Various (Bowering, George (Editor); Duncan, Robert; Hollo, Anselm; Montgomery, George; Randall, Margaret et al.)

Imago No. 2 (1964)

Calgary, Alberta, Canada: University of Alberta, 1964. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. The second number of the literary journal that specialized "...in the long poem or the poem series" (contents/copyright page), edited by George Bowering (b. 1935), the acclaimed, award-winning & very prolific Canadian poet, novelist, critic & biographer. With contributions of poems by Bowering himself; Robert Duncan (1919-1988), the canonical Black Mountain School/ San Francisco Renaissance poet; Anselm Hollo (1934-2013), the award-winning Finnish-born poet & translator who would go on to teach at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado co-founded by Allen Ginsberg & Anne Waldman; Mimeograph Revolutionary poet & publisher George Montgomery (1924?-1997, in homage to the then-recently deceased iconic poet William Carlos Williams); Margaret Randall (b. 1936), the American author, activist & academician affiliated with mid-twentieth-century expatriatism and the New American Poetry; & more. Chapbook-format journal in stapled wrappers, presumed first-&-only printing. 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, 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 which also has now closed, & he still resides there. We have been honored to obtain what Cupidi has termed "The Last Hurrah," all the remaining gems of Unicorn & Public House, including this. 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, rich & rewarding literary collectible featuring some of the favorite figures of our devoted constituency; in its singularly rarest contemporary form & with most-distinguished, relevant provenance. In relatively quite fine-to-very-fine condition with mild rubbing, age-toning, fading & faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a touch of wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; one small, shallow chip from lower left edge of back cover with minimal loss of paper; smaller instance of same from upper left edge of back cover near corner; staples in process of rusting with minimal exterior & esp. interior bleeding; light rubbing, age-toning to edges of text block. Interior fine-to-very-fine with only a hint of age-toning mostly to blank margins/edges of page leaves; tiny bumps at corners of some leaves. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #9194]

Price: $50.00