Butler, Bill

The Gertrude Stein Cookbook

Brighton, UK & Seattle, WA: Unicorn Bookshop, 1969. Limited First Trade Edition. Sewn Binding. "don't listen to the words/ but listen to what I'm/ saying// like the shadows that you/ speak I know are meant to be-/ apples & roses" (second page, unpaginated) A collection of poems by Bill Butler (1934-1977), the legendary American-expatriate poet, publisher & bookseller. Butler founded the Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England, which from the late 1960s through the early 1970s proffered & published many outstanding productions by William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard et al. (& not least himself as here), some of which have become the scarcest, all-but-unobtainable Beat-&-Beyond collectibles (see for example our item No.s 8217, 8366). After prevailing against censorious harrassment efforts, Unicorn closed & Butler died in short order. Large-format chapbook in sewn binding, one of 200 trade copies (of a total edition of 262) per colophon at recto final leaf. A beautiful, offset-lithographic production with facsimile exquisite calligraphy credited to Steve Herold, the noted American calligrapher, poet & polymath. From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed friend who managed Unicorn with Butler. After Butler's passing, Cupidi founded the Public House bookshop in Brighton, which had a long & successful run but is also now closed, & he still resides there. We have been privileged to obtain what Cupidi has termed "The Last Hurrah," all the remaining collectibles of Unicorn & Public House, some of which have become the stuff of myth. Third Mind Books, as with this gem, is in the process of reverently curating & incrementally presenting the Butler-Cupidi-Unicorn-Public House Legacy that is in our custodial hands- until it passes to yours. A very scarce & quintessential Butler collectible in its singularly rarest contemporary trade form, from his own historic imprint & with the highest, most relevant association & provenance. In relatively quite very fine condition with only a touch of rubbing, faint scratching & very occasional tiny spotting to front, back covers & sewn spine (exposed sheets); a hint of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; light rubbing, spotting to edges of text block (incl. spine). Interior very fine with only miniscule bumps at corners of a few page leaves. Very Fine. [Item #8364]

Price: $100.00