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[ca 1950s]. An album containing early photographs by and of William S. Burroughs and other figures of the Beat generation, including photo collages and partial collages, with annotations by Burroughs; a photobooth portrait; a passport photo; a negative of an unpublished Brion Gysin photograph of Burroughs from 1959 (with contemporary archival print); and other images. 32 photographs in all, plus calling cards of Bruno Heinrich and Charles Henri Ford, and a copy of Driffs magazine -- "The Antiquarian and Second Hand Book Fortnightly" -- which includes Part 1 of Iain Sinclair's "Definitive Catalogue" of the Beats -- this part being devoted entirely to the works of William Burroughs, with this album as item number 80 in the catalogue.

The photographs are primarily from the early 1950s -- the ones annotated by Burroughs having dates from 1952 to 1954. Several photographs are taped together, forming early visual collages, while a number of the individual photos have sellotape along their edges, suggesting they were at one time part of a larger collage. The collages, or collage fragments, represent some of Burroughs' earliest attempts to use visual images in the way he was using words -- to transcend time and space, and link together various aspects of his life and world, in ways that correlate to a "mindscape" -- akin to the connections between the stories he wrote during that period that were collectively known as the Interzone, which was also an early title for Naked Lunch.

Brion Gysin, in his 1964 essay, 'Cut ups: A Project for Disastrous Success,' wrote that "Burroughs was more intent on Scotch-taping his photos together into one great continuum on the wall, where scenes faded and slipped into one another, than occupied with editing the monster manuscript" -- i.e., Naked Lunch, aka his Word Hoard. And Burroughs wrote in one of his Adding Machine essays: "I was back in my old garden room at the Villa Muniria [in Tangier], and it was here that I first started making photo-montages." This was March 1961.

The provenance of this group of materials is "the legendary Hardiment suitcase," belonging to poet Melville Hardiment, a friend of Burroughs during the years 1960-62, who is also known as the first person to have given Burroughs LSD, apparently without Burroughs' advance knowledge. Hardiment's wife at the time was Harriet Crowder, a photographer who is well-known for having taken the portrait of Burroughs on the LP "Call Me Burroughs." Hardiment bought a number of items from Burroughs in that time period and famously kept them in a suitcase. According to his second wife, Pat Hardiment, Melville would sell off the contents bit by bit, when he needed money. One group of materials ended up at the University of Kansas, and is known there as the Burroughs-Hardiment Collection: this group went from Hardiment to the bookseller Pat Zanelli, to bookseller Larry Wallrich, and then to the university.

A second group of photographs and collages went into the collection of photographer Richard Lorenz, and were exhibited in the 1996 show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art -- "Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts." By 1996, Burroughs' influence on the visual arts was sufficiently deep and widespread to justify a museum show of its own. The photos and collages in the Lorenz collection were of the same subjects, from the same time period, with the same annotations as the Kansas photos, and would appear to have also come from Hardiment's suitcase. Several of the Lorenz images remain taped together forming collages, or mini-collages; many others, though, now stand alone, although by the evidence they were once part of a larger construct.

This third group, offered here, went from Hardiment to Iain Sinclair, likely again via Pat Zanelli (Sinclair recalls buying the lot from a woman bookseller, and Zanelli is the most likely candidate). Like the photos in Kansas and those in the Lorenz collection, many of these have sellotape on the edges, and like the collages in the Lorenz collection, some are still taped together, forming collages themselves or representing collage fragments.

Tape shadows on the versos of some of the images both here and at the University of Kansas hint that Burroughs may have created the collages and then, when he began experimenting with the cut-up technique in writing, have cut-up the collages with the intent of applying this same technique to visual imagery. The Lorenz items were not presently available for examination of their versos, but some evidence supports this notion, such as that some of the images in the collages were partially torn away, and that there was evidence of the collages having been part of a larger grouping previously.

