Beatbooks 59: Pulp Junkies, The Naked Lunch, Beats + Outsiders, Concrete, Visual + Sound Poetry
Cover design based on artwork from: (front) C.Comics No. 2, 1965; (back) The Friendly Way, 1972.
The new BeatBooks catalogue is preoccupied with a print netherworld encompassing one-offs, limited editions and short-runs published by concrete poets, beats and other outsiders.
There are also juicy examples of smack-sensationalising pulp fiction and – in one section alone – 36 items relating to The Naked Lunch, including Chicago Review excerpts from 1958 and William Burroughs’ first US LP release.
The cover utilises work by Joe Brainard – on the front is the cover of the second issue of his C Comics from 1965, which included collaborations with a number of poets including Ted Berrigan, who is also represented in a number of catalogue items.
BeatBooks’ mastermind Andrew Sclanders pulls out all the stops in the concrete and sound poetry section, recognising the value now being granted to work by such practitioners as Henri Chopin, Ian Finlay Hamilton, Bob Cobbing and the fascinating Dom Sylvester Houédard, Benedictine monk and concrete poet.
Burroughs’ fellow traveller Brion Gysin makes an appearance in this section, notably with (my pick of the catalogue) his 1982 audio-poem Orgy Boys.
And the Burroughs connection – to use the apposite term – extends to the grouping of drug pulp fiction books, including as it does various editions (including the first) of his book Junkie, written under the pseudonym William Lee.
Visit BeatBooks 59 online here.