Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting

Rhinozeros #5
Front cover

Rhinozeros #5
“Song” by David Meltzer

Rhinozeros #5
“Song of the Tusk” by Anselm Hollo

Rhinozeros #5
“Attention!” by Gregory Corso

Rhinozeros #5
Poem by Michael McClure

Rhinozeros #5
“An Africa Ode” by Edward Dorn

Rhinozeros #5
“Spel 1” by Robert Kelly

Rhinozeros #5
“Song” by David Meltzer

Rhinozeros #5
Poem by Larry Eigner

Rhinozeros #5
“Oil” by Gary Snyder

Rhinozeros #5
Poems by Gael Turnbull and Michael Horovitz

Rhinozeros #5
“The End” by Allen Ginsberg

Rhinozeros #5
Poem by Peter Orlovsky, “Apples” by Gregory Corso

Rhinozeros #5
“Wind Hand Caught in the Door” by William S. Burroughs

Rhinozeros #5
“To Fidel Castro Somewhere in the Sierra Maestre” by Marc D. Schleifer

Rhinozeros #5
Poem by David Ball

Rhinozeros #5
Poems by Theodore Enslin

Rhinozeros #5
Poem by Anselm Hollo

Rhinozeros #5
Poem by Dell Hymes

Rhinozeros #5
“Pome (for Rhinozeros)” by Jack Kerouac

Rhinozeros #5
Poem by Piero Heliczer

Rhinozeros #5
Poem by Philip Whalen

Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting

Several years ago, I wrote on the potential joys of collecting Charles Olson. Olson loomed as a literal giant over the small press and little magazine scene from 1950 until his death in 1970. As a result, his work appeared in some of the most interesting chapbooks and magazines of the period. His books are beautiful and expansive (I am thinking of the Jargon Press Maximus Poems) as objects above and beyond the epic scope of their contents.

Leroi Jones (later Amiri Baraka, but Jones for the purposes of this column) appeals to me in a way similar to Olson and, of course, William Burroughs. My interest in Jones centers on his Beat phase lasting until the mid 1960s. This work would make an outstanding collection. In 2000, Brown University showcased its Jones holdings and the Beat pieces really spoke to me. I was especially struck by Jones’ work as an editor. It seems like he had his hands in every major magazine coming out of New York City in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Yugen, Floating Bear, Kulchur. This does not include his founding of Totem Press and that press’s publications with Cornith Books. Jones published Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Frank O’Hara, Charles Olson, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Ed Dorn, Diane Di Prima, and Paul Blackburn.

I am going to focus here on Yugen. Yugen ran for eight issues from 1958-1962. The magazine filled a void for newly emerging schools of poets that were denied publication in the academic and mainstream venues, like Poetry or The Kenyon Review. Jones stated, “It was started because I didn’t see publications coming out that carried poetry or writing that I was interested in. Therefore, I thought I should start one to try to gather that poetry that I thought was interesting… I just thought nothing was happening on the poetry scene as it should be so I started publishing.”

Yugen is often described as a Beat outlet. Work by Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen definitely appears frequently, but I think the content is much broader than that. Yugen billed itself as a “new consciousness in arts and letters.” The poetry dovetailed with the groundbreaking and monumental New American Poetry anthology of Don Allen published in 1959/1960. Jones included the New York School (Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch), Black Mountain (Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Joel Oppenheimer, Fielding Dawson), and San Francisco Renaissance (Robin Blaser) poets alongside a healthy helping of the Beats. The Black Mountain poets made a very strong showing. In the last issue, the table of contents reads like a who’s who of New American Poets. By 1962, Yugen‘s work was done. On ending the magazine, Jones stated, “Well, I think it just outlived its usefulness as far as I was concerned. By the time Yugen stopped publishing there were innumerable magazines that were publishing poets and writers that I had some respect for.”

Much of the work of constructing Yugen was done by Jones’ wife, Hettie Cohen. Cohen worked as an editor as Partisan Review which gave her invaluable experience in putting together a magazine. She performed many editorial tasks as well as designing the layout. Like with many magazines of the period, the construction process, such as collating, folding, mailing, and stapling, provided a center for the literary community. Collating parties became literary events. Hettie Cohen’s How I Became Hettie Jones is mandatory reading on the literary community in New York City in the late 1950s, early 1960s, as is Diane Di Prima’s Recollections of My Life as a Woman. Both books provide detailed accounts of the day-to-day process of running a literary magazine. I highly recommend them.