William S. Burroughs is known as a key figure of the literary avant garde of the 20th century, and the impact of his work on the visual arts -- both his own artwork and others' works derived from his literary writings -- was sufficient to justify a major museum show and catalog. These snapshots and snapshot collages represent some of his earliest efforts to explore the ideas he was working on in his writing using visual materials. Isaac Gewirtz, the curator of the Burroughs archive in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library, wrote in his book on Burroughs, Beatific Soul, that the Interzone was an "imaginary city" which was "a combination of New York, Mexico City, and Tangier" in which Burroughs "construct[ed] hallucinatory, interconnected narratives for its numerous characters." These groups of photographs show Burroughs venturing even farther afield and including "Tetuan" [i.e., Tetouan], in Morocco; Huanuco, in Peru; and Paris, as part of his interzone, or mindscape. The Huanuco photographs and a Pucallpa, Peru calling card date from Burroughs' trip to South American to meet with Harvard ethno-botanist Richard Evans Schultes (aka "Dr. Schindler" in The Yage Letters) to try ayahuasca for the first time.

Early, seminal material from William S. Burroughs, an icon of the Beat Generation, whom Norman Mailer, in 1962, called "the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius."

[#033847] $45,000

1982. Three original pen-and-ink S. Clay Wilson illustrations for the German edition of Burroughs' Cities of the Red Night. Wilson was one of the group of artists who gained exposure in the underground comix of the 1960s counterculture. After R. Crumb, he is probably the best known of that group, and his images are almost certainly the most extreme: all of the underground comic artists sought to break barriers and defy convention, and Wilson's images are densely packed and full of overt sex and violence to an extreme degree. In this he was very much like Burroughs, whose verbal imagery and subject matter sought to shatter barriers, preconceptions and hypocrisies; the collaboration between the two of them seems in retrospect to have been inevitable. These drawings were displayed at the Los Angeles County Art Museum in the show "Ports of Entry: William Burroughs and the Arts," which sought to convey the influence Burroughs had had on visual arts. Extraordinary images, and probably the best illustrations ever of Burroughs' writings. Burroughs himself appears as a character in one of the images. Two of the images are 5-1/4" x 9", the third is 5-1/4" x 10"; all three are matted and framed to approximately 16" x 19". Fine. [#027316] $15,000

(Brighton), Unicorn, 1971. Clothbound first edition limited to 99 numbered and signed copies, this being one of only 9 hors commerce copies and inscribed by the author to Claude Pelieu and Mary Beach, friends and collaborators with Burroughs on a number of different projects, mostly in the mid-1960s. The inscription reads: "For Claude and Mary/ all the best at/ Christmas/ William Burroughs." One of Burroughs' smallest limitation for the entire edition, the hors commerce copies are exceedingly scarce: we could find no record of one ever turning up at auction; and, while nearly 50 copies of this edition are housed in research libraries, we could find no evidence that any of them were hors commerce copies or that any of them had a similarly rich association. Even the Carter Burden copy, at the Morgan Library, is one of the copies that was for sale, numbered 1-90, and Burden made an effort -- usually successful -- to get every variant he could of the titles and authors he collected. Brown cloth without dust jacket, as issued. A few faint spots to the cloth; near fine. Originally issued with a 12" LP record, not present here and not present with most of the copies that have been on the market or are in institutional collections: many of the LPs were damaged prior to publication, and books were issued without the accompanying record. It is not known if the hors commerce copies would have been accompanied by the LPs or not, but it is reasonable to surmise that the few surviving LPs would have been placed with copies that were to be sold in the trade, not with those held back from commerce. An excellent association copy between key figures of the Beat generation and counterculture, and an extremely scarce issue of an uncommon Burroughs title. [#033848] $8,500

