Rare books from Brian Cassidy Bookseller at Type Punch Matrix

San Francisco: The City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. First edition. Very good plus.. Rare signed first edition of HOWL, inscribed in the year of publication, likely at one of Ginsberg's most infamous readings. The most likely opportunities for Ginsberg to sign copies of HOWL in 1956 were few and far between. First, the book was published late in the year. While Ferlinghetti sent Ginsberg "a few advance copies" in August of that year (Morgan, I GREET YOU, 5), and a small number of copies inscribed in September are known (the Sept. 17th issue of PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY lists the official publication date as Sept. 1st), HOWL seems to have only really begun to be distributed in October. Again, according to PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, "[t]he first edition passed through U.S. Customs in October, 1956" (April 29th 1957). In addition, both Gary Snyder and Louis Ginsberg report receiving copies they had ordered at the start of that month, likely from the earliest copies received at City Lights. Morgan's bibliography,… Read More

n.p. [San Francisco?]: n.p., 1966. Very good plus.. Large original painted canvas banner likely utilized in one of Ken Kesey's final Acid Test events and based on Kesey's infamous limited edition ACID TEST album. While Timothy Leary's advocacy for LSD focused on science and scholarship (or attempted to seem so) and in doing so tried to introduce the drug to suburban homes under a thin veil of legitimacy, it was Ken Kesey's Acid Tests that made it dangerous again and perhaps more than any other effort helped popularize LSD in the counterculture. Kesey, fresh off his CUCKOO'S NEST success, staged these events primarily in and around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965-66, beginning in people's homes, but slowly growing both in popularity and venue. This banner is clearly based on the album art for Kesey's infamous cult LP, THE ACID TEST, released in March 1966 in a limited edition of 500 and sold primarily in the Bay Area. This would likely mean that the banner was utilized at the "Whatever It Is… Read More

Trumansburg, NY: Independent Electronic Music Center, 1968. First editions. Very good.. Complete seven-issue run of this essential journal dedicated to electronic music and founded by synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, from the library of composer Douglas Leedy. Growing out of Robert Moog's legendary 1965 Electronic Music Seminar, which brought together many of the most important figures in the field for the first time, ELECTRONIC MUSIC REVIEW had a brief life (just seven issues in two years), but was essential in helping to establish the nascent genre. Founded by Moog and composer and video artist Reynold Weidenaar, EMR provided a forum to exchange ideas, learn the latest techniques and technology, and perhaps most importantly establish connections among electronic musicians and composers. As Weidenaar later recalled: "I told Bob I would like [...] to start a magazine on electronic music. He offered office space and technical advice. Coming from a family of publishers, I felt I could handle the… Read More

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968. First edition. Very good or better overall.. First printing of Lyon's influential work, with an original vintage print of his photograph "Route 12, Wisconsin," the book's iconic cover image. Lyon's photo book documenting the Chicago Outlaws motorcycle club delivers some of the most iconic images associated with biker culture, including the indelible cover image additionally represented here by an original vintage print from the collection of Steve Dalber, Lyon's roommate at the University of Chicago. In contrast to many photographers he is often associated with, Lyon embedded himself within the communities he photographed, giving the viewer an inside look at the subject. As with Lyon's other publications, text is an integral part of THE BIKERIDERS; stories from the photographer as well as the voices of a number of bikeriders situate the photographs within the context of the biker subculture and the culture at large. 9'' x 6.5''. Original black and white… Read More

n.p.: n.p., 1965. Near fine.. Striking early Bukowski drawing, executed in vibrant purple, grey, and black. Larger than most Bukowski pieces typically encountered. Exhibiting a strong gestural hand, a stirring expressionist work from the outlaw poet. 10'' x 7.7'' (image). Original pastel drawing on 11" x 8.5" paper. Signed by Bukowski ("Buk 65") at bottom margin. Mild wear, faint creasing here and there.

