Vietnam and The Sixties, The Sixties 8
Pynchon TLS to Richard Fariña About Been Down So Long...
624. PYNCHON, Thomas. Typed Letter Signed to Richard Fariña. One page, quarto, on graph paper, dated October 16, 1965. Approx. 400 words. Pynchon writes about Fariña's novel, which he has read in manuscript and which was to be published the following spring. Apparently Fariña or his publisher had written to Pynchon looking for a dust jacket blurb, and the letter begins, "Why Dick, Holy shit man. How would `holy shit' look on the book jacket?"
Pynchon and Fariña had both gone to Cornell, where both were writers and where Pynchon looked up to the older Fariña, who was already something of a celebrity on campus. After graduation, Fariña became well-known on the folk music circuit at the height of its influence; he married Joan Baez's sister, and Richard and Mimi Fariña released a pair of well-received folk albums, one of which alluded to Thomas Pynchon's V.
Pynchon had published V in 1963, and won the Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel of the year. In 1965, as Fariña was working toward publishing his first novel, Pynchon was the more well-known writer of the two -- hence his solicitation by the publisher for a blurb. But in an explosion of prose that is characteristically Pynchonesque, he here writes a paean of praise for Fariña's novel that couldn't possibly be used by a publisher. Pynchon did finally provide a lengthy blurb for the book, but one that was toned down considerably -- and which incidentally reads in a much more self-consciously hip, and therefore dated, way than do his words here.
Thomas Pynchon's first three novels all won major literary awards, and his classic Gravity's Rainbow not only won the National Book Award but also the William Dean Howells Medal, given out for the most significant work of American fiction over a five-year period. Pynchon is one of the most noted American literary recluses ever, refusing to allow himself to be photographed, disdaining interviews or public appearances. Little has appeared on the market bearing any sort of personal touch by the author. Signed books show up every few years; letters almost never. In this context, a letter of significant literary content, to the writer who was Pynchon's idol and who wrote one of the key novels of the Sixties -- the era that shaped Pynchon's own political and artistic sensibilities -- represents practically a post-modern Holy Grail.
The rest of the letter deals in both personal and literary issues: Pynchon explains his more "analytical" response to the novel at an earlier time, in Carmel, as well as his tendency to read it as a roman à clef, "which of course it never was. But these days I have renounced all that analytical shit...and this thing picked me up, sucked me in, cycled, spun and centrifuged my ass to where it was a major effort of will to go get up and take a leak even, and by the time it was over with I knew where I had been."
He mentions scenes he particularly likes, some that Fariña's editors objected to and draws comparisons to Rilke. About himself he says only "At the moment I am in LA, or possibly only think I am, and who knows for how long. But if you should feel like shooting the shit, on any subject except cops, which I cannot discuss without chorea, hives and falling sickness hitting me all at once, Candida will (D.V.) forward mail. If not, I understand man..."
A remarkable letter by one of the most celebrated postwar American novelists, whose books helped define the Sixties, to his close friend and mentor. Fariña wrote one of the few successful novels of drug-ingesting college-age youth to be published contemporaneously. Signed by the author as "Pyñchoñ," an in-joke allusion to the fact that Fariña had embellished his name with the "ñ" -- originally it was "Farina"; Pynchon would have been one of the few people who knew that. An exceptional letter.
625. PYNCHON, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. NY: Viking (1973). Advance review copy of Pynchon's masterwork, winner of the National Book Award and one of the defining books of its time, a complex, phantasmagoric political fabulation infused with paranoia and a sense of wheels within wheels and the hidden meanings behind things -- very much in keeping with the altered states of consciousness and the political protest which were a staple of the youth movements of the Sixties. Widely considered the most important American novel of the postwar era. Advance copies are very scarce: we have seen only three or four offered in more than a decade. Fine in fine dust jacket with review slip and promotional photo (of the book, not its reclusive author) laid in. A beautiful copy of a landmark book.
626. PYNCHON, Thomas. A Journey into the Mind of Watts. (Westminster): (Mouldwarp) (1983). Bootleg pamphlet printing Pynchon's essay on the aftermath of the Watts riots of 1965. Originally published in The New York Times Magazine in 1966. Very near fine in stapled wrappers.