1988. An original Burroughs painting, which became part of the Seven Deadly Sins exhibition at The Writer's Place, Kansas City, Missouri, in 1993. Acrylic and spray paint on poster board: a gold triangle and heart spray-painted against a background acrylic image of black, blue and gray. Signed by Burroughs. 20" x 32". Mounted and framed to 24" x 36". Fine. Burroughs, whose Naked Lunch, Soft Machine, and numerous other works helped define the Beat generation and redefine the psychedelic novel, also worked in the visual media from the early 1950s on, experimenting first with collages and later with what he called "nagual art" -- art infected by chance, which had the possibility of giving the viewer access to what Burroughs called a "port of entry," an access to a different universe or a different way of seeing our own. In writing, Burroughs adopted the "cut-up" technique, with Brion Gysin, to achieve similar ends: a final product that was, in part, a product of chance or, at the very least, forces beyond the artist's direct control and manipulation. [#024825] $7,500

1988. An original drawing by Wilson for Burroughs' 1989 book Tornado Alley. This image was included in the exhibition "Ports of Entry: William Burroughs and the Arts" that was mounted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1996, and it is reproduced on page 140 of the exhibition catalog. Interestingly, the illustration in the book does not show some of the work that Wilson did, as it was done using nonrepro blue pencil which does not show up when photographed: Wilson's edits didn't appear in Tornado Alley and they don't appear in Ports of Entry, but they are quite visible in the work itself. Wilson, one of the great artists of the underground comix of the 1960s and beyond, whom R. Crumb has said was a major influence on Crumb's own work, collaborated with Burroughs on a number of projects. This is not only a significant work of art, and a significant association with Burroughs, but it is also signed by Wilson, who has added, "To Nelson" next to his signature: Wilson gave this work to his friend Nelson Lyon, who loaned it to the exhibition and is listed in the book as one of the lenders to the exhibit. This is, in effect, a three-way association: Nelson Lyon was the co-producer of Burroughs' Dead City Radio, a 1990 album of Burroughs reading his work (including pieces from Tornado Alley) against a background of experimental music by various artists. 9-3/4" x 6-3/4". Matted and framed. Fine. A notable association copy, and an artifact of one of the great collaborations that Burroughs engaged in. [#028091] $7,500

Frankfurt, Zweitausendeins, 1980. A unique author's copy of the first German edition of The Wild Boys, bound in full leather with a snakeskin onlay, and inscribed by Burroughs to the illustrator, S. Clay Wilson. Also signed by Wilson, with a note about the binding. Embossed initials of W.S.B. on the rear cover, with samples of the materials used in the binding tipped-in at the rear endpaper. Several scratches to the leather on the rear cover, else fine, in a folding cloth chemise. [#033128] $5,000

Paris, Olympia, (1959). The first issue of the first edition of his second book, a high spot of Beat and postwar American literature -- one of the three key volumes of the Beat movement, along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and Allen Ginsberg's Howl. Published only in paperback in Paris by Maurice Girodias' important and risk-taking small press, in an edition of 5000 copies, three years before it could be published in the U.S. Signed by Burroughs in 1996. Uneven sunning and a bit of creasing to the covers; rubbing to the folds. A very good copy in a supplied, near fine dust jacket with a small chip at the crown. Burroughs signed this for a bookseller in Lawrence, Kansas, where he lived during the last years of his life. [#024504] $4,500

London, Bruce and Watson, (1973). First hardcover edition of this title, published in an edition of 1500 copies. Variant brown cloth -- M&M describes black cloth, and olive green cloth has also been noted. Inscribed by the author to Bob Jackson in 1984. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. An uncommon edition, especially signed (and signed authentically). [#033085] $3,000

(NY), Grove Press, (1959)[1962]. The first American edition of this classic novel of the Beat generation, which was not published in the U.S. until three years after its Paris publication, and until a legal challenge to its banning was successful. Such authors as Norman Mailer testified as to the literary value and accomplishment of Burroughs' work. Basis for the 1991 David Cronenberg film featuring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, and Roy Scheider. Inscribed by the author in 1984 for Bob Jackson. Fine in a near fine dust jacket but for creasing and a couple small chips along the top edge. A very nice copy in the original, pre-zip code, dust jacket. The first printing of the U.S. edition was only 3500 copies -- smaller even than the original Olympia Press paperback in Paris, which had a 5000-copy first printing. [#033095] $2,500

