Various (Beck, Julian; Corso, Gregory; Ferlinghetti, Lawrence; Ginsberg, Allen; McClure, Michael; Nuttall, Jeff; Olson, Charles; Pelieu, Claude; Plymell, Charles et al.)

City Lights Journal No. 3 (1966)

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1966. First Edition. Softcover. Signed by Allen Ginsberg at his contribution. The third number of the landmark first series of literary journals published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's iconic Beat imprint, City Lights Books. Featuring an article by Richard Shattuck about the great French Surrealist poet & playwright Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918, "Apollinaire's Great Whitman Happening") with a photograph of Apollinaire; Mary Beach's translation from French into English of a fragment from her husband Claude Pelieu's prose-poetry work ("Here Now Fast"); the script & related writings by Julian Beck of his avant-garde Living Theatre Company's production of "Frankenstein" including photographs of the staged work; a fragment from the poem "Mutation of the Spirit" by Gregory Corso; a short prose work, "Pound at Spoleto," by Ferlinghetti (1919-2021, the canonical Beat-&-Beyond poet, publisher & bookseller who also edited this issue), a lengthy poem by Allen Ginsberg dated June 15, 1965 ("New York to San Fran"); the poem "Mad Sonnet" by Michael McClure; "Boy with Face of Sour Apples," a prose fragment by Jeff Nuttall (1933-2004, who published William S. Burroughs' works in his 1960s My Own Mag series); an explicit translation of a fragment of ancient poetry, "The Song of Ullikumi," by Charles Olson (1910-1970, our favorite Maximus Obscurantist); the poem "Apocalypse Rose" by Charles Plymell (b. 1935, Legendary Literary Outlaw & our beloved friend); & more. With more photographs & illustrations, including a famous image of poets in front of City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco taken by Larry Keenan Jr. on December 5, 1965 featuring Ferlinghetti under an umbrella, Richard Brautigan, Ginsberg, McClure, Peter Orlovsky & many others on front cover. From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed mate in the UK who managed the legendary Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England with Bill Butler (1934-1977, the famed American-expatriate poet, publisher & bookseller). From the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Unicorn proffered & published 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 rarities of Unicorn & Public House such as this. Third Mind Books is in the reverent process of incrementally curating & presenting the Butler-Cupidi-Unicorn-Public House Legacy that is in our custodial hands until it passes to yours. Trade-format softcover, first printing with all points in: Cook, No. 57, pgs. 62-63; Morgan (Ferlinghetti), C228, pg. 196; Morgan (Ginsberg), C240, pg. 239; Dowden, pg. 66; Butterick & Glover, C184, pg. 58. This work is additionally signed by one of its contributors: the great American poet, Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg’s signature, in thin, black, felt pen ink, reads: “Allen Ginsberg,” and faint echoes of the signature having imprinted onto the right-facing page (the result, of course, of having shut the book too quickly while the ink was still wet) faintly leave the trace of said artifact at/along the expected area. In Very Good condition with minute-to-moderate shelf-wear, some light bumping, bump-creasing, scratching, & related light-to-enunciated rubbing found along front, back covers & spine-edge; foxing, spotting, and other examples of age-toning similar in nature and gradation to these variously present at interior & exterior, including along leftmost fine-edge of title page; otherwise, about as clean as any other copy of this [seemingly always well-traveled] text we’ve come across. Very Good. [Item #8774]

Price: $125.00