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Bibliographic Bunker
If you would like to discuss any of Jed’s columns or ask him any questions, please feel free to comment on his pieces or to visit the Burroughs forum here at RealityStudio.
Jed offers a timely series of interviews with an economist, a collector, and a bookseller to assess how the sagging economy affects the Burroughs and rare-book market.
Read the The Burroughs Market in a Down Economy.
Jed gives the history of another little mag that featured Burroughs: Charles Plymell’s NOW.
Read the Charles Plymell and NOW.
Doodle Soup on the Big Table at the Naked Lunch? Jed takes a look at the early role played by John Ciardi in according literary stature to William Burroughs.
Read the John Ciardi: From Doodle Soup to Naked Lunch and Back Again.
Introducing an assemblage by RealityStudio’s European correspondent Robert Bank, Jed contemplates the visions of England produced by Burroughs and by the recently deceased poet Jonathan Williams.
Read the Jonathan Williams, William Burroughs, and England.
Jed interviews bookseller Brian Cassidy on a unique set of early photos and collages created by William S. Burroughs.
Read the Brian Cassidy on Early Photos and Collages by Burroughs.
Jed reviews a big-ticket item for sale on ebay and the recent Beat-related sale at PBA Galleries.
Read the Beats at Auction, April 2008.
Jed appraises The Exterminator, a key work that “presents Burroughs at the dawn of his most radically experimental period.”
Read the The Exterminator.
Jed maps his favorite bookstores in Washington DC and visits the Washington DC Book Fair in search of Burroughs, Beats, and other rarities.
Read the Washington DC Book Fair.
Jed reviews Beat Books’ latest catalogue, which features a number of Burroughs rarities.
Read the Beat Books Catalogue 48.
Jed finds his “bizarro double” while analyzing the massive collection of the recently murdered collector Rolland L. Comstock.
Read the The Comstock Collection.
Jed befriends a stranger on a train, and the stranger turns out to be a young writer full of ideas about some Burroughsian subjects.
Read the Interview with Charles Talkoff.
Jed shares his enthusiasm for the exhibit Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac On the Road, currently on view at the New York Public Library.
Read the Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac On the Road.
Jed and contributor Chris Hughes unearth some printed ephemera from the 1962 International Writers Conference that launched William S. Burroughs’ career. (Also see the text of Burroughs’ statements at the panels of the Conference.)
Read the 1962 International Writers Conference.
Jed digs into his collection to present an archive of C Press that includes C Journal, C Comic, and a complete version of Burroughs’ Time.
View the C Press Archive and the complete Time.
Jed offers some thoughts about The Third Mind to accompany photos of the Third Mind Exhibit in Paris. (Thanks to Michele Foster for the photos.)
Read The Third Mind Exhibit.
Reviewing Burroughs items that appeared on eBay during December 2007, Jed formulates some laws of online book-collecting.
Read The Laws of Internet Collecting.
Jed surveys the important vanguard periodical New Departures, which began publishing Burroughs as early as summer 1959.
Read New Departures.
Jed goes to see “MTV Poet Laureate” John Ashbery read at the Folger Library in Washington DC.
Read John Ashbery at the Folger Library.
Jed completes a fascinating interview on bookselling in the Information Age with Between the Covers’ Dan Gregory.
Read Interview with Book Dealer Dan Gregory, Part 2.
Jed interviews Jim Dine in conjunction with an exhibit of the artist’s recent books and livres d’artiste. Burroughs, Frank O’Hara, the New York School — Dine shares with Jed the opinions and insights gleaned over the course of his estimable career.
Read Interview with Jim Dine.
Should notable book collections be sold or donated to institutions? Jed ponders the question while reviewing the recent auction of David Oakey’s collection of works by Gary Snyder.
Read The David Oakey Collection of Gary Snyder.
Jed offers the first installment of a two-part interview with book dealer Dan Gregory, force behind the innovative web site of Between the Covers Rare Books.
Read Interview with Book Dealer Dan Gregory.
Jed obtains a copy of hard-to-find Locus Solus V and reflects on the distinctions between buying online and offline.
Read Eureka: Locus Solus V.
Jed looks for the personal touch and the rare find among the book stalls at the Baltimore Antique Show.