London, John Calder, (1964). The first British edition. Inscribed twice by Burroughs, first to Richard Aaron, undated, and then to Bob Jackson in 1984. As such, a double association copy: Jackson purchased Burroughs' literary archive, the so-called "Vaduz archive," from Roberto Altmann of Liechtenstein, when Altmann's plan to use Burroughs' work as the basis for an avant garde art institute in Vaduz had fallen through; Aaron had negotiated the sale to Altmann. Presumably Jackson bought the copy already inscribed to Aaron, and then had Burroughs inscribe it again to him. Since they are the two people most involved in the sales of Burroughs' papers, and the preservation of his archive, it is a copy that resonates with literary history. The first printing of this edition was 4000 copies. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. [#033096] $2,500

NY, Ace, (1953). Burroughs' pseudonymous first book, a paperback original bound back-to-back with Maurice Helbrant's Narcotic Agent. Inscribed by Burroughs: "To Bob Jackson/ William S Burroughs/ for William Lee/ April 12, 1984." Junkie was a straightforward narrative of Burroughs' experiences with drugs; the publisher chose to release it couched in an anti-drug context, as a first person example of the horrors of drug use, and bound with a narcotic agent's memoir. Mild rubbing and creasing to the corners and joints; age toning to pages; very good in wrappers. Maynard & Miles A1. The beginning of one of the most influential literary careers of the second half of the 20th century. [#033083] $2,500

ca. 1983-84. Six black and white photographs (not stated but) by Abe Frajndlich, of William Burroughs, or parts thereof: two photos of Burroughs seated inside at a desk; two photos of Burroughs outside in a trench coat and hat; one photo of Burroughs' coat, hat and cane on the floor next to a baseboard heater; one photo of Burroughs' hands as he signs a copy of The Place of Dead Roads. Each photo is 8-1/2" x 11"; faint staining to a few margins, else fine. Frajndlich is known for his portraits of photographers, and of others involved in the arts. [#033147] $2,000

NY, Entermedia, 1978. The program for three days of performances, film, readings and discussions honoring Burroughs' and his writings in 1978, when he first returned to the U.S. after many years of living in London and Tangier. Signed by William Burroughs and by Phillip Glass. Glass performed "New Piece for Electric Organ," which a teenage attendee -- Thurston Moore, later of Sonic Youth -- described as "idiosyncratic high-speed minimalist pianistics [which] was natural, gorgeous and sublime." Other participants included a virtual Who's Who of the American avant garde and underground: Brion Gysin, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Kathy Acker, Timothy Leary, John Giorno. Ed Sanders, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Terry Southern, Robert Anton Wilson, filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow and others. Keith Richards was listed but didn't appear; Frank Zappa filled in by reading "The Talking Asshole" from Naked Lunch. Robert Palmer reviewed the event for the New York Times and wrote that the Glass piece was "as conservative in its language and as rigorous in its organization as Mr. Burroughs's first novel, 'Junkie,'" and that Patti Smith's "was more in the tradition of the cut-ups; it celebrated attitude, style, and the kind of 'holy accidents' that visionary artists have long cultivated." At least two films of the event have been released, and one record album and cassette, and portions of it have been restaged over the years: it was self-consciously understood by the participants to be a landmark of its time. The cover prints a seven-line quote from Burroughs, which as usual seems to anticipate the future -- our present -- in terms practically no one but he would have come up with, about surviving the age of Nova, "with Nova conspiracies, Nova criminals, and Nova police" and a "new mythology in the Space Age, where we will again have heroes and villains, as regards intentions towards this planet." Twelve pages; fine in stapled wrappers. An uncommon and ephemeral piece documenting a major cultural event, seldom found signed by the central figure of the convention, and here also signed by one of the performers, himself a major American composer. [#033218] $1,750