Yugen was printed by Troubador Press in New York City. All eight issues have a similar design and feel. They are simple yet handsome chapbooks, much like the small books published by Jones’ Totem Press, like O’Hara’s Second Avenue and Kerouac’s The Scripture of the Golden Eternity. The defining characteristic of a Jones chapbook was arresting cover art drawn by an artist closely affiliated with the literary scene. The artwork for Yugen possessed a strong Black Mountain feel with illustrations by Basil King and Norman Bluhm. The covers contained elements of Eastern calligraphy and the brushwork of the abstract expressionists like Franz Kline. Yugen shows how printing cheaply does not have to detract from richness of design. All Jones productions of this period appeal to me as objects saying nothing of the appeal of the writing within. Highpoints include Kerouac’s “Rimbaud” in Issue 6 as well as defining work by Charles Olson. While all the work is not of a high quality (it is uneven like most little magazines), the sense of a newly emerging literary community shines through. Yugen captures a snapshot of alternative poetics as the New American Poetry anthology broke things open.

William Burroughs appeared in two issues of Yugen: Issue 3 and Issue 8. These appearances highlight a change that occurred in Burroughs as a writer between the late 1950s and early 1960s. In issue three, Burroughs submitted “Have You Seen Pantapon Rose?,” an early piece of the still gestating Naked Lunch. Issue eight features an essay: “The Cut Up Method of Brion Gysin.” In 1958, Burroughs was still searching for himself as a writer and unsure of both his work and his method. As I have mentioned before, Yugen proved instrumental in giving Burroughs confidence as a writer, providing publication at a crucial time in Burroughs’ development. Burroughs’ collaborator at the time was Allen Ginsberg. Burroughs’ letters containing routines were addressed to him. Oliver Harris details letter writing as a key to Burroughs’ method in William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination.

By 1962, Burroughs was a completely different man and writer. Burroughs discovered the cut-up which replaced the routine as his major literary technique. Similarly, Gysin replaced Ginsberg as the major collaborator and confidante. The effects of the change can be seen in Burroughs’ essay on Gysin and the cut-up. Burroughs writes an authoritative essay featuring a cut up, not a routine. He has become a spokesman on writing technique and history. His belief in his style is absolute. Everything is a cut-up and all literature can be subjected to the cut-up. “ALL WRITING IS IN FACT CUT-UPS OF GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR OVERHEARD?” Burroughs’ voice is more confident and strident. Burroughs speaks from the mountain top; he has seen the light. You get the sense of a power shift between issues three and eight. In issue three, Burroughs benefits tremendously by appearing in Yugen. In issue eight, Yugen benefits tremendously by featuring Burroughs. Between the two issues, Burroughs went from literary unknown to an international cult figure.

To this day, Yugen remains fresh and vibrant, like the New American Poetry it featured. Putting together a complete run of Yugen is tough but not impossible. Issue four marks a turning point in the magazine’s availability on the collector’s market. Issues 1-4 are tough to find and are expensive, roughly $100-150 per issue. Issues 5-8 are much more common and cheaper. The later issues provide a good bang for the buck. Issue 6 includes Kerouac’s “Rimbaud” before it was published as a broadside by City Lights. Of course, issue 8 has the early Burroughs appearance. Visually and textually they are worth the $35-50 price tag. For anyone interested in the Beats and modern poetry in general, Yugen is a fun purchase. Truly, Yugen was a laboratory in which poets of the post-WWII era experimented before their work became accepted as mainstream.

Yugen Archive

Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting

1. Nov 2, 1963 TLS from Anthony Linick to Dave Meltzer — Letter SIGNED by Linick. Linick along with Donald Factor was editor of NOMAD magazine which ran for 10 issues from the Winter 1959 to Autumn 1962. Nomad was published in London and Culver City CA. Contributors included Paul Blackburn, Charles Bukowski, Cid Corman, Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Gael Turnbull, Louis Zukofsky and William Burroughs. Linick is asking Meltzer’s support for a research project concerning the literary underground since WWII. The letter mentions a questionnaire (not present) to obtain information on the small press movement.

2. Artwork. Pen on paper drawing (8 1/2″ by 11″) of mother and child (Mary and Child) surrounded by multi-colored (green blue yellow orange) fingerpainting. No signature.

