Coventry, England: The Beat Scene Press, 2009. Limited First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. The twenty-third number in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book Series published by Kevin Ring in the UK, this is an essay written to the editors of a British literary journal by then-twenty-year-old Philip Lamantia in 1947, almost a decade before he would be a founding poet of the Beat Generation/ San Francisco Renaissance (as well as one..... More
[Item #4052]
New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991. First Edition. Hardcover. "The letters gathered here have been selected from the surviving correspondence between Kenneth Rexroth and James Laughlin, a collection of approximately 350 letters written between 1937 and Rexroth's death in 1982...While many of the letters are reproduced entire, many others are not; in the main, the attempt has been to give as accurate a reflection as possible of the..... More
[Item #4393]
New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, Inc., 1958. First Edition. Hardcover. "D.H. Lawrence stands in the first rank of letter writers; his drive and vitality, his overflow of creative energy, is expressed as forcefully in his correspondence as in his many volumes of prose and poetry. Diana Trilling...offers here a major selection of his letters. She has restored many names and references deleted from earlier collections, and in her..... More
[Item #3409]
New York, NY: New Directions Books, 2001. First Edition. Softcover. "During the last decade of his life, living as a recluse high in the mountains of southeast China, Hsieh Ling-yun (385-433 C.E.) initiated a tradition of "rivers-and-mountains" (shan-shui) poetry that stretches across millennia in China and beyond, a tradition that represents the earliest and most extensive literary engagement with wilderness in human history. Hsieh's work, all but unknown in the..... More
[Item #3949]
New York, NY: Julian Messner, Inc., 1959. First Edition. Hardcover. "No matter what shades of meaning are attributed to the phrase "beat generation" or what arguments rage on in the press as to whether it is a fad, a fraud, an anarchistic cult or a publicity stunt, the single fact remains that there is in America today a band of non-conformists living a kind of life very different from that..... More
[Item #4056]
Columbia, SC: Paul Maher Jr., 2019. First Edition. Softcover. "A Vast Glowing Empty Page: The Life and Writings of Jack Kerouac takes the reader from Jack Kerouac's early years in Lowell, Massachusetts through his last years in St. Petersburg, Florida. Read of the hapless young man searching for his voice as a writer as he struggles through the pitfalls of school, family conflicts, poverty, World War II, fame and the..... More
[Item #4325]
Lowell, MA; New York, NY: Paul Maher Jr., 2017; 1999. First Editions. Softcover; Hardcover. Signed by Paul Maher Jr. "I Am the Revolutionary: Young Jack Kerouac had its origins with my intentions to write an even longer book for an academic press. It was to be a standalone tome that would have covered Kerouac's formative years as an upstart writer clawing his way through the thickets of frequently-read books (Joyce..... More
[Item #4309]
Coventry, England: Beat Scene Press, 2018. Limited First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. "I came to Bukowski after taking a detour from Hemingway, my first love. It led me down a cracked path to a muddy backwater reeking of dirt and grime. And yet I felt in strangely familiar territory. Though Bukowski usually mentioned Hemingway among a list of a number of authors who influenced him, he was probably the biggest one..... More
[Item #3872]
London, England: William Heinemann Ltd., 1940. First Edition. Hardcover. "The first thing I want to insist on is that reading should be enjoyable. Of course, there are many books that we all have to read, either to pass examinations or to acquire information, from which it is impossible to extract enjoyment. We are reading them for instruction, and the best we can hope is that our need for it will..... More
[Item #3967]
San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 2021. First Edition. Softcover. "In this powerful collection of new poems, Michael McClure gives us a rare view into his thoughts about mortality, particularly in the moving sequence "Death Poems." Mule Kick Blues takes its title from a series of homages to blues musicians, and features shout-outs to lifelong friends, a long poem "Fragments of Narcissus," and the ecological and zen-infused themes for which..... More
[Item #4359]
New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1985. First Edition. Hardcover. "Kerouac and Friends is more than a collection of photos and articles from the 1950s; it's a loving memoir of the wonderful carefree days when I had nothing to do except go to poetry readings, the Artists' Club, the Living Theatre, and the Cedar Street Tavern...Kerouac and Friends is about the vintage years of the beat generation when..... More
[Item #3370]
Liverpool, PA; n/p: Bob Sprowls; Becky Thatcher Book Shop, 1985; n/d. Limited First Edition; First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. Two rare booklets concerning Samuel Langhorne Clemens a/k/a Mark Twain (1835-1910), the great American humorist & author: (1) Mark Twain in Williamsport, booklet in stapled wrappers, 1985 first edition, No. 725 of 1000 copies, all as stated on title page. With a series of articles by Twain scholar & educator T.R. McIntosh..... More
[Item #4314]
New York, NY; Kentfield, CA: Random House, Inc., 1979. First Editions. Hardcover; Softcover. A collectible bundle of two outstanding biographical-critical works about Jack Kerouac, the great American author & a Founding Father of the Beat Generation: (1) Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation and America. Published in 1979, an acclaimed biography by Dennis McNally, the prolific author, historian & music publicist. Among the earliest studies as the Beats were..... More