Read The Baltimore Antique Show.
Finishing his summer travelogue, Jed reviews two exhibits about the 1960s in New York.
Read Summer of Love / Fuck for Peace.
Continuing his summer travelogue, Jed visits Rue Cottage Books in Maine and offers some thoughts about the role of bookstores in the digital age.
Read Rue Cottage Books.
Adding again to the collection of Bunker Interviews, Jed asks photographer Charles Rotmil about the Beats, the Cedar Tavern, the photographers with whom he has worked, and his famous photo of Bob Thompson for the cover of Kulchur.
Read Interview with Photographer Charles Rotmil.
Adding to the collection of Bunker Interviews, Jed discusses the beautifully produced journal Brown Paper with its founder Daniel Lauffer.
Read Interview with Brown Paper’s Daniel Lauffer.
Jed describes a summer trip to Charles Olson’s Gloucester and offers some reflections about Burroughs along the way.Read A Trip to Charles Olson’s Gloucester.
Offering the second installment of his essay on d.a. levy, Jed examines the poet’s relationship with William Burroughs. (See also the first installment d.a. levy).
Read d.a. levy and William S. Burroughs.
Beginning with a special edition of Naked Lunch offered by bookseller Simon Finch, Jed offers some thoughts about the high end of the market for Burroughs books.
Read Simon Finch and a High-Priced Naked Lunch.
Jed offers the first installment of an essay on Cleveland-based poet and artist d.a. levy. The second installment will focus on levy and his ambivalent relationship with William Burroughs.
Read d.a. levy.
Jed casts a revisionist eye on the New York School writers while reviewing Daniel Kane’s new book, Don’t Ever Get Famous.
Read Don’t Ever Get Famous.
Contemplating some relatively disappointing results at a recent auction, Jed formulates some ideas about what does or doesn’t distinguish a collection of rare books.
Read The Groff Auction of Bukowski and the Ronan Sale of Beat Literature.
Jed praises the catalogue of a new bookseller and discusses its listing for an extremely rare letter from William Burroughs to Allen Ginsberg.
Read Brian Cassidy Bookseller and a Rare Burroughs Letter.
Jed launches a new interview series called Bunker Interviews. These interviews will focus on the concerns of his Bibliographic Bunker column: Burroughs, collecting, small press, little mags, etc. First up: an analysis of the role of interviews in Burroughs’ career, an interview with Jed Irwin on the Insect Trust Gazette, and an interview with Anthony Linick on Nomad.
Read Bunker Interviews.
Jed discusses the role of the bookstore — as community, publisher, source of money and inspiration — in the life of writers, with particular reference to Burroughs and Minutes to Go.
Read Burroughs and Bookstores.
Jed takes the Chinatown bus for the New York Book Fair, where he discovers amazing rarities — and a sore neck.
Read New York Book Fair (2007).
Jed contemplates the important role played by readings — including the Nova Convention and Saturday Night Live — in the career of Burroughs.
Read Burroughs Readings.
Expanding on the My Own Mag archive, Jed introduces a new set of texts that focus on the literary community surrounding Jeff Nuttall’s important periodical.
Read The My Own Mag Community.
Jed reviews the “Semina Culture” exhibit in New York and discusses Burroughs in the context of Wallace Berman’s influential journal Semina.
Read Semina Culture.
Reacting to the news that British publisher John Calder may close its doors, Jed reviews Calder’s importance in Burroughs’ publication history.
Read John Calder and William S. Burroughs.
Jed presents a comprehensive new archive of Jeff Nuttall’s influential zine My Own Mag. Prepared with Robert Bank, curator of jeff-nuttall.co.uk, this archive features documentation, analysis, and every page of every issue of one of the key “little mags” in Burroughs’ career.
Read My Own Mag.
In this fourth installment on Kulchur, Jed ruminates on the cover of Kulchur 4, a photo of Burroughs and Kerouac at Columbia University.
Read Kulchur 4.
In this third installment on Kulchur, Jed analyzes Kulchur 3, the Beat-est issue featuring Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Huncke, Corso, and Snyder. Next up: Kulchur 4.
Read Kulchur 3.
