Comments on: Ace Junkie Binding

By: dan lauffer

dan lauffer — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:57:05 +0000

The Something Else Press’first book Jefferson’s Birthday/PostFace was issued in a tête-bêche format.

By: Bill Ectric

Bill Ectric — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:54:53 +0000

Magic.

By: Just Plain Bill

Just Plain Bill — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:54:58 +0000

I remember that lots of SciFi paperbacks in the ’60’s were 69ed like Junkie/Narcotics Agent. I really don’t see any significance to this beyond a cheapo marketing gimmick.

By: jed

jed — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:50:12 +0000

Thanks for the comments. The Helvetica documentary is a good one for people who haven’t seen it.

I have never seen Burroughs sign on behalf of Helbrant. Commonly he would sign William Lee for William Burroughs or William Burroughs for William Lee. You have an interesting copy.

A truly remarkable copy would be one signed by Burroughs and signed by Helbrant.

It would be very interesting to look into Helbrant and his book much more closely. I have to admit I havent read Narcotic Agent but Helbrant was involved with drug enforcement on a global level and his work foreshadowed CIA and other government involvement in supporting governments that dealt drugs, like Honduras; Air America type stuff; as well as wire tapping and other dirty tricks. He is truly a Bradley the Buyer type guy.

By: Jim Pennington

Jim Pennington — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:09:27 +0000

whoops – i tried to italicise the dedication and it looks like it has disappeared behind the chevrons: it reads-

William Lee
for William Lee and Maurice Helbrant
William Burroughs

By: Jim Pennington

Jim Pennington — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:06:45 +0000

excellent piece, Jed and in support of which I offer the fact that when Bill signed a copy for me in 1973 he wrote under the author’s name:

It’d be interesting to know if there are any other copies signed this way.

On the helvetica front, you have neatly side-stepped the controversy by calling it a face for Control – which it certainly is. I’ve seen designers tear the page out of their font books because they believe it was designed by Hitler to improve the legibility of German (up until the 30’s only printed using vicious gothic black-letter type) so that conquered countries like Holland could be sure of knowing what the postered Proclamations were about.

Jim