3. Typed Letter January 29, 1966 from cowboy poet Kell Robertson (KDR Albuquerque NM) to Meltzer and all. Letter talks of the poetry reading scene in Albuquerque. Mentions FOLKTHING2 performance.

4. Typed Letter(??) from Nam June Paik to Meltzer. Letter is a free form poem TELE-PET with PAIK and ROBOT magic markered over the poem. Paik is a Korean American video artist. Nam June Paik (rhymes with “cake”) is widely credited as the founder of a new art form called video art. Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, Paik and his family were forced to leave in 1949 because of the Korean War. In 1956 he graduated from the University of Tokyo and went to Germany to continue his studies as a musician and composer. In the 1960s, under the influence of John Cage and the Fluxus group, he began to exhibit television sculpture. By the early 1970s he had settled in New York where he made a major breakthrough with the first appearance of video art — which has become widely influential as an art movement. “Radio dominated 50 years and …..gone/TV will dominate 50 years and …..will gone” The poem which features radio / TV / cybernetics is a unique expression of Paik themes which include speculating on the future mediums of art and expression.

5. Typed Letter signed from Sol Hurok to Meltzer dated Sept. 28, 1965. Letter on San Francisco Mime Troupe letterhead. Letter briefly discusses the details of a play to be presented at the theatre with Hurok requesting Meltzer’s presence at a rehearsal. Emigrating to the United States in 1906, Hurok was a peddler, streetcar conductor, bottle washer, and hardware salesman before becoming the foremost impresario of his age. By his own estimation, he presented more than 4,000 artists and companies, among them Pavlova, Marian Anderson, the Comédie Française, the Old Vic Company, the Royal Ballet, Andrés Segovia, Jean-Louis Barrault, and Victoria de los Angeles. The film Tonight We Sing (1953) was based on his autobiography, Impresario (1946). We are in debt to Sol Hurok for his role in making ballet one of the most popular theatrical art forms in the 20th century.

6. Holograph letter Jan. 1964 from “Freezing R Keisters Singers” (possibly George Herms) (Healdsburg CA) to Meltzer. Letter contains a poem and a drawing in gold paint. “Clarity / Lucidity / To stand / Under the light / and pass / the pure sound / of joy / thro a human horn.” Poem possibly titled “I’m with You.”

7. TLS from I (Idell, Aya Tarlow) to ld dated August 1963. Letter typed on Globe Photos Inc of Hollywood CA letterhead. Handwritten notations throughout letter. Tarlow describes her struggles as a poet. Poem ‘There is a unity in surrender’ typed on back of page one. Enclosed Newsweek article about the marriage of Gregory Corso.

8. Postcard from London to Ray Johnson. Postcard is an interesting example of Johnson’s conception of correspondence art. Possibly from Fluxus artist Robert Falliou. Postcard mentions Emmet Williams. Raymond Edward Johnson was born in 1927 in Detroit, Michigan. His first experiences using the mail as an art medium stretch back to 1943 with his friend Arthur Secunda. From 1946-48 he studied alongside Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina with faculty members Joseph Albers, Robert Motherwell, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Buckminister Fuller, and Willem and Elaine DeKooning. He moved to Manhattan and showed annually with the American Abstract Artists which included Ad Reinhart among its members. By 1955, the trailblazing Johnson was painting over and cutting up images of Elvis Presley. A year later a portrait of Ike would appear in the Robert Rauscenberg collage and Roy Lichtenstein would include fuzzy pictures of Mickey Mouse by. But it would be seven long years later Johnson-crony Andy Warhol would immortalize Elvis for the first time. By then Johnson had moved on. The trailblazing Johnson was a fixture on the Manhattan scene, heralded as an innovator by the heroes-to-be of Pop and Fluxus. A pre-Factory Warhol crony, he joined Billy Name and a handful of others to provide the creative atmosphere that Andy bounced off of. In the early sixties, long before there was an Internet, Johnson’s greatest performance work- the New York Correspondence School, an international network of poets and artists who used the low-tech medium of the postal system- freely exchanged artwork, objects and anything else deemed worthy by it’s participants, many of whom became the cultural movers and shakers of the next several decades. The epicenter of this decentralized whirlwind? Ray Johnson- “the most famous unknown artist in the world.”