In this second installment on Kulchur, Jed considers “The Conspiracy,” a text Burroughs excised from Naked Lunch and published in the little mag instead. Next up: Jed focuses on the Beat-est issue, Kulchur 3.
Read Kulchur and “The Conspiracy”.
Jed inaugurates a series on the little mag Kulchur with an archive of covers. Next up: A consideration of Kulchur and “The Conspiracy,” a text Burroughs excised from Naked Lunch.
View the Kulchur Archive.
Jed sets aside Burroughs to ruminate on the poet Charles Olson — and a cigarette burn.
Read A Controversy of Poets.
Starting with an association copy of The Ticket That Exploded that Burroughs signed for poet Ted Berrigan, Jed shows how Burroughs became the “shark” of the international avant-garde. He also offers a related chronology of Burroughs’ trip to New York in 1964-1965.
Read Burroughs, Berrigan, and The Ticket That Exploded and William Burroughs in New York City 1964-1965.
Jed discusses the recent ebay auction for an incredibly rare Velvet Underground acetate and draws some comparisons to literary rarities.
Read Velvet Underground Acetate.
Inspired by a middle-of-the-night conversation, Jed reviews the career of Baird Bryant.
Read Baird Bryant.
Beginning with a consideration of Burroughs correspondence, Jed describes his mini-archive of letters by David Meltzer and then moves on to describe Nomad magazine.
Read David Meltzer and Nomad and David Meltzer Archive: A Partial Index.
Jed talks about association copies, the distinction between signed and inscribed books, and describes some of his own Burroughs association copies.
Read Association Copies.
Offering a coda to his series on Burroughs ephemera, Jed discusses the 1959 Olympia Catalog (provided by BigTable) and the letter that Grove Press included with the Naked Lunch Prospectus (provided by bibliographer Eric Shoaf).
Read Naked Lunch Prospectus Letter.
This special installment of the Bibliographic Bunker presents an expanded version of a chapter from Bill Reed’s memoir Early Plastic. “Positively Eighth Street” recalls Mr. Reed’s years at the Eighth Street Bookshop, an independent Greenwich Village bookstore that served as a focal point for the 1960s and 1970s counterculture. To set the stage, Jed describes the bookstore, its press, and a peek over William Burroughs’ shoulder as he was reading.
Read Bill Reed’s “Positively Eighth Street” and Jed’s Eighth Street Bookshop.
Jed completes his two-part essay on Burroughs ephemera with a look at the Naked Lunch Prospectus issued by Grove Press to promote the American publication of Burroughs’ masterpiece.
Read Naked Lunch Prospectus.
Jed begins a two-part essay on Burroughs ephemera with an overview of the Olympia Press catalog featuring Naked Lunch.
Read Olympia Press Catalog.
Jed overviews an entire run of Floating Bear and presents an amazing archive of rare Floating Bear covers.
Read Floating Bear and view the Floating Bear Archive.
Jed offers the presentation he gave at the 2006 Kerouac Fest.
Read At the Kerouac Fest.
Jed finishes a two-part piece reviewing the role that men’s magazines played in publishing Burroughs and the other Beats.
Read Burroughs and Beats in Men’s Magazines: Burroughs. Also see the first part of Jed’s article and Jed’s list of William Burroughs Appearances in Adult Men’s Magazines.
Jed starts a two-part piece reviewing the role that men’s magazines played in publishing Burroughs and the other Beats.
Read Burroughs and Beats in Men’s Magazines: Introduction. Also see Jed’s list of William Burroughs Appearances in Adult Men’s Magazines.
Jed uses Beat vinyl to discuss the formation of the San Francisco poetry scene.
Jed offers this work-in-progress archive of My Own Mag in anticipation of a future column on the little magazine.
Read My Own Mag Archive
Jed adds a Burroughs twist to thoughts inspired by Nicholson Baker’s Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper.
Read Double Fold
Jed experiences the highs and lows of collecting in his effort to buy the elusive Floating Bear 24.
Read Floating Bear 24
Jed speculates about Burroughs’ early appearances in magazines in Germany and Belgium.
Read Burroughs in Germany and Belgium
Jed reviews Burroughs’ relationship with the Edinburgh beat scene and the Scotland vanguard.
