Cover design based on artwork from: (front) C.Comics No. 2, 1965; (back) The Friendly Way, 1972.

The new BeatBooks catalogue is preoccupied with a print netherworld encompassing one-offs, limited editions and short-runs published by  concrete poets, beats and other outsiders.

There are also juicy examples of smack-sensationalising pulp fiction and – in one section alone – 36 items relating to The Naked Lunch, including  Chicago Review excerpts from 1958 and William Burroughs’ first US LP release.
–

Tags: Andrew Sclanders, BeatBooks, Bob Cobbing, Brion Gysin, Chicago Review, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Henri Chopin, Ian Finlay Hamilton, Joe Brainard, Junkie, Orgy Boys, Ted Berrigan, The Naked Lunch, William Lee

Psychedelics – in the form of art, design, drugs, literature, music and the counter-culture – dominate the latest catalogue from BeatBooks.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alan Aldridge, Allen Ginsberg, BeatBooks, Bob Dylan, Gene Sculatti, Grateful Dead, Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, Isle Of Wight Festival, Jimi Hendrix, Ken Kesey, Merry Pranksters, Monterey Pop, Richard Alpert, Rick Griffin, Robert Crumb, Timothy Leary

Patti Smith is the focus of the latest Beatbooks sale, which is accompanied by a printed catalogue up to the usual high standards of the archive’s curator Andrew Sclanders.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: A Clockwork Orange, Al Hansen, Albert Camus, Andrew Sclanders, Anthony Burgess, BeatBooks, Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik, Gotham Book Mart, Harry Partch, Jim Carroll, John Cage, Jospeh Byrd, Karen Finley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Larry Clark, Patti Smith, Richard hell, Richard Prince, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tod Dockstader, Vali Myers, Witt

//Front cover photo by Harriet Crowther.//

A brown envelope I’m always glad to receive is that containing the latest BeatBooks catalogue.

Each quarter the arrival of the 8″ x 6″ booklet soon results in the tapping out of the url of the online order form for Andrew Sclanders’ site.

And the catalogues are treasurable in their own right.

Over the last decade or so Sclanders has carved out a niche for BeatBooks as collector central for all publications – literary, musical, graphic – springing from “beat” and moving through the counterculture and punk to the outer reaches of the avant-garde.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Andy Warhol, Angus MacLise, BeatBooks, Charles Manson, David Felton, Gladys Brooks, Ira Cohen, Jack Smith, Jeff Nuttall, John Giorno, John Knight, L. Ron Hubbard, Marianne Faithfull, Mary Ann McClean, Mel Lyman, Mick Jagger, Mindfuckers, My Own Mag, Nova Express, Process, Robert De Grimston, Scientology, Velvet Underground, William Burroughs, Yugen