627. ROBBINS, Tom. Another Roadside Attraction. Garden City: Doubleday, 1970. The author's first novel, one of a handful of contemporary novels -- among them Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude -- that became bestsellers slowly, by word of mouth, primarily on college campuses, after the paperback editions came out. Never reprinted in hardcover, but never out of print in paperback. The subtitle -- "An Apocalyptic Entertainment/ A Metaphysical Suspense" -- gives a sense of the breadth of the author's concerns as well as the light, comic touch he brings to bear on what could easily be ponderous subjects. On the strength of this novel, which tackled the implications of the psychedelic experiments of the Sixties, Robbins became the closest thing to a "poet laureate of the counterculture" and gained a cult following among young people that mushroomed when his second book, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, was published. He is now one of our most popular novelists. This is a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with light wear at the spine extremities. A pretty copy of a cheaply made book.
628. ROBBINS, Tom. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976. The hardcover issue of his irrepressible second novel, which was also issued simultaneously in paperback. This is a near fine copy in dust jacket.
629. (Rock Poster). SINGER, David. (SF: Tea Lautrec, 1970). Poster by Singer announcing a concert by Chuck Berry, Buddy Miles, Eric Burdon and others at the Fillmore West in San Francisco in 1970. Signed by Singer. 28" x 22". (Art of Rock, pg. 140, BG 250). Rolled; else fine.
630. (Rock Posters). Rock Posters of the Sixties 1994 Calendar. Torrance: Avalanche, 1993. Illustrated with reproductions of the work of John Van Hamersveld. Two instances of ink marking on dates. Prints fine.
631. ROSS, Mitchell. An Invitation to Our Times. Garden City: Doubleday, 1980. A collection of essays on the state of the nation in the aftermath of the cultural and social upheavals of the Sixties. Remainder spray bottom page edges; else fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
632. RUBIN, Jerry. We Are Everywhere. NY: Harper & Row (1971). First edition, the hardcover issue of the Yippie leader's exuberant countercultural affirmation. Many of the most important books of the time were printed primarily in paperback, as their target audience was young people. Hardcover editions tended to be done in small quantities for the library market. Printed on multi-colored pages; fine in fine dust jacket.
633. SANCHEZ, Sonia. It's a New Day. Detroit: Broadside Press (1971). An early book by this black poet. A fine copy of the issue in stapled wrappers.
634. SANDERS, Ed. The Family. The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion. NY: Dutton (1971). Poet Sanders' chilling account of the Manson "family" murders, and the events that accompanied his investigation of them. Cheap paper browning with age, otherwise fine in fine dust jacket. This is the first issue, without the legal disclaimer that was required to be tipped into the book later.
635. SANDERS, Ed. Catalogues. NY: (Self-published) (1964-5). Sanders, proprietor of the Peace Eye Bookshop, publisher of the Fuck You Press, poet and musician, was also a mail order bookseller. Here we offer several of his earliest catalogues of books for sale.
a. Catalogue #1. Includes listings for the publisher's file (i.e., his own) for Burroughs's Roosevelt After Inauguration; much other Burroughs, Ginsberg, McClure, etc.; a collection of pubic hair of literary luminaries on the New York scene; a Warhol silk-screened pillowcase; and much else. Terms include the notice that "institutional invoicing may be so arranged and stated so as to `cool the controversy' of an item..." Pages edge-darkened; else fine.
b. #2. Ownership signature of counterculture icon John Sinclair and date (1965) upper corner; includes a Birth Press archive (Tuli Kupferberg's press); a Fuck You Press archive (Sanders's press); Allen Ginsberg's famous Cold Cream Jar, which he used as a sexual lubricant, inscribed by Ginsberg; and more. Near fine.
c. #4. John Sinclair's ownership name and date (1965) upper corner. Printed on multi-colored paper; 288 items, including a mystery item for $4500. The rear cover is an announcement of a performance by The Fugs; the inside front cover announces the opening of the Peace Eye Book Shop. Near fine.
d. #4 1/2. "The Szabo Edition": a short catalogue issued when an acquaintance defaulted on a loan and Sanders offered the books he'd left as collateral for sale. John Sinclair ownership signature and date (1965) upper corner; near fine.
636. SELBY, Hubert, Jr. Last Exit to Brooklyn. NY: Grove (1964). Selby's influential and controversial first novel, which was called obscene and which set new standards for realism and urban grittiness in fiction. An landmark novel of the era, breaking taboos both with regard to sexuality and the underbelly of American urban society. Fine in near fine dust jacket with a small stain at the heel of the spine.
637. SESAR, Carl. Hey. (Middletown): (One Shot Press) (1970). In-your-face poetry. Self-published; hand-printed with rubber stamps in an edition of 1000 copies. The kind of experiment in authorship and self-sufficiency that flourished in the Sixties. Fine in wrappers and signed by the author.