Paris, Olympia, (1961). The true first edition, published in Paris by Maurice Girodias' press five years before it came out in the U.S. This copy is inscribed by Burroughs: "For Bob Jackson/ all the best/ William Burroughs/ for Brion Gysin." Gysin designed the dust jacket. Modest foxing to pages edges and endpages; near fine in a near fine, mildly tanned dust jacket with rubbing to the folds. The first issue, with the 15 New Franc price on both the rear cover of the book and the front flap of the dust jacket. An influential book, part of the sequence that includes The Naked Lunch and The Ticket That Exploded. [#033109] $1,750

(Cherry Valley), Cherry Valley Editions, (1976). The publisher's "silver print" or "blue proof" of this book dedicated to Burroughs' parents. Inscribed by Burroughs in 1984. Together with an undated autograph letter signed from the publisher, Pam [Plymell] offering the recipient manuscript material for the book (not here present) in exchange for money to alleviate financial difficulties. Also together with the softcover edition of the published book, which is fine in wrappers. The proof has some sunning to the rear cover and a 5-digit number written in ink on the front cover; near fine. A unique artifact of the publishing process, and an interesting letter that delineates the materials that were assembled to produce the book, and also sheds some light on the details of publication. [#033063] $1,500

London, Jonathan Cape, (1970). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition (following a French edition) of this interview with Burroughs by Daniel Odier. Inscribed by Burroughs to Richard Aaron. An excellent association copy: Aaron was the bookseller who helped negotiate the sale of Burroughs' archive to Roberto Altmann in Liechtenstein, and he was also involved in the sale that brought the archive back to the U.S., when Robert Jackson bought it from Altmann. Aaron also published Burroughs, under his Am Here Books imprint. Near fine in a near fine, proof dust jacket, which is crumpled at the crown from where it extends above the proof. Proof copies of this edition are scarce, let alone ones with a significant association. [#033081] $1,500

Paris, Olympia, (1965). Third printing of the original edition of his second book, one of the all-time great drug novels and a high spot of Beat and postwar American literature. Inscribed by the author to Bob Jackson in 1984. The price stamp on the rear cover has been partially removed. Rubbing to the spine and joints; near fine in wrappers without dust jacket, as issued (the second and third printings did not have the jacket). [#033094] $1,500

Frankfurt, Zweitausendeins, 1980, 1982. Three copies of the German editions of these two collaborations between Burroughs and illustrator S. Clay Wilson: one copy each of The Wild Boys and Cities of the Red Night, each signed by Burroughs and Wilson, and one copy of The Wild Boys in a trial binding that was rejected by Wilson, who was displeased with the endpapers, but which is signed by Wilson, with his handwritten explanation: "Trial endpapers not to my liking. They corrected this error for the published edition. I wanted the endpapers to appear as wallpaper reflecting my 'take' on Burroughs' text "I see his face in every flower." Both copies of The Wild Boys have some rubbing to the covers; very good. Slight corner tap to Cities of the Red Night, else fine. All three in cardstock slipcases. [#033129] $1,500

London, John Calder/Olympia Press, (1963). The uncorrected proof copy of this drug novel, which consists of an amalgam of sections from The Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine and The Ticket that Exploded, as well as some material not reproduced elsewhere. Inscribed by Burroughs "For Richard Aaron" on the half title. Also on the half title, in another hand: "M. Farmer. Reading copy. Publication date: Oct. 31st, 1963." Published at the height of Burroughs' experimentation with the cut-up technique, this volume embodies that approach, as well as anticipating the later variation of it that we now call "sampling." A good association copy: Richard Aaron was, among other things, the person who negotiated the sale of Burroughs' literary archive to Robert Altmann of Liechtenstein. There was no U.S. edition of this title. Near fine in plain green wrappers, in a very good dust jacket, which differs from the published jacket by virtue of being trimmed to a shorter height and having had the flaps trimmed as well. [#033065] $1,250

1990. A sketch by Dupuis of Burroughs' Mugwump creature, from his book Naked Lunch, but never brought to life until David Cronenberg's 1991 film version, for which Cronenberg had Dupuis design the Mugwump with Burroughs' posture and the visage of a junkie. Dupuis had won an Academy Award for Makeup for his work on Cronenberg's film The Fly. A signed sketch by Dupuis, matted together with William Burroughs' signed unicorn bookplate. The sketch is roughly 8" x 10"; the bookplate 4" x 5"; matted to 13" x 21-1/2". Fine. Unique. [#033092] $1,000

