous to City Lights Books in San Francisco. In 1965 he and his partner Mike moved to Brighton, England and he opened Unicorn Bookshop which earned itself a little fame and some notoriety after being prosecuted and fined for selling "obscene" literature, but was cleared on appeal when it was pointed out that most of the titles were on sale at another local bookshop. Butler knew many of the Beat Generation writers and his store was stuffed with their works and all manner of other wonderful books, magazines and posters which one could find nowhere else, even writing Look At Uncle Bill: An Interview with William Burroughs, an intimate dissection of William S. Burroughs’ (1914-1997) art and life. My One Leaf Head, is a compilation of poems from the middle of his illustrious career featuring ten untitled poems on otherwise unpaginated leafs, uniquely identified by date of writing i.e: "19 VI 69" indicating the poem was written on June 19, 1969. From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed chap in the UK who managed the fabled Unicorn Bookshop for aforementioned founder Bill Butler. After prevailing against censorious harrassment efforts, Unicorn closed in 1974 & 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 (see Item No. 8217 for example). Chapbook in Stapled Wrappers, a Unicorn Bookshop production: Limited first trade edition, first printing. Per end colophon "My One Leaf Head has been printed for Unicorn by Richard Moseley in an edition of 500, of which 450 copies are on Four Stones Mill laid paper, and 50 numbered & signed copies are on Tumba Ingres." An extraordinarily scarce Butler collectible in its penultimately rarest contemporary form; with the most possibly distinguished & relevant association & provenance. In relatively quite very fine condition with only very slight rubbing, faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a touch of wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; an occasion of very minor spot-staining at top left corner of front cover; a hint of rubbing to edges of text block. Interior very fine with only miniscule bumps at corners of some page leaves. Very Fine. [Item #8296]

Price: $75.00