Comments on: Albatross

By: Jed

Jed — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 10:50:25 +0000

David,

Thanks for the note. I am glad you got the Iain Sinclair book. I should be getting my copy soon. I am looking forward to it. There is a selling catalogue on RealityStudio in the My Own Mag Archive. They definitely are very cool. The catalogue had the My Own Mag issue numbering all correct of course so I never had to go through all the hoops I did to get the right issue sequence but it was fun doing it so the easy route was not the road best taken.

Here is the catalogue on RealityStudio
https://realitystudio.org/pdf/jeff_nuttall_and_the_beats.iain_sinclair_books.pdf

All the best,

Jed

By: David Button

David Button — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 15:50:46 +0000

Jed,

I’m just reading a reprint of this article in the new Iain Sinclair at 80 book. As a consequence I’ve dug out my copies of Driff’s fortnightly magazine … issues 1 & 2 have Iain Sinclair’s selling catalogue. Item 120 on the list was Iain’s copy of Albatross! I won’t say how much it was listed for …Although I can say that it was considerably cheaper than the £60 Digit/Junkie.
All in all 18 closely typed pages of gold from Iain’s back room.

By: Dan Lauffer

Dan Lauffer — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 21:31:09 +0000

Hello Jed,

Thanks for publishing the story of Albatross. Also thanks for the nod to the idea of having published Burroughs in a little mag. My publication of WSB was a few years later than Albatross.

On reflection, so much was possible because of the generosity and openness of writers like Burroughs, Ginsberg and my erstwhile buddy, Arnold Saland. Burroughs sent me several packets of mss pages which arrived with exotic stamps from Tangiers. He signed and did a cut-up of my parody of his cut-ups. He then gave permission for me to publish them. At any point in the process he could have walked away from the project.

Similarly, Allen Ginsberg always carried a folder with his manuscripts and works by other authors who he wanted to see published. A look at their bibliographies shows how much they contributed to the growth of the mimeo revolution by being committed to helping the amateur publisher.

I am glad that Albatross has finally landed in the bunker.

By: Jed

Jed — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 11:09:20 +0000

I kinda buried the lead as Test Centre did indeed have Sinclair’s copies of Albatross and Icarus. I am a bit of s dope. Anyway it begs the old question of association/signature vs condition. With something like Albatross I will take whatever comes. For my Olympia Naked Lunch I wanted the best condition I could afford. But for my Olympia Soft Machine I went the association route. I am generally an association guy which goes against general collecting wisdom which prizes condition above all else.

By: John A. DeCarolis

John A. DeCarolis — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 03:18:25 +0000

Cool, Jed, I enjoyed this. Yes, you are a lucky guy indeed to have copped this rare bird.! Shame you missed out on the Test Center one, Iain ‘s own copy. Double Yikes! I haven’t seen all of their catalogues, but yes, Test Center is doing some interesting stuff. Thanks for reminding me about them so now I will go back and look at or try and secure some of their more recent or even not so recent catalogues.

What can one say about Iain Sinclair? I still lament the fact that I missed him when he was at The Gloucester Writer’s Center a few years ago, but made up for it last year when I heard him read from his newest book on buildings at the Wanstead Tap in London, hosted by none other than his friend John Rogers ( This Other London ). Can you imagine the stuff that went through his hands when he was a book dealer/scout in London back in the day! One shuddders to think!

Your story of acquiring Saland’s copy of Albatross was quite intriguing and entertaining. Good catch, man!