Researching my archive during lockdown for a project has given me the opportunity to thoroughly assess individual publications, none more so than the 59th issue of underground paper IT, which hit the streets in early July 1969.
This particular edition features a couple of small items which provide clues as to the countercultural activities at the time of two Londoners who would go on to define pop culture in the 1970s: David Bowie and Malcolm McLaren.
A brown envelope I’m always glad to receive is that containing the latest BeatBooks catalogue.
Each quarter the arrival of the 8″ x 6″ booklet soon results in the tapping out of the url of the online order form for Andrew Sclanders’ site.
And the catalogues are treasurable in their own right.
Over the last decade or so Sclanders has carved out a niche for BeatBooks as collector central for all publications – literary, musical, graphic – springing from “beat” and moving through the counterculture and punk to the outer reaches of the avant-garde.