Jed offers some provocative thoughts on the relationship of William S. Burroughs and jazz.
Read Bebop Burroughs
Jed surveys the avant-garde publications of Jan Herman: the Nova Broadcasts, the San Francisco Earthquake, and his collaborations with William S. Burroughs.
Read Jan Herman and William S. Burroughs
Jed talks about collectible book catalogues and how the internet has changed book collecting today.
Jed riffs on magazine cover images, starting with Rolling Stone and finishing with a comparison of the Warhol covers for Kulchur and Fuck You Magazine.
Read Kiss and Couch
Jed discusses the vanguard journal Locus Solus and the linguistic theories of Burroughs and John Ashbery.
Read Locus Solus
Jed explains what a broadside is and discusses some broadsides by Burroughs and other Beats.
Read Broadsides
Jed explores the role played by the United States Post Office in obscenity and censorship issues — and thus in forming our perceptions of Beat literature.
Read Obscenity and the Post Office
Jed reveals how Yage Redux changed his view of early Burroughs and the small magazines he published in.
Read Yage Redux and Small Magazines
The third and final installment of Jed’s three-part series on small-press printing techniques takes a look at offset printing.
Read Offset
The second installment of Jed’s three-part series on small-press printing techniques takes a look at mimeo.
Read Mimeo
Jed begins a special three-part series on small-press printing techniques with a discussion of letterpress printing.
Read Letterpress
Jed gives the history Yugen, one of the key Beat small magazines, and presents a visual archive of all eight Yugen covers.
Read Yugen
Jed reconstructs a small magazine conceived by Burroughs himself.
Read Interpol
Jed recalls a small-press magazine named after a line in one of Burroughs’ novels.
Read Insect Trust Gazette
Jed talks about the regrets of his time collecting Burroughs — the publications that got away, the ones so rare you can’t find them anywhere, etc.
Read Regrets
Jed discusses a watershed year for Burroughs and his collectors.
Read Burroughs in 1981
Jed talks about some original recorded cassettes on eBay and their collectibility.
Read Cassettes
Jed discusses APO-33: The Metabolic Regulator and the cut-up technique.
Read APO-33
Jed discusses Dead Fingers Talk and the value of early and late Burroughs signatures.
Read Dead Fingers Talk
Jed talks about the strange dichotomy of high and low culture publishers that printed Burroughs’ early work.
Jed picks the highlights from an amazing auction of vinyl on ebay.
Jed reflects on the collectibility of the cabin that used to belong to William S. Burroughs and is currently being auctioned on ebay.
Read Burroughs’ Cabin
Jed describes the Digit edition of Junkie, one of the rarest of rare Burroughs collectibles.
Read Digit Junkie
Jed discusses Beat vinyl and a rare Kerouac recording, and takes a brief detour through Niel Young and Rick James.
Read Beat Vinyl
Jed talks about Time, a striking cut-up, and a possibly forged Burroughs signature.
Read Time
Jed discusses the infamous Andy Warhol cover of Fuck You Magazine and presents a visual archive of Fuck You Press publications.
Read Couch and browse the Fuck You Press archive
Jed reviews the recent Edwin Blair auction of Beat literature.
Read Edwin Blair Auction
Jed discusses the recent craze for manuscripts by William S. Burroughs.
Jed talks about a rare copy of Nothing Here Now But the Recordings and about Burroughs vinyl in general.
Read Nothing Here Now But the Recordings
Jed gives an overview of Burroughs bibliographies and rare-book catalogues that become rare books themselves.
Jed receives an email from Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris.
Jed explains what to look for if you’re looking to buy a true first edition of William S. Burroughs’ masterwork, Naked Lunch.
Read Collecting the Olympia Edition of Naked Lunch
Jed explores his reasons for thinking that William S. Burroughs’ early novel Junky, often cited as an ancestor to James Frey’s controversial memoir, is superior to A Million Little Pieces.
Read James Frey and William S. Burroughs
Jed explains what the New York Public Library’s acquisition of the Burroughs archive means for fans and collectors of Burroughs.
Read The NYPL Acquisition of the Burroughs Archive
Jed Birmingham introduces the reader to Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker, his new column on Burroughs collecting, rare editions, and musings.
Read Introduction
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