Various (Carroll, Paul (Editor); Ashbery, John; Blackburn, Paul; Creeley, Robert; Dorn, Edward; Duncan, Robert; Ferlinghetti, Lawrence; Genet, Jean; Ginsberg, Allen; Mailer, Norman et al.)

Big Table Vol. 1 No. 3 (1959)

Chicago, IL: Big Table, 1959. First Edition. Softcover. “Only to have not forgotten the beginning in which she drank / cheap sodas in the morgues of Newark / only to have seen her weeping on grey tales in long wards of her / universe / only to have known the weird ideas of Hitler at the door, the wires / in her head, the three big sticks / rammed down her back, the voices in the ceiling shrieking out / her ugly early lays for 30 years, / only to have seen the time-jumps, memory lapse, the crash of / wars, the roar and silence of a vast electric shock, / only to have seen her painting crude pictures of Elevateds running / over the rooftops of the Bronx / her brothers dead in Riverside or Russia, her lone in Long Island / writing a last letter – and her image in the sunlight at the / window…”--Allen Ginsberg, “from KADDISH,” pg. 7 Big Table was launched in Spring 1959 following the suppression of the Winter 1958 issue of The Chicago Review. An exposé in the Chicago Daily News revealed editors Irving Rosenthal’s (1930-2022) and Paul Carroll’s (1927-1996) plans to publish work by William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), and other Beat writers, and the administration quashed the magazine. Rosenthal and Carroll, along with other Chicago Review editors, resigned and with the suppressed material started Big Table. The first issue was edited by Rosenthal and Carroll, though Carroll had to withdraw his name in order to avoid being fired by Loyola University where he was employed. This issue contained work by Jack Kerouac (who named the magazine in a telegram: “CALL IT BIG TABLE”), Edward Dahlberg (1900-1977), and Burroughs (a section from Naked Lunch), and was summarily impounded by the US Post Office.The lawsuit was unsuccessful and Big Table continued through 1960 and five issues. Rosenthal left the magazine after the first issue and Carroll stayed on as editor for the duration, publishing such writers and artists as Paul Bowles (1910-1999), Antonin Artaud (1896-1948), Leon Golub (1922-2004), John Logan (1923-1987), Robert Duncan (1919-1988), Denise Levertov (1923-1997), Robert Fulton, Harry Callahan, Douglas Woolf (1922-1992), Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), Paul Blackburn (1926-1971), Franz Kline (1910-1962), Diane di Prima (1934-2020), and Gregory Corso (1930-2001). Offered today is the 1959 issue, Big Table: Vol. 1 No. 3. This issue features: a selection from Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem “KADDISH;” the poem “Evocation” by the legendary Robert Duncan; “The Way” by Robert Creeley (1926-2005); “Quick & Expensive Comments On the Talent in the Room” by Norman Mailer (1923-2007); “Banyalbufar” by the singular Paul Blackburn; “The Air of June Sings” by Edward Dorn (1929-1999); “Her” by the titanic Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and “How Much Longer Will I Be Able to Inhabit the Divine Sepulcher,” and “April Fool’s Day” by John Ashbery (1927-2017), among many other great contributions! From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed friend in the UK who managed the fabled Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England for founder 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 William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard et al., 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 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. Softcover in sewn binding. First & presumably only printing. In relatively very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges, minor smudging/scratching to front and back covers, and discoloration due to age-toning throughout interior and to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #8546]

Price: $60.00 save 15% $51.00