[Item #4075]
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1989. First Edition. Hardcover. "...a long-awaited publishing event- the definitive biography of one of this century's most flamboyant and influential literary renegades. Drawing upon Allen Ginsberg's extensive journals and correspondence, as well as scores of interviews with friends, associates, and with Ginsberg himself, Barry Miles has painted an intimate and richly detailed portrait of the man whose poetry shocked the literary establishment, and whose..... More
[Item #4111]
New York, NY: Hyperion, 1993. First American Edition. Hardcover. "William Seward Burroughs. Described by Norman Mailer as "the only living American novelist who may conceivably be possessed of genius," this unique underground visionary has lived up to these words. Burroughs's influence has exploded far beyond the ethereal borders of the literati into the realm of popular culture- he has influenced a remarkable spectrum of adventurous writers, artists, filmmakers and musicians...In..... More
[Item #4144]
Fresno, CA: The Giligia Press, 1970. Limited First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. "John Montgomery came from the same origins as (Richard) Brautigan, was weaned by (Kenneth) Rexroth, and on the third day rose from among the blackberry tangle of Allen Ginsberg's Berkeley cottage plot from whence along parallel tensors of the San Francisco scene he intersected Kerouac novels, delivered a telephone book to Union Square's buried phone box, spent fourteen years..... More
[Item #4114]
London, England: Marion Boyars, 1977. First Edition. Hardcover. Inscribed & signed by Eric Mottram to Richard Ellis. "In this strikingly original discussion of (William S.) Burroughs' work, Eric Mottram highlights his subject's intensely contemporary morality and his predominating concern for the erosion of individual choice. Burroughs' consistent social aim is to achieve freedom from mythology and to restore the individual's enjoyment of privacy and dignity. (Mottram) demonstrates how Burroughs' inspired..... More
[Item #4266]
Ashland, KY: BullHead Books, 2018. First Edition. Sewn Wrappers. Initialed by Joe Napora. "The One. The One and the Many. What connects? What divides? Once we knew. Before the internet, smart phones, E-mail, before telephones, before writing, before information, we knew. There is an Iroquois tale called "The Woman Who Fell from the Sky" describing the creation of the universe and the beginning of the human race...This story connects us..... More
[Item #3946]
Harrisburg, PA: Cumberland Journal, 1981. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. Inscribed & signed by Joe Napora to Thomas Rain Crowe. "...Joe Napora's first essay collection revolves around the interplay of land, speech and the body. Included in Poetry in the Middle are notes from an oral presentation Napora made at Indiana's Deertrack Poetry Festival, an overview of Paul Metcalf's work, and commentary on poet Ezra Pound and experimental musician Harry Partch..... More
[Item #3870]
Norman, OK: Texture Press, 1997. First Edition. Book. Inscribed & signed by Joe Napora to Thomas Rain Crowe. A chapbook of miscellaneous "fictionselections" by Joe Napora, the impassioned & prolific American poet, editor, publisher & contrarian activist. Sort of hybrids between short essays & prose-poems concerning many topics, in various fonts & formats. On blank front endpaper, Napora has hand-inscribed & signed: "Thomas-/ (drawing of compass-points or star)/ No shortcuts..... More
[Item #3615]
Ashland, KY: BullHead Books, 2017. First Edition. Unbound Folded Sheets. Signed by Joe Napora. A collection of very satirical poem-parodies & prose by Joe Napora, the passionate & prolific American poet, editor, publisher & activist. The two main themes are American politicians & their antics in the wake of Donald Trump's election as President & the early days of his administration; & the poems & journalism of Walt Whitman. The..... More
[Item #4140]
Ashland, KY: BullHead Books, 2018. First Edition. Sewn Wrappers. Signed by Joe Napora. "What makes a poem a poem, meaning what, beyond words, are the materials of a poem? I've been writing poetry for over forty years, but I can't answer the question. Nor do I feel the need to try. Poetry is made in the writing of it not from theories about what is or isn't a poem. But..... More
[Item #4024]
San Francisco, CA: Four Seasons Foundation, 1965. First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. "A work which would free much of the encumbrance upon man as himself a universe- not microorganisms, microcosm- would start with Hesiod, taking him as a base-line and saying anything after him as 'lost' something and that all which he does show and include is a beginning of dimension of man's place in the cosmos as it had been..... More
[Item #3982]
Columbia, SC: Beatdom Books, 2018. First Edition. Softcover. "In the 1950s, the authors of the Beat Generation helped introduce American readers to Eastern philosophies and, in particular, to Buddhism. Poets like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Jack Kerouac are often credited with this phenomenon, while, as is so often the case, the women are sidelined. In this illuminating new study, Max Orsini examines the impact of two female poets, Diane..... More
[Item #4283]
Lowell, MA: The Lowell Corporation For The Humanities, Inc., 1989. First Edition, Second Printing. Softcover. "Jack Kerouac's books represent an intense inner exploration that he felt compelled to express, and the powerful energy of those works continues to affect people throughout the world. In shying away from craft and revision in writing, he was digging away at the very core of himself, as if that were where he would find..... More
[Item #4299]