[M&M A5]
Paris: Olympia Press 1961, stiff olive-green wraps, with decorated dust jacket, one of 5,000 copies. Maynard & Miles A5a. The second publication of Burroughs’ work by Olympia Press. Dust jacket design by Brion Gysin.
New York: Grove Press 1966, first US printing, one of 18,000 copies, hardbound in dust jacket. Maynard & Miles A5b. This edition was revised from the Olympia Press printing with additions and expansions.
New York: Black Cat 1966, first wraps printing, one of 25,000 copies. Maynard & Miles A5c.
London: Calder & Boyars 1968, first British publication, hardbound in decorated dust jacket. Maynard & Miles A5d. The rear jacket panel states that following the Paris and U.S. Editions, “this final, definitive edition has been considerably revised by the author from the two earlier versions.”
_____ simultaneous British softcover edition. Maynard & Miles A5e.
London: Corgi Books 1970, first thus British edition in wraps. Maynard & Miles A5f.
New York: Ballantine Books 1973, first thus with surreal designed wraps. Maynard & Miles A5g.
London: Paladin Books 1986, first thus printing in wraps.
New York: Grove Weidenfeld 1992, first thus printing in wraps.
London: Flamingo 1992, first thus printing in wraps.
London: Flamingo 2001, a new British edition, bound in wraps.
Hello,
Do you know whether the original Paris 1961 text of The Soft Machine has ever been reissued or reprinted in an edition that I could make accessible to my students (presumably by my scanning an excerpt)? I’m having success finding first editions available for viewing, but they’re in rare book libraries and so they have copying restrictions.
I know the Paris edition is not the authorized text, since Burroughs made revisions, but the course is on American writers in Paris, so it’s the Paris text that’s appropriate. And as I understand it, it more clearly demonstrates the cut-up method.
Thanks.
The 1961 version of Soft Machine has never been reissued or reprinted (except to the extent that later editions of SM contain fragments of the 1961 edition).
Thanks for your reply.
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THE SOFT MACHINE.
Burroughs, William.
Published by Traveller’s Companion Series published by the Olympia Press: Paris., 1961
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Has the third edition remained in print? I always thought it was supplanted by the second edition even in the UK – I always wanted to read it but could never find it in an affordable edition.
The third version, first published in 1968 by Calder, can still be found new at a very reasonable price and published by Fourth Estate.
The layout looks to be identical to the edition published by Paladin in 1986, and features the chapter “Streets of Chance” that replaced “1920 Movies” from the 1966 version.