Burroughs, William S.; Ginsberg, Allen

The Yage Letters

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1965. First Edition, Second Printing. Softcover. "THE YAGE LETTERS: an early epistolary novel by William S. Burroughs, celebrated author of 'the Soft Machine' & 'The Ticket That Exploded'. Burroughs' 1951 account of himself as Junkie, published under the pseudonym William Lee, ended 'Yage may be the final fix'. In letters to Allen Ginsberg, an unknown young poet in New York, his journey to the Amazon jungle is recorded, detailing picaresque incidents of search for telepathic-hallucinogenic-mind-expanding drug Yage (Ayahuasca, or Baniseriopsis Caape) used by Amazon indian doctors for finding lost objects, mostly bodies and souls. Author and recipient of these letters met again in New York, Xmas 1953, pruned and edited the writings to form a single book. Correspondence contains first seeds of later Burroughsian fantasy in 'Naked Lunch'. Seven years later Ginsberg in Peru writes his old guru an account of his own visions and terrors with the same drug, appealing for further counsel. Burroughs' mysterious reply is sent. The volume concludes with two epilogues: a short note from Ginsberg on his return from the Orient years later reassuring Self that he is still here on earth, and a final poetic cut-up by Burroughs, 'I Am Dying, Meester?' (back cover) The classic work first published in 1963 by William S. Burroughs along with Allen Ginsberg, co-Founding Fathers of the Beat Generation-&-Beyond: The Yage Letters, the eminently quotable correspondence mostly by WSB to Ginsberg during 1953 as he searched for the ancient Shamanic elixir- Yage. Softcover original in sewn binding, "Second Printing May 1965" as stated at copyright page, a production of the iconic City Lights imprint. Maynard & Miles, A8(a), pgs. 41-43; Schottlaender (5.0 edition), A8(A), pg. 7; Morgan (AG), B22(a1), pg. 110. M&M & Morgan note that 4000 copies of this second printing were produced in "August" of 1965. From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed mate in the UK who was the manager of the fabled Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England founded by Bill Butler (1934-1977, the famed American-expatriate poet, publisher & bookseller). 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 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 which is also now closed, & he still resides there. We have been privileged to obtain what Cupidi has termed "The Last Hurrah," all the remaining gems such as this of Unicorn & Public House. Third Mind Books proceeds to reverently curate & incrementally present the Butler-Cupidi-Unicorn-Public House Legacy which is in our custodial hands- until it passes to yours. An essential, foundational WSB-Ginsberg collectible in its penultimately rarest contemporary form, with the highest & most relevant provenance. And so "As Ever," to paraphrase the immortal words of WSB (see pg. 26), we sincerely urge you to attach yourself to this expedition- in a somewhat vague capacity to be sure. In relatively near-fine condition with light rubbing, faint-to-pronounced scratching, creasing & mild age-toning to front, back covers & spine; light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at/from edges & corners of same; mild rubbing, age-toning to edges of text block. Interior fine with mild age-toning to inner covers & page leaves esp. at blank margins/edges thereof; Unicorn/Public House's seller's price in pencil at blank upper right margin of recto first leaf/ title page (a quaint relic of its provenance we prefer to retain for you); tiny bumps & small, faint creases at corners of some leaves. Near Fine. [Item #8742]

Price: $75.00 save 15% $63.75