[Germany], 1920. Near fine.. Elegant and carefully-assembled photo album of bathers in and around an unidentified lakeside German resort, likely in the years following WWI. The album combines well-composed candid and posed shots of bathers with striking portraits that together reveal a talented photographer, a kind of Jazz Age Jock Sturges. A work of uncommon unity and execution, an accomplished and tender vernacular photobook of German bathing culture. Oblong album measuring 9" x 6.5" approx. String-bound in red glossy-coated cloth. 42 gelatin silver photographs measuring 3.5" x 2.25" approx. glue mounted rectos only to 25 leaves, most interleaved with tissue. Boards lightly rubbed at edges with top corner of front board bumped. Some creasing and edge-wear to tissue guards. One photo perished, else apparently complete. Photographs generally fine. Sound and clean overall. Near fine.

New York: Abrams, 1966. Very good.. Inscribed first edition of this founding document of performance and environmental art - the first such work by a major publisher, Abrams. A founding document of performance and environmental art, and the first by a major publisher, Kaprow's ASSEMBLAGE, ENVIRONMENTS & HAPPENINGS was originally planned as an official Fluxus publication (see CODEX p. 288), but eventually evolved into this broader book. Artists covered include Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Red Grooms, and George Segal, with contributions from Wolf Vostell, George Brecht, Kaprow and others. The recipient is almost certainly photojournalist Paul Berg, whose photos are included in this volume and fall roughly where Kaprow suggests they should (though there is no such plate 164). Berg photographed and covered Kaprow's happening "Push and Pull" for the ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH in 1963. The uncommon hardcover issue of this important resource, it is scarce signed, especially with any kind of… Read More

np: np, 1969. Third edition. Near fine.. Third edition of the first of Ruscha's sixteen books and an iconic early artist's book. Inspired by the look and feel of the books he encountered at the bouquiniste stands on the Left Bank during a 1961 trip to Paris, as well as his own work as a typesetter and printers devil, Ruscha self-published TWENTYSIX GAS STATIONS with an aesthetic reminiscent of iconic Editions Gallimard paperbacks. Conceiving first of the title, Ruscha took photographs to fill the requisite number on a road trip from Los Angeles to visit his mother in his hometown of Oklahoma City. The photographs, labeled with the station name and location, together form a dotted line between LA and Oklahoma, creating out of these stoically framed images of banal locations a deep emotional resonance. [Phillpot, CATALOGUE RAISONNE, 60]. Wraps. 8vo. Publisher's wraps in original glassine. SIGNED by Ruscha at inside front cover. Mild toning and chipping to glassine with price sticker at front flap and… Read More

2014. Spray paint and silkscreen on cigarette pack foil, mounted to cardboard. Measuring approximately 15.0" square. SIGNED and dated to verso. From an unnumbered series based on the artist's well-known sticker of similar design.

New York: Random House, 1968. First edition. Overall very good plus.. Near-complete original typescript for Aram Saroyan's self-titled collection of minimal and concrete verse. ARAM SAROYAN contained the poet's infamous "four-legged m" poem, holder of the Guiness record for world's shortest, but here absent likely due to inability to type the poem. Otherwise the complete text of the book, though in slightly different order and with different pagination (condensed to just six pages, presumably for convenience). The second of Saroyan's infuential trilogy of concrete collections that began with COFFEE COFFEE the previous year, and was largely complete by the publication of PAGES the next. And though Saroyan has gone on to a long and respected writing career, these conceptual poems are likely to be the work for which he is best remembered for. A gathering of these three books, COMPLETE MINIMAL POEMS (Ugly Duckling), won the William Carlos Williams Award in 2007 and was republished by Primary Information… Read More