9. TLS from Aya Tarlow to Meltzer. Letter includes a drawing of a bird and a collage.

10. Form TL from Joel Climenhaga to Friends with Holograph letter to Meltzer regarding birth of child signed by Climenhaga. Form letter describes Climenhaga’s doings at UNC where he is teaching at the moment. In 1961 he originated TRANSIENT PRESS, when he published the first issue of Seed, a poetry magazine, under its imprint. During the greater part of the 1960s, other magazines (Jacaranda, Ferment, Rananim and Open Letter) were published through TRANSIENT PRESS. Later, during the 1970s and 1980s, other ephemeral poetry magazines and literary journals were published on an irregular basis under his editorship through TRANSIENT PRESS; these included Awakening, The Back Shelf Dispatch, Below Ground Level, Counsel for the Offense, Foundation, Greenage, Inner Dimension, Jonah’s Gourd, Lighthouse in the Coming Storm, Noah, Only Two Believers, Qua Qua, Rock Drill, Scop, Stone Cottage, This Time, White Lion and Zymosis. Climenhaga was a noted scholar on Kenneth Patchen.

11. Typed Poem “Peyote Night” from Yvonne Bond to Meltzer (August 1963)

12. Typed Letter from “Herms” (George Herms) of Malibu to Meltzer Nov. 1962.

13. TLS from Eric Andersen to Meltzer, May 1964. Andersen, singer/songwriter writes about family life and its conflict with art; his upcoming physical for the draft, the Greenwich Village Music scene.

14. Signed Typed Postcard from Joel Climenhaga to Meltzer dated Jan. 1963

15. “Combination Theatre Poem and Birthday Poem for Ten People” mailed to Meltzer from NYC Mar 1964. Ten people include Billy Name, Wallace Berman, Meltzer and others.

16. Holograph letter from Jerry Rockwell (musician) to Meltzer dated Feb. 1966.

Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker

Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting

For more on Jed’s mini-archive of Meltzer letters, see David Meltzer Archive: A Partial Index.

A small archive of letters to Maurice Girodias of Olympia Press from the likes of Henry Miller and William Burroughs popped up on Abebooks. Many of the letters are about Henry Miller lobbying for a Nobel Prize in the 1970s. I wonder what the Burroughs letter entails. In a previous column, I noted the rarity of high quality manuscripts of Burroughs material on the open market. Public institutions have for the most part snatched up all the good stuff. I think the same holds true for Burroughs’ letters. The recent sale of the Robert Jackson collection to the New York Public Library highlights the active role of institutions in gathering this material. Jackson’s stash included hundreds of letters including several to crucial figures like Brion Gysin and Timothy Leary. These letters should prove a goldmine for scholars and for everyday readers as well, as Oliver Harris’ collected letters from 1945-1959 demonstrated. I find myself returning again and again to this book, not just for research purposes but for pure enjoyment. I place it with Naked Lunch in terms of reading pleasure. As Oliver Harris has shown in books and articles, letter writing was essential to Burroughs’ creative process. Let’s keep our collective fingers crossed for the second volume of letters.

By and large, Burroughs letters (to and from) rarely come to market. Those that do are usually short notes, many times on a postcard. Such notes usually respond to fans requesting signatures or likewise reaching out to their idol. Any correspondence to another literary or artistic figure fetches a pretty penny. A brief postcard to Herbert Huncke is currently available for almost $1000. In most cases, the available Burroughs correspondence rarely allows a glimpse into Burroughs as a private individual or as a working writer. That is the joy of the collected letters. There are exceptions. Ken Lopez possesses an archive of material, including letters, relating the creative partnership of S. Clay Wilson and Burroughs. Wilson worked on the cover art for the German edition of The Wild Boys and Cities of the Red Night. The archive features goodies from 1979-1991, a period noted for Burroughs’ own explorations in visual art. Per usual with late correspondence, Burroughs often uses a postcard. Not surprisingly, one has to pay for this peek into the late Burroughs’ creative life. Only $17,500.

Given their scarcity, price, and the generally banal nature of the available material, I do not own a single original Burroughs letter. A letter to Ginsberg from the 1950s would be a crowning jewel to any Burroughs collector. However, a cache of correspondence to David Meltzer from the mid-1960s fell into my lap several years ago. Shifting through this material highlights just how fun and what a learning experience letters can be.

