Comments on: Brian Cassidy Bookseller and a Rare Burroughs Letter

By: RealityStudio

RealityStudio — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:44:02 +0000

That auction of letters has incredible material — Baudelaire, Novalis, Kleist, Kafka, a handwritten poem manuscript by Rimbaud. Like you say, it’s hard to uphold the valuation of that Burroughs letter in comparison. Then again, maybe it’s a sign that Burroughs’ reputation still has lots of room to grow?

By: jed

jed — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:44:51 +0000

On July 3rd one of the most anticipated sales of autographed letters will go up for auction at Christies. This stuff is absolutely incredible. If you were a major thinker or writer after the Renaissance you were included in this collection. Taking a look at the estimates is interesting in light of the Burroughs letter under discussion above. $20,000 can get you some incredible stuff. I love Burroughs but I find it hard to believe that as a collectible the Scientology letter is in the same class as some of the writers and thinkers available here. A Burroughs letter to Ginsberg from the 50′s yes but not a later example. Judge for yourself.

http://www.christies.com/features/jul07/7411/overview.asp

By: Jack Crimmins

Jack Crimmins — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:17:32 +0000

Thanks for your site and the article regarding William S. Burroughs letters. I just had Jeff Maser sell a letter Burroughs wrote to me on
July 1, 1985. Somehow, the letter is already for sale again at http://www.lionheartautographs.com, and the letter can, at present, be seen on that website. (You can print yourself a copy.) The letter talks directly about poetry and writing and Burroughs’ style is evident.

Burroughs was interested in shamanic ideas and studies, interested in Carlos Castaneda’s work, and Lynn Andrews’ books. Andrews is the author of “Medicine Woman” and 18 other titles. My poems appear in many of Lynn’s books. Lynn and I met Burroughs at a booksigning for Burroughs’
“The Place of Dead Roads” at Papa Bach Books in West Los Angeles and he and Lynn exchanged letters. (I’ll ask Lynn to dig those up. I know she sent copies on at one point to someone who was interested in putting out an edition of Burroughs letters, maybe it was a Burroughs Foundation.)

I sent Burroughs some now long lost poems and he was gracious enough to write back. His comment regarding scissors in his letter relates to one of my poems, and the line in quotes, “trees orchestrated in wind”, comes from another lost poem of mine. (Though utilizing Burroughs’ cut-up technique I may resurrect the line for use in another poem!)

Lynn Andrews was shocked when I told her a few weeks ago that I had Jeff Maser sell the Burroughs letter. However, I’ve studied poetics for the past five years with Diane di Prima in San Francisco, and Diane has said that sometimes its important to move the art around.

(By the way Jeff Maser is a great bookseller with a great stock of rare poetry books and broadsides. Go see him in Berkeley around the corner from Small Press Distribution; call though because he’s often out and about, his shop is actually a warehouse. And, Jeff says that James Musser at Skyline Books in Forest Knolls, CA has some Burroughs letters for sale for around two hundred bucks.)

Thanks again for your work. In the spirit of moving art around, please know that I have a new book of poems out, “Kit Fox Blues”, with an introduction by Diane di Prima, from di Prima’s press, Eidolon Editions, SF 2006.

By: RealityStudio

RealityStudio — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 15:31:00 +0000

Your point about the age of dealers and collectors is interesting. Do you think that both tend to be older for the simple reason that young people are simply less likely to have the extra income to spend? Also, I wonder to what extent the age stratifications at book fairs derive from the fact that older people have already established the habit of attending them, whereas young people are more likely to buy online?