Waltham, MA: American Publishing Corporation, 1966. First edition. Very good overall.. Original and complete set of this cult '60s "game" kit: a psychedelic puzzle with no rules and no solution. A happening disguised as a board game: twenty game pieces printed with bright swirling illustrations and cut with interlocking grooves, housed in a box illustrated with a representative three-dimensional construction a player might build. Issued in 1966, when both LSD and party games were in the height of fashion (Tim Leary was arguably at the height of his fame at this time) and the casual mind-expanding drug user was in great need of aimless but absorbing activity kits to purchase. Cards included were not identical set to set, with several patterns, themes, and motifs (some figurative, some entirely abstract) printed and inserted into games in various configurations; the present example is particularly psychedelic. Quickly discontinued (LSD was officially outlawed in the US in late 1968); now rare. OCLC… Read More

Paris: Olympia Press, 1959. Near fine in a near fine jacket.. First edition, first issue of Burroughs' drug-fueled Beat masterpiece - in exceptional condition. A landmark novel that led to several important court decisions on indecency and censorship. Certainly Burroughs' best-known work (it was successfully adapted by David Cronenberg into a fine film of the same name), it is also arguably Burroughs' best, most enduring, and precient as well. Indeed, for better or worse, Burroughs's "Interzone" increasingly resembles our current world. Published by Maurice Girodias's infamous Olympia Press, a beautiful example of a highspot of 20th century American literature. 7'' x 4.25''. Original green printed wraps. In original unclipped (1500 francs) color pictorial dustjacket designed by the author. The Traveler's Companion Series No. 76. 232 pages. Jacket spine mildly toned, with a couple of tiny chips to head. Book has old penned price to front endpaper and trace shelfwear to extremities. Else both jacket… Read More

New York: Ace, 1953. First edition. Near fine.. Uncommonly well-kept first printing of Burroughs's first book, a paperback original Ace Double printed tête-beche with Maurice Helbrant's NARCOTIC AGENT. JUNKIE was Burroughs's first novel, written under pseudonym (using his mother's maiden name), but heavily based on his own experience. Though he'd written (but not published) several books before this, it took the intervention of Allen Ginsberg as editor and quasi-agent to see JUNKIE into print, where it became a cornerstone of both Beat and drug literature. Just about the nicest copy of this fragile production we've seen. 6.5'' x 4.25''. Original pictorial wrappers. Ace D-15, priced at 35c. 150 and 170 pages. Bright and sharp overall with just a small bump to the edge of the spine, and a faint corner crease and tiny indentation to front cover of JUNKIE and a smaller faint crease to lower cover of AGENT. Housed in a custom black quarter-leather slipcase. Overall, handsome.

New York: Grove Press, Inc, 1959. First edition. Fine in near fine dust jacket.. First printing of this "experimental, florid, and wild" (LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL, 61) tale of dreams and childhood fantasies - in excellent condition. Written while living with William S. Burroughs in Mexico City, DOCTOR SAX is a prime example of Kerouac's "spontaneous prose" - a style of writing he compared to jazz music. Its setting and theme are unique among Kerouac's works, reflecting his own childhood through a "dark funhouse" mirror rather than the wild adult "years of Beats and bodhisattvas" (Lehman) he is best known for. This copy is in notably sharp condition, exhibiting very little of the dust jacket rubbing normally seen on first printings. 8'' x 5.25''. Original grey cloth boards. Original unclipped ($3.50) dust jacket. 246 pages. Small bookseller label to rear pastedown. Jacket with light wear to spine ends, one tiny closed tear; a touch of sunning to spine. Tight and clean.

New York: Poseidon Press, 1989. First printing. Near fine in a fine jacket.. Signed first edition of Zappa's autobiography, published just a year before his prostate-cancer diagnosis - a review copy. Arch and opinionated memoir from the legendary guitarist, songwriter, performer, and bandleader, told in his singular and indelible voice. Decidedly scarce signed. 9'' x 6''. Original quarter red cloth over black boards. In original unclipped ($19.95) photographic dust jacket. 352 pages. Signed by Zappa on the front endpaper. Review copy with promo photo of Zappa and publisher press release loosely laid in. Very slight lean to book. Some uneven toning to pages due to different stocks. Else clean, sharp, and bright.