This mini-archive sat in my bookshelf for a couple of years untouched until January of this year when I purchased Wallace Berman and the Semina Circle. This book accompanied an exhibit relating to the literature and art surrounding Berman until his untimely death in 1976. This exhibit is currently touring the West Coast and will make its way to New York City (New York University to be exact) in January 2007. A complete run of Semina Magazine represents the Holy Grail for me as a collector. An early fragment of Naked Lunch (Pantapon Rose) appeared in Semina 4. As I have mentioned before, Semina is the epitome of the little magazine as art object. David Meltzer appeared in Semina as well. In fact, the entire issue of Semina 6 features Meltzer’s The Clown.

Unlike Burroughs, Meltzer was an intimate member of the Berman Circle. He published a few books including Luna with Black Sparrow. In the late 1960s, he wrote a series of avant garde pornographic novels for Essex House. At the same time, he fronted the psychedelic band Serpent Power. In 2004, Meltzer published Beat Thing. He also edited two collections of valuable interviews entitled San Francisco Poets and San Francisco Beat. A collection of Meltzer’s papers are at Washington University.

Needless to say, I returned to my collection of letters. I made a rough catalog of the archive and found a treasure trove of material about the 1960s California counterculture. There were a few letters and art work from George Herms, a postcard to mail art pioneer Ray Johnson, a letter from Sol Hurok on San Francisco Mime Troupe stationary, and a poem from (I think) the recently passed artist Nam June Paik. In addition to a few Herms letters and artwork, the highpoint of the collection are several letters from Aya Tarlow (Idell). Aya is featured in Semina Culture, and the letters provide insight into the struggles of being a woman and an artist in California in the 1960s. Aya and Meltzer corresponded for years and remain friends to this day. Tarlow’s papers are at University of California at Berkeley.

New Journalism pioneer Grover Lewis wrote a letter to Meltzer from Texas filled with literary gossip and dreams of starting a little magazine. I don’t think it ever got off the ground. In addition, there were letters from Frank Jenner, Peterson (in Rochester, New York), and Lionel (who claims only Nabokov as his literary peer) who I know next to nothing about. I include this rough catalog in the hopes that somebody out there has more information about this material. Some of the pieces are nice examples of mail art practiced by the Berman Circle or other similarly minded individuals, including collages, paintings, poems, and drawings. I will post some of this material in the next few months as it is all very striking and may be of some interest given the recent exhibits concerning funk art of California and Berman’s Circle in particular. (See Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle and Pop L.A.:Art and the City in the 1960s
.)

Of particular interest to me was a letter from Anthony Linick. Linick along with Donald Factor edited Nomad from 1959-1962. Nomad was not featured in Steve Clay’s Secret Location on the Lower East Side and I can find little information on it. On the collectible market, Nomad 5/6 (The Manifesto Issue) is by far the most common. Burroughs appears in that issue along with Corso, Brion Gysin and Sinclair Beiles. “Open Letter to Life Magazine” comes from Minutes to Go. Published in 1960, Nomad 5/6 is an early Burroughs magazine appearance. Bukowski also contributes to this issue. Again this is an early appearance coming in the same year as Bukowski’s first book of poetry: Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail. Bukowski also graces Nomad 1 with four poems.

In the later issues, Nomad features several New American poets from the Donald Allen anthology. The last issue, Nomad New York, is the strongest of the bunch concentrating on the New York avant garde. In fact, the introduction of that issue mentions the Allen anthology as well as Corinth / Totem Press, Hawk’s Well Press, and a host of important little magazines. In “In Regards to this Selection of Verse, or Every Painter Should Have His Poet,” John Bernard Myers coined the term “New York School” to describe Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Barbara Guest, Bill Berkson and others. The magazine also includes work from the emerging Pop Art including Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg. The issue is a wonderful time capsule of the first generation New York School as well as the newly anthologized New American Poets.

In his letter to David Meltzer, Linick hopes Meltzer will answer some questions for a projected dissertation and book project on the underground with a focus on little magazines. I could be wrong but I don’t think the book was ever published but it would have been a wonderful read and a wonderful resource. Linick’s letter was written in 1963, one year after the last issue of Nomad. I assume Linick went to grad school and discontinued the little magazine. But I don’t know, so consider this column another form of that letter. Any information on the literary and artistic scene described in these letters would be appreciated.

A Nomad Archive

Nomad #1

Nomad #2

Nomad #3

Nomad #4

Nomad #5-6

Nomad #7

Nomad #8

Nomad #9

Nomad #10-11