1984. Photograph by Frajndlich of Burroughs in a three-piece suit sitting behind a table in a public space, smoking. Frajndlich is known for his portraits of photographers, and of others involved in the arts. Copyrighted, signed and dated by Frajndlich in ink at the right of the image in the margin, and titled, copyrighted, signed and dated in pencil by Frajndlich on the verso. Black and white. 11" x 14" Marginal crease to an upper corner, else fine. [#033146] $1,000

1984. Photograph by Frajndlich of Burroughs in a three-piece suit sitting in an upholstered chair. Titled "William S. Burroughs" and copyrighted, signed and dated by Frajndlich. Additionally inscribed by Frajndlich to Bob Jackson "in friendship." Black and white. 11" x 14" Marginal crease to an upper corner, else fine. [#033145] $1,000

(Cherry Valley), Cherry Valley Editions, (1976). The hardcover issue, one of only 50 copies. Signed by the author. Covers a tad skewed, with a small dent to lower edge. Near fine, without dust jacket, as issued. [#033064] $850

Santa Barbara, Morrow, 1979. The first publication of this variant passage from Naked Lunch, here printed as a limited edition with a new introduction by Burroughs. Of a total edition of 500, this is Copy "J" of 26 lettered copies in boards, signed by Burroughs, the designer Patrick Reagh, and K. Anders, who provides the frontispiece. Additionally, inscribed by Burroughs: "For Bob Jackson/ all the best/ from Doctor Benway/ William S. Burroughs." Fine in a near fine, spine- and edge-sunned dust jacket. [#033069] $750

(NY), Grove Press, (1959)[c. 1962]. The first American edition of this classic novel of the Beat generation, which was not published in the U.S. until three years after its Paris publication, and until a legal challenge to its banning was successful. Such authors as Norman Mailer testified as to the literary value and accomplishment of Burroughs' work. Basis for the 1991 David Cronenberg film featuring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, and Roy Scheider. Slightly bowed, lower rear corner bumped, near fine with the topstain bright, in a fine dust jacket with a couple of tiny nicks at heel and a tiny bit of rubbing at the rear spine fold. [#911012] $750

(Paris), Two Cities, (1960). Poetry and cut-ups by Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Sinclair Beiles, and Gregory Corso; Burroughs' third book, Maynard & Miles A3a, one of 1000 copies, and the first publication to use the cut-up technique. This copy is signed by Gysin. Spine faded; near fine in wrappers. [#033141] $650

London, Calder and Boyars, (1968). The first British edition. Inscribed by the author to Richard Aaron, the bookseller and publisher, and a key figure in Burroughs' biography, especially with respect to the placement of Burroughs' papers. Fine in a fine dust jacket. [#033117] $650

NY, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, (1983). The second volume of the trilogy that includes Cities of the Red Night and The Western Lands. Inscribed by the author, this time to Bob and Donna Jackson, "charter members of the Johnson family, with memories of hospitality." The dust jacket flap copy writes "The original title of this book was The Johnson Family, a turn-of-the-century expression used to designate good bums and thieves, which was later elaborated into a code of conduct." Kim Carsons, the protagonist of this book, is a Johnson, and an "agent of the Johnson code." Fine in a fine dust jacket, with just a tiny nick at the crown. One of the better inscriptions we've seen in one of Burroughs' later titles. [#033102] $550

NY, Viking, (1973). A novel. Inscribed by the author to Bob Jackson in 1984. Tiny spot to top stain, else fine in a very near fine dust jacket. Jackson is the collector who bought Burroughs' "Vaduz archive" and preserved it for several decades until it sold to the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library in 2005. [#033076] $500

NY, Grove, (1964). His first novel published in the U.S. after his controversial and ground-breaking Naked Lunch. Inscribed by the author to Richard Aaron, a nice association copy. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. [#033098] $500