638. (SESAR, Carl). Selected Poems of Catullus. NY: Mason & Lipscomb (1974). The poet Catullus was one of the greatest lyric poets of the Roman Empire but his erotic poetry had previously been translated in stilted formal language that distanced the translator and the reader from the actions being described. The changing moral ground of the Sixties allowed for the first translation of Catullus in vernacular, with all their explicit sexuality and with an immediacy the poems had never before achieved in English. Fine in fine dust jacket, with publisher's review slip laid in.
639. -. Another copy. Not a review copy. Fine in dust jacket.
640. (Shelter). Domebook 2. (Bolinas): (Pacific Domes) (1971). Articles about experiments with domes at Pacific High School; sources of supplies; the math involved; how-to instruction with detailed illustrations; etc. Tall folio, heavily illustrated in the manner of the Whole Earth Catalog. Fine in stapled wrappers.
641. (Shelter). BAER, Steve. Dome Cookbook. (Corrales): (Lama) (n.d.). Second printing of this "recipe book" for making a dome, written by the most prominent promoter of them. Edge-darkened; near fine.
642. SINCLAIR, John. Guitar Army: Street Writings, Prison Writings. (NY): Douglas Book (1972). A counterculture manifesto, written by the founder of the White Panthers. Heavily illustrated; printed on rainbow-colored pages. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
643. (SOUTHERN, Terry). COOPER, Michael. Blinds & Shutters. (Surrey): Genesis Hedley (1990). Tall thick folio printing a large number of Cooper's photographs from the Sixties, many of them centered around London and the Rolling Stones. An elaborate production, with contributions by most of the people pictured, including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Jim Dine, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Terry Southern, Larry Rivers and many others. Southern contributes not only the usual comments and clips that accompany the photographs but also the Introduction for the book. A fine copy, bound in three-quarter black leather and yellow cloth, resembling a Kodak film container, laid into a similar black-and-yellow box, with a shutter window with an original photograph bound in. Signed 14 contributors, including Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Harry Nilsson, and others. A scarce and elaborate memento of the era.
644. SPELLMAN, A.B. The Beautiful Days. NY: Poets Press (1965). New York poetry, mid-Sixties, with Frank O'Hara introduction. Finger smudge to front cover, cup ring to rear cover; else near fine in stapled wrappers.
645. STAFFORD, Peter. Psychedelic Baby Reaches Puberty. NY: Praeger (1971). A collection of extended personal essays and reflections on psychedelics, written in the form of an odyssey and drawing in historical and other information. Near fine in edgeworn dust jacket.
646. STEIN, David Lewis. Living the Revolution: The Yippies in Chicago. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill (1969). Nonfiction account of the week of the Democratic Convention by a reporter who lived in the parks with the Yippies. Near fine in very good, rubbed and price-clipped dust jacket, with one small chip at spine crown.
647. (Students for a Democratic Society). An Introduction. (Chicago): SDS (n.d.) [c. 1968]. An introduction to SDS and an invitation to join. One long sheet, folded in fourths to make a pamphlet. Mild age-darkening; near fine.
648. (Students for a Democratic Society). On the Wall, #4. (n.p.): (SDS) (n.d.). [c. 1968]. Wall poster newspaper, approximately 16" x 22"; printed on two sides. The text announces this as the last "issue." Folded in fourths; else a fine copy.
649. (Students for a Democratic Society). New Left Notes, Vol. 3, No. 40. (Chicago): SDS (January, 1969). Newsletter of SDS, with reports on Mexican students staging a hunger strike in jail in the aftermath of the bloody protest at the Olympics; former SDS officer writing from jail; more. Fine.
650. (Students for a Democratic Society). First Issue, No. 10. (Ithaca): (The Office) (February, 1969). Cornell University political magazine, with much about South Africa as well as local news and issues. Fine.
651. (Students for a Democratic Society). SALE, Kirkpatrick. SDS. NY: Random House (1973). The definitive history of SDS and as such a political history of the Sixties. Remainder stamp front flyleaf; else fine in fine dust jacket with minuscule wear at spine crown.
652. (Symbionese Liberation Army). Symbionese Liberation Army: Support/ Criticize/ Love Them. (n.p.: n.p., n.d.). Two mimeographed sheets, double-sided, critiquing media portrayal of the group that kidnapped Patricia Hearst and endorsing revolutionary solidarity with them. Stapled at the corner and a bit creased there; else near fine.