Various (Fisher, Stanley (Editor); Aldan, Daisy; Bremser, Ray; Corso, Gregory; de Kooning, Elaine; di Prima, Diane; Fles, John; Ginsberg, Allen; Hart, Howard; Jones, LeRoi; Kerouac, Jack; Lurie, Boris; Mailer, Norman; Oldenberg, Claes; Orlovsky, Peter et al.)

Beat Coast East: An Anthology of Rebellion

New York, NY, USA: Excelsior Press, 1960. First Edition. Softcover. Signed, inscribed, dated & placed by Peter Orlovsky at his contribution. A very interesting early compilation of Beat Generation & Beat-contemporary (mostly) poets, prose writers & artists, produced during the height of early media hysteria regarding what exactly the word "Beat" meant. "What is beat? Is there a final or definitive definition?...So crazy-- one must dig this word somehow. I walked along the village limelight and asked an assortment of squalid squares and plastered saints what they thought the word beat meant- thus it started...so get with graphics, griffins, and go revelations of these mysterious calumniators and creators sounding off for the far-out absent glories and the beatific count-downs to hip-heavens, for the world on high has descended: THIS BEAT IS COOL SLANG FOR GOD." (from editor's preface, pgs. 7,9) There are a few names in particular whose inclusions deserve special note. One is Daisy Aldan (1923?-2001), onetime mentor to Gerard Malanga and the foremost translator of "the last of the French Symbolists" Stéphane Mallarmé. Another is John Fles, editor of The Trembling Lamb and a part of the "Big Table" cadre at the University of Chicago that notoriously broke off from the Chicago Review in 1959. Howard Hart (1927-2002) is another- as many Beat scholars have seen the poetry reading flyer that listed Hart as a reader beside Jack Kerouac and Philip Lamantia. Other familiar Beats & their contemporaries such as Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Ray Bremser, Gregory Corso, Kerouac, Diane di Prima, LeRoi Jones & Norman Mailer also make appearances- and the poems chosen are not among the commonly anthologized- in their own publications or elsewhere. Also with black-&-white reproductions of artworks by Elaine de Kooning, Claes Oldenberg, Boris Lurie & Stanley Fisher (1926-1980), also the editor of this volume whose preface is quoted above. Below his contribution (the poem "i got a phone call," pg. 14), Orlovsky has dated & placed the poem below his printed name, "1959/ N.Y.C.," & then in the same cursive black ink has signed, inscribed, dated & placed: "(signed) Peter Orlovsky/ P.S. I never did like the cover/ of this book, I could never/ understand what relationship it/ had to anything I was caring or/ thinking about in 1959-/ Nov(ember) 16, 1979 Brighton, England." Trade-format softcover original in sewn binding, first edition published on September 30, 1961 in an edition of 10,000 copies according to Morgan's Descriptive Bibliography of Ginsberg (B15, pg. 105), although copyrighted 1960. 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. 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 has 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, including this gem, which Orlovsky inscribed for Cupidi during his visit to Brighton with Ginsberg. A very important & collectible contemporaneous Beats-&-Co. anthology; greatly enriched with this very special Orlovsky inscription & with the highest, most relevant association & provenance. In relatively quite near-fine-to-fine condition with mild-to-moderate rubbing, age-toning (esp. at margins/edges) & faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a touch of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; mild-to-moderate rubbing, age-toning & occasional spotting to edges of text block. Interior fine with mild age-toning to blank inner covers & page leaves, chiefly at blank margins/edges; tiny bumps & very small, faint creases at mostly upper corners of some leaves. Near Fine-Fine. [Item #9394]

Price: $100.00 save 10% $90.00