Beat Generation

NY: Grove Evergreen, 1966. First US edition, first prnt. Review copy with publisher's slip laid in. Originally published in Paris by the Olympia Press in 1961. Signed by Burroughs on the title page. Very slight shelfwear; dustjacket with slight wear at spine ends. Review slip with one corner crease. Clean copy in Near Fine condition in a Very Good dustjacket with an archival cover. First book in Burroughs' Nova Trilogy. Hardcovers. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Review Copy.

New York: Totem Press in association with Corinth Books, 1961. Softcover. Near Fine. First edition. Wrappers. Introduction by William Carlos Williams. A couple of small stains on the rear panel, else fine. Inscribed by Ginsberg on Staten Island in 1964 to Ted Berrigan with drawings of a flower and Ginsberg's three-fish-with-one-head symbol.

Paris: The Olympia Press, 1961. First edition, first prnt. 1st state with "15 N.F." printed price on rear wrap. No. 85 in the publisher's "The Traveller's Companion" series. Signed by Corso on the front free endpage. Perfect-bound printed wraps in pictoral dustjacket. Illustrations by Corso. Minimal shelfwear; dustjacket with minor shelfwear, mostly at the spine topedge, slight toning on spine and rear flap fold and small stain on spine. Tight and bright copy in Near Nine condition in a Very Good dustjacket. Corso's first novel. Soft Cover. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.

New Bedford Massachusetts MA. Good. 1868. On offer is a sensational, original post Civil War era 1868 - 1872 Captain's log book and journal handwritten by Massachusetts mariner George Sylvester Chase (1833-1877). Born and raised in the Cape Cod town of Yarmouth, later to New Bedford his registration for the 1863 Civil War draft listed his occupation as a "mariner at sea whaling" with the 1870 census shows him "at sea" and living in New Bedford. Their family was well noted in Deyo's History of Barnstable County as his father was the noted Cape Cod Baptist minister Enoch E. Chase (1804-1887). Captain Chase at age 35 would have been considered an old salt by anyone's opinion who holds naval and maritime history in high regard and those reading this log would not be disappointed. There are shades of Forester and Conrad on nearly every page. His various ships included the "Volunteer", "Ericsson", and "Regent" and immediately from the… Read more

NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND TO BERGEN NORWAY et al, 1935. On offer is a super archive of typed ship's logs and scrapbook regarding the noted schooner "The Mistress" dated 1935 - 1947. George E. Roosevelt, President Teddy Roosevelt's nephew, was Master and Navigator of the Mistress and while there are no ownership inscriptions or other identifiers it seems likely this scrapbook was compiled and written by Roosevelt. The Mistress was the former flagship of the New York Yacht Club built in Shelbourne Nova Scotia in 1930 for George Roosevelt. Designed by Sherman Hoyt, she raced her way through the Depression and War years in Long Island Sound, the bi-annual Newport to Bermuda Race, and contests in Europe. The archive includes three original 1935 typed logs describing the tragic 1935 transatlantic Yacht Race from Newport - Bergen Norway. Each day of the race is mentioned in 10 pages of typed manuscript. Minor changes have been made inserted in pencil. Plus two original carbon copies of the… Read more

London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1789. Hardcover. Near Fine. 4to. A New Edition, Corrected. Illustrated with variety of original designs of shipping, in different situations; together with separate views of their masts, sails, yards, and rigging. To which is annexed, a translation of the French sea-terms and phrases, collected from the works of Mess. Du Hamel, Aubin, Saverien, &c. Full calf with rebacked green calf spine. Title on red leather spine label. [420] p.p. With twelve fine plates [11 folding] displaying parts, workings, and equipment of ships. William Falconer [1732-1769] was a Scottish sailor and poet. Under the patronage of the Duke of York, he sailed on warships in various capacities, including midshipman on the Royal George, and later on the frigates HMS Glory and Swiftsure in 1763 and 1767. This revised edition is a reissue of the 1784 edition, with a new title page. Boards somewhat scuffed. Upper corners of boards worn. Rubbing at outer-edges, extremities. Sporadic foxing and smudges… Read more

Canada: Canadian Pacific Steamships, c. 1930. Very Good. Notes: A fine print of RMS Empress of Japan. The Empress of Japan was an ocean liner built in 1930 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships. The ship regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1942, when it was renamed the Empress of Scotland. When created, the Empress of Japan was the fastest ocean liner in service. Charles Edward Dixon (1872 -1934) was a British maritime painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, whose work was highly successful and regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy. Several of his paintings are held by the National Maritime Museum and he was a regular contributing artist to magazines and periodicals. He lived at Itchenor in Sussex and died in 1934., Image Size : 505x752 (mm), 19.88x29.61 (Inches), Platemark Size : , Paper Size : 505x752 (mm), 19.88x29.61 (Inches),… Read more

New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1958. Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. First Printing. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. First American Edition, First Printing stated at copyright page, First Issue dust jacket with no zip code rear panel and correct price front flap, Near Fine, tiny bump top corner front board, in Near Fine dust jacket, small rubs top corner front flap and top edge of spine. A Beat high spot, the cornerstone of any Beat collection..

Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1978. First Edition. Octavo. Limited to only 75 copies. The present copy is number 41 signed by the author and with a hand-colored image by Bukowski of Theodore's kiss of Lilly that haunted Margie. Illustrated by the author. Hand bound in 1/4 purple and red floral designed cloth over yellow paper covered boards, lettered in outline in red and purple, central line drawing executed by Bukowski within a brown frame, and with an original ink drawing on upper board by Bukowski signed, red endpapers, deckled fore-edges, yellow paper spine label lettered in black, in yellow dust jacket lettered in an outline of purple and red with brown separating rule. A fine copy. [Krumhansl 61b].

1970. The poem measures 61 x 45 cm. Kenneth Patchen sent it out for The Christmas holiday and is accompanied by a long 40-line letter he wrote to Larry Lake, publisher of Mano-Mano (Bowery Press), dated June 2, 1971 (in original hand addressed envelope), with his Palo Alto address. In this letter he says things have become a bit scrambled regarding permission to have his work quoted in Mano-Mano. He refers to his letter of January 20, [1971] where he says "you wrote us a letter in which you say..." here he quotes what Larry Lake had written about the proposed issue and Lake's note that he plans to dedicate it to him and list all his works. He also notes that his wife [Miriam] had sent a note of thanks and granted permission. Note: here we have the original letter of 20 lines from Miriam dated January 24, 1971 (also in original hand-addressed envelope in which she beautifully expresses her thanks for his desire to honor her husband but inexplicably she writes: "of course you have permission for… Read more

No Place[Bolinas, Calif.]: No Publisher[The Author], Handwritten. Near Fine. Single Leaf. SIGNED BY AUTHOR. 11" x 7". No date, circa 1968-1988. Title from the first line. A single sheet of thin smooth white cardboard, with manuscript poem in black marker and five red chop marks creating the image of a tree. Near Fine, small rubs and staining to green marker border. RARE. One of only four other known original handwritten versions of this poem, the others located by OCLC at SUNY-Buffalo, Ball State Univ., Univ. of North Carolina, and Simon Fraser Univ. However in those other versions Kyger also used yellow, brown and blue markers in addition to the red and black ones. The poem was published as a broadside in 1979 by Cranium Press, that version bearing no resemblance to the handwritten originals. A poem that arose from Kyger's interest in Zen Buddhism, as evidenced by the SUNY version's inscription reading "Joanne Kyger again in hindrance practice 11.2.88." Joanne Kyger,… Read more

Altadena, CA: Twelvetrees Press, 1990. Signed and dated 6/12/94 with large drawing of a flower, a sun, the moon and a star across the title page and the facing page. First edition / First printing. Black cloth. Fine in near fine dust jacket.

New York: Grove Press, 1986. Hardcover octavo, 186 pages. Very Good/Good. Stated first printing with full number line. Minor wear to dust jacket. Front panel lower corner slightly creased, 1cm closed tear to top edge. Very small chips to head of spine. Minor scuffing to rear panel, 1cm closed tear to bottom edge. Corners bumped with infinitesimal loss. $17.95 flap price unclipped, in mlyar protector. Light wear to edges of boards, front board lower corner slightly rubbed. Light foxing to text block top edge. Pages crisp and clean.

Newburyport, MA: Edmund M. Blunt, 1806. In 1806 the great navigator and mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch published a Chart of the Harbours of Salem, Marblehead, Beverly and Manchester from a Survey taken in the Years 1804, 5 & 6. The chart was surveyed during the three years following Bowditchs last voyage, and when he had become president of the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company. He had made a survey of Salem with Captain Gibaut in 1794... - Guthorn, U.S. Coastal Charts p. 34. The copper plate of this historic chart survives (Peabody Essex Museum), and over the years several modern restrikes have been produced. This impression is NOT one of those. It is the "Second Edition, Nov 1, 1834," as indicated on the chart itself, with additions and alterations by Charles M. Endicott and Joseph Perkins, jr. The 1834 chart, an update of the 1806 chart, is quite rare. Rarer still is the book of sailing directions intended to accompany it. While I've had the chart, in first, second, and later states, I'd… Read more

An intimate note from Jack Kerouac to his girlfriend Lois Beckwith, written between 1959-1962. In 1955, Lois Sorrells Beckwith wed actor Robert Sorrells in California, though the marriage lasted only a year. After their separation, she returned to Northport, New York. There, in 1958, she encountered Jack Kerouac and soon entered into a romantic relationship with him that spanned from 1959 to 1962. During this time, Beckwith also emerged as a poet. Her work was featured in the 1964 Italian-American Beat anthology Poesia degli ultimi americani, curated by Fernanda Pivano, where four of her poems appeared. Following her relationship with Kerouac, Beckwith was involved with Lucien Carr from 1962 until 1964. That same year, she married the artist Jacques Beckwith. Kerouac later fictionalized her as the character “Louise” in his novel Big Sur, published in 1963. Separately, Kerouac had written Visions of Gerard in early 1956. Though it wouldn’t reach publication until 1963, the novel draws… Read more