Ferlinghetti, Lawrence

The Illustrated Wilfred Funk

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1971. First Edition. Softcover. Signed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. (Cook 94, pp. 100-101; Morgan A31, pp. 64-65). The Illustrated Wilfred Funk is a curious, Beat-adjacent Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021) collectible that we at TMB are proud to offer — as it scarcely comes to market, & is rarely if ever enriched as this when it does. The work centers around a voicedly satirical take on Wilfred J. Funk (1883-1965), one half (and President) of the Funk & Wagnalls publishing company—known primarily for their reference works. The work combines drawings (done by Ferlinghetti’s then-young son, Lorenzo) with a zinger-flecked comic plot that takes aim not at Funk, but at Ferlinghetti himself. Let’s first attempt to enunciate this tendency by utilizing the following example, found early on in “The Illustrated Wilfred Funk.” The caption reads: “WILFRED FUNK / THINKS HE’S A / GREAT LOVER.” How is this Ferlinghetti making fun of himself—or “one of his literary ‘personas,’” such as they are? Well, numerous Ferlinghetti readers, for example, are familiar with wink-crested lines like these — (found in Poem “#8” in LF’s immortal “Coney Island of the Mind,”). “'I feel there is an angel in me’ she’d say / ‘whom I am constantly shocking’ / Then she would smile and look away / light a cigarette for me / sigh and rise / and stretch / her sweet anatomy / let fall a stocking.” He expands upon this strain of naivete and hedonism as the chapbook gallops onward: adding [2] “WILFRED FUNK / FINKS ON HIS FRIENDS ”; [3] Wilfred Funk “IS A JERK AND DOESN’T KNOW IT,” before going on to link these malignments to the indisputably connective-&-revealing sequence that follows. [4] “WILFRED FUNK / DOESN’T KNOW $HIT FROM SHINOLA / WILFRED FUNK CONTEMPLATES / HIS NAVEL AND CALLS / IT POETRY.” Ferlinghetti, then uses this frame of comic self-deprecation to “roast himself,” in other words. “Roasting,” of course had yet to become a favored art form and quasi- national pastime back in 1971 (when this inordinately illusive, & much sought after volume first appeared). Yet, satirical newspapers and satirical literature — which predate the birthplace of roasting (the New York Friars Club) by hundreds of years, — did, of course, proliferate. The influence of a range of different satires, as a result, is strongly in evidence, here. To close, the work succeeds in no small part because of its ability to blend a quotidian, low-cultural comic sensibility with the chortle-birthing, frosty directness of Roasting (and Stand-Up) at their axe-flinging best. At front-cover verso, Ferlinghetti has handwritten his stylized signature in an espresso black ink: "L. Ferlinghetti." Small-Format Softcover: First Edition, first printing, with all points in Cook & Morgan referenced above. A most collectible Ferlinghetti curiosity in its rarest contemporary form, greatly enhanced by Ferlinghetti's princely signature. In relatively fine-to-very fine condition with mild-to-moderate age-toning & spot-staining to front, back covers & spine; small enclosed tears along bottom fine edge of front near bottom corner and at spine; mild-to-moderate creasing at front/spine; mild-to-moderate creasing to back cover; very mild bumping of corners to front & back covers; mild-to-moderate age-toning & rubbing to textblock; an occasion of spot-staining to top of text block; red remainder mark to bottom of same. Interior fine-to-very fine with mild age-toning mostly to blank margins and fine edges of page leaves; bleeding from aforementioned ink staining at bottom fine edge of most of same. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #8629]

Price: $300.00