The Beak Doctor: Short Fiction 1972-1976

Paradise, California, U.S.A.: Asylum Arts - Leaping Dog Press, 2005. Stated First Edition at copyright page with copyright dates of 1974, 1975, 1976, 1999 by Eric Basso. Rare original material of five short tales, or novellas, of pre-eminently weird spook from Asylum Arts. Smooth black wraps with spartanly direct titles and cover art by Basso himself, moderate shelf, corner wear, curl. Cover art by Basso circa 1977 features a rather eerily appearing bird; may be referring a doctor wearing a beak mask filled with herbs to protect from a sixteenth century malady. Pages near fine; no writing. Bind fine, square. Near fine intriguing rarity. Includes the title novella by the late author and poet (1947-2019), first published as a serial in 1976. The title tale "The Beak Doctor" was later published here by Asylum Arts in 1999. Finally, in 2011 it was part of a huge anthology of "bizarre" shorts in the tome "The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories" published on October 30th, and containing one hundred and ten short stories, novellas and short novels at 1,152 pages. Contents: "Gothick Eschatology; Equus Caballus; Logues: The Tower. A Strange Juggler. Form and the Method. In the Evening. The Barrier. Rhomb. Feuillet au Livre du Coeur d'Amour epris (ca 1465). Return; Equestrian Scenes; and, The Beak Doctor." "For years, Eric Basso's novella, 'The Beak Doctor,' has sustained a cult reputation among a hard core of avant-garde writers. This collection of short stories begins with a tale of death and hideous resurrection (Gothic Eschatology), moves on through a quest for the great horse who rules a subterranean polar kingdom (Equus Caballus), an atmospheric cycle of short prose pieces (Logues), a tragicomic roman noir set in exotic Istanbul where the great horse reappears in a new guise (Return), and concludes with the harrowing odyssey of a masked man in a fogbound city turned upside down by a plague of sleeping sickness (The Beak Doctor)." "Eric Basso remains one of the most interesting writers in the country, someone whose work does not fit conveniently into categories like meta-fiction or language-centered poetry, but whose poetry, fiction and dramatic style extend the sense of what terms like modernism and post-mod mean." - Stephen-Paul Martin. Asylum Arts was later associated to founders of Unicorn Press began in 1966 by Teo Savory and Alan Brilliant in Santa Barbara, California. Unicorn Press began in conjunction with Ken Maytag's Unicorn Book Shop. By the late 1980s, Unicorn Press had published nearly a hundred titles, including prose poems and original block illustrations by Greg Boyd. From 1985 to 1995, Boyd edited and published Asylum, a literary and arts magazine. From 1990 to 2000, Boyd was editor and publisher of Asylum Arts, an imprint devoted to historical and contemporary surrealistic poetry, prose, translations, etc. Interestingly, the publisher was in Paradise of California which underwent an unusual set of localized and tragic fires for many of the area, apparently either unexplainably spotty or directed. About the Author page at back. Printed in the USA. 189 pages. Insured post.. First Edition. Soft Cover. Very Good. Illus. by Basso, Eric (Cover Illustration). 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall.