C: A Journal of Poetry. Volume 1: No. 9 (signed by William S. Burroughs)

New York: Lorenz and Ellen Gude, 1964. Summer 1964 number of Ted Berrigan's C: A Journal of Poetry, signed by contributor William S. Burroughs. In 1963, administrators at Columbia University pulled one of Berrigan's poems from The Columbia Review, objecting to his use of the word "fuck." In response, Berrigan and his friend Ron Padgett borrowed an off-campus mimeograph to print their own literary magazine, The Censored Review. That act of protest gave rise to C: A Journal of Poetry, a cornerstone of the Mimeo Revolution in New York City. Between 1963 and 1967, Berrigan published a freewheeling mix of New York School poets, Beat writers, and downtown artists; Andy Warhol's first experiments with silkscreened Polaroids serve as the covers of the September 1963 number. In addition to Berrigan and Padgett, contributors to this Summer 1964 number include John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Frank O'Hara, Barbara Guest, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, who has signed this copy. The issue contains two pieces by Burroughs, including "Givers of Winds Is My Name," which is accompanied by pages of scrawled hieroglyphics. Throughout his career, Burroughs was fascinated by the energy of visual writing systems, including "mathematical formulae which are nothing but glyphs after all:" "Now take dates for instance the Mayans and the Egyptians wrote their dates as pictures You can do the same . . . You can make the dates sing you can make the numbers sing." This copy from the collection of Alan Arikian, Gregory Corso's publisher at Death Press. Collated complete, per Birmingham. For more on C, see Clay and Phillips, A Secret Location on the Lower East Side. A near-fine example, signed by William S. Burroughs. Side-stapled volume, measuring 14 x 8.5 inches: cover and 67 mimeographed leaves, printed recto only. Cover design by Joe Brainard; hand-pasted collage element on leaf 29. Leaves 38-43 and 55-58 stapled out of order, leaf 39 stapled upside down, all present. Signed by William S. Burroughs at his name in the table of contents.