by Jed Birmingham
The Ed Sanders Archive is located in Special Collections at the Firestone Library at Princeton University. There are currently over 400 boxes of material, and more expected in the future, including an additional 100 boxes, possibly related to The Fugs. This archive contains documentation of Sanders’ sprawling involvement in the counterculture, underground and New American Writing from 1960 to the 2000s. It is inaccurate to call Sanders a Zelig-like figure as he was a primary participant in many of the pivotal events of this period. He was on the cover of Life Magazine for fuck’s sake. You can’t be more visible than that.
As demonstrated by my posts on RealityStudio, my focus is on Sanders’ activity in the Mimeo Revolution, such as Fuck You Press, Fuck You, a magazine of the arts, Peace Eye Bookstore, and the Fugs. As one might expect, material relating to these areas is documented in the archive. But it must be stressed that Sanders’ full achievement is more far-ranging than that. He is a poet, writer, journalist, pornographer, musician, historian, archivist, artist and the list goes on. His work on Charles Manson, the Kennedy assassinations, cults, conspiracy theories, and The Party at Naropa are just some of his other interests that are relevant to other scholars, researchers, and the general public.
Much of that material is not my focus, but it is hoped that a colleague of mine, Keaton Studebaker, who is currently researching many of the other areas of Sanders’ work, will be able to supplement my assessment of the Sanders Archive in terms of his 1960s underground press activity.
Of the over 400 boxes in the Sanders Archive, I reviewed a paltry amount of material, but in reviewing the Sanders Finding Aid, I concluded that this sampling covered the areas of my focus in a comprehensive manner. These are the boxes I reviewed:
Box 24 – da levy box
Box 71: History of Peace Eye Bookstore, 1965-1969
Box 74: History of Peace Eye Bookstore 1964-1970, 1964-1970 (PDF grading items in the box)
Box 75: E. Sanders Requests and Inquiries ’64-’65, Peace Eye Bookstore 1965-1970, 1964-1970
Box 121 – Mimeograph stencils, 1965-1966
Box 133 – Fuck You related artwork
Box 307: 1965 Files, 1965 (PDF grading items in the box)
Box 310 – Claude Pelieu Box
Box 330: 1967 Files, 1967 (PDF grading items in the box)
Box 349: 1962-1964 Files, 1962-1964 (PDF grading items in the box)
Box 358: 1969 Files, 1969-1971 (PDF grading items in the box)
Box 367: 1960s Alphabetical Files, 1960-2011
Box 370: 1968 Files, 1968 (PDF grading items in the box)
Box 373: 1966 Files (PDF grading items in the box)
Box 407: Alphabetical Files on Individuals, 1957-2021 (which includes Carol Berge, Ted Berrigan, William Burroughs, Amiri Baraka, Donald Allen along with others)
Box 409: Alphabetical Files on Individuals, 1957-2021 (which includes Philip Whalen, Andy Warhol, Hal Willner, Ted Wilentz, John Wieners along with others)
Box 417: Alphabetical Files on Individuals, 1957-2021 (which includes Robert Duncan, Harry Fainlight, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane DiPrima along with others)
Box 420: Works by Others, 1940s-2010 (including original artwork by Spain Rodriguez)
I have rated much of this material on an A through F scale based on the usefulness and interest of the contents for researchers and scholars involved in the Mimeograph Revolution in a manner similar to mine. In the cases of the boxes documenting the years from 1962-1969, the core years of Sanders’ involvement in the Mimeo Revolution, and the boxes on Peace Eye Bookstore, I have graded each folder in the box on this scale. For other boxes, such as the box on Claude Pelieu or d.a. levy or the boxes of Fuck You artwork and mimeo stencils, I have graded the box as a whole.
What follows below is an explanation of my grading criteria for each letter grade from least useful to most, focusing on examples from Box 349, which documents 1962-1964:
Grade F: The lowest grade is almost exclusively for instances where the folder contains printouts of websites, Wikipedia entries, Amazon search results, or other similarly basic computer searches in the Internet era. For example, in Box 349, Folder: Gregory + Sally November Corso 1963 (showed up during filming of Amphetamine Head on Allen Street), there is tremendous potential here for interesting primary information about Gregory Corso, the under-researched Sally November, their relationship, their wedding, the filming of Amphetamine Head in 1963, etc. The folder merely contains an obituary for Corso from January 20, 2001, by Peter Guttridge in The Independent. In this case and others like it, Sanders has done the bare bones in providing materials on a particular topic and the folder lacks information on key elements like Sally November, November and Corso in 1963, or Amphetamine Head.
It should be noted that some of my F Grades can be considered harsh given that the mere information of a name, event, or publication from a basic web source may be a lead you did not know about or think of researching. For example Box 349, Folder: A-Head 1963 Bill Heine is again just printout of Internet materials relating to Bill Heine. In this case I had no idea who Bill Heine was before I came across the folder and just the mere presence of his name in the box, not to mention the Internet materials in the folder could prove to be the spark to an explosion of fruitful research. But in this grading system the key is primary materials back from the time itself. This may be unfair or even not accurate as a grading system for researchers but that is what I was looking for.
Grade D: This grade applies when Sanders went a step beyond searching on the Internet for a particular topic or that the amount of Internet research in the folder is substantial. In addition, this grade applies to source material from the appropriate time period, but the nature of this material is scant in terms of amount or interest of documentation. This grade also applies to cases where Sanders puts in the folder his notes on a particular topic, often recollected at a later date for a book, poem, or research project. Again, this may be harsh and not accurate because it must be remembered (and I often forget) that Sanders is not a merely a researcher or journalist on an event, he actually lived and participated in it. So, these notes are in fact primary sources. That said, it is my feeling that these notes, which in many cases are scant, are better developed in the finished products that Sanders published throughout his lifetime, such as Fug You. For example, Box 349, Folder Stanley’s Bar ’62-’66 (when the action was at the Annex), contains a note and drawing in pencil about the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. This might be useless information but since it came from Sanders directly, not just as an Internet search, it is a step above.
Box 349, Folder A Call for a World Wide General Strike for Peace Feb. 1962, contains a piece of ephemera from the period that looks to have been handed out at the Strike. This could probably be graded in the Cs or for a particular researcher might grade even higher. For my purposes, the amount of material and the topic rate it lower. But the mere fact that it is a contemporary source rates it above an F.
Grade C: This grade almost always means we are dealing with contemporary sources which have significant interest or rarity but may be lacking in depth of material to push it higher on the scale. For example, Box 349 Folder 1962 Ray Bremser Benefit, has a flyer and event press release I have never seen as well as a poster about a happening in November 1962 in Paris. Folder ’62 Dorothy Day 1980/ File on Autobiography, gets a C-. It contains a pencil note from Sanders and an obit from the New York Times from 1980. This combination of material pushes it out of the D grade and just barely into the Cs. In some cases, I have rated material relating to Fuck You Press with a C that again might rate higher for other people. A copy of a Fuck You publication might be surprising to be rated with a C, but as a collector of this material the excitement factor has diminished on these items, particularly more common Fuck You publications like Toe Queen or Bugger. Such is the case with Folder: Thales The Valorium Edition of the Entire Extant Works of Thales, which contains that publication. The same holds true for other contemporary material that can be acquired on the rare book market. For example, Folder: 1963 Jail Poets Flyer Living Theater set for The Brig, which I have seen before. I must admit that the fact that I am a collector of this material and have acquired quite a bit of it has jaded my scale. So be warned.
Grade B: Now we are getting into the Special Collection so to speak. This is high quality primary material and contemporary sources that might be missing one element that pushes it into the A grade. In my opinion these items would prove of interest to even the most jaded of researchers and scholars who have seen it all. There is a scope and depth to B material that would provide the foundation for an interesting essay or blog post or provide a fruitful avenue of research for a larger project. For example, in Box 349, Folder: Receipt 2-19-62 for Speed-o-print mimeograph machine used on printing early issues of Fuck You/ a Magazine of the ARTS, would merit a B. I believe this receipt is documented in Fug You, but in Fuck You lore it is a cherished relic and has an aura. It is not an A because it does not lend itself to deep speculation and research but when you get down to it, it is just plain cool. The same holds true for Folder: Playbill for O’Hara & Jones Plays 3-23-64, which contains what I think is a Joe Brainard designed playbill. I hadn’t seen it before and it documents an important underground play of the period. Again, the cool factor give it a B.
For more on the research side, Folder: CNYA Greenwich Village Peace Center 1962 plus various leaflets 1962 + sit-in against nuke tests data, is a solid B. This folder contains some contemporary news articles, ephemera, such as flyers and leaflets, documenting the event, and maybe gathered at the event. Material of this type in my area of interest might very well merit an A, so again with these gradings keep in mind the grader.
Folder: Mostly 1962 early F.Y. Notes + unused manuscripts + Marilyn Notes, gets a B+. Here we have manuscripts and notes that did not get printed by Sanders. This would seem to be Grade A material but the nature of the manuscripts which do not appear to be from notable poets or writers holds it back as a curiosity and definitely of interest, but not a goldmine in research terms.
Grade A: In short, this is what you expect to be in the Sanders archive given his mythic reputation as a historian and archivist who documented his involvement in his time meticulously. This is the stuff. Here are the letters, the artwork, the stencils, the postcards, the collages, the manuscripts (bonus points for if they are unpublished), the handbill, the flyers, the unusual tidbit. Box 121 and 133 are Grade-A boxes because they have original Fuck You artwork and stencils, in some cases unpublished. Box 24 dedicated to da levy is an A because it has all these things concentrated on one individual important in the Mimeo Revolution. The same goes for Box 310 dedicated to Claude Pelieu. Quite frankly, boxes of this nature are what I was hoping for in terms of Burroughs, Warhol, Berrigan, other underground bookstores of the period, and other mimeo presses of the era. Sad to say such boxes or even folders of A list material are not in the archive.
But grade A material is to be found in folders throughout the boxes I reviewed. Box 349, Folder: Sade Suit 63-64-65 Cover Drawing/image of Sade, letters to E.S. from Jackson MacLow, Text for Sade Suit, a Fuck You/Press publication 1963 that never quite happened is A+ material. Documentation of an unpublished Fuck You manuscript by a major experimental writer of the period. Not as spectacular but in the A range is Folder: Letters Literary Matters 1964. This contains letters, receipts, FY publications, and flyers. This is the raw material that makes an A grade. I should definitely highlight the raw nature of this material. It is unorganized and not contextualized but the bones are there to make an interesting soup. In the end, it might taste bland, but you need the ingredients to make anything happen.