Rare books from Brian Cassidy Bookseller at Type Punch Matrix

London: Chapman and Hall, Limited, 1896. Very good plus.. First edition of this classic study of Maori tattooing, profusely illustrated with photographs and Robley's own drawings. Robley, an amateur artist with a deep interest in Maori culture, had a genuine passion for recording the intricate designs, techniques, and history of the intricate art of tā moko; he was also a soldier and, notoriously, a collector of mokomakai: preserved, tattooed human heads, sought after and debased as objects of commerce and display by European and American collectors and museums alike. Robley's meticulous illustrations, photographs, and descriptions have become an invaluable resource for historians and revivalists of traditional Maori arts, preserving unique images of an art form and cultural practice that, at the very same time, imperialistic forces were beginning to efface. An indispensable study. 11" x 9" Original gilt-stamped brown cloth boards, with decoration stamped in black. Black endpapers. Illustrated with… Read More

n.p.: n.p., 2014. Very good.. A subtle and astute work of art by The Reader, hinting to the aesthetic of certain Jim Crow era signs while using the found object sign marked "No Trespassing." From the prolific American graffiti writer known, among other psuedonyms, as Read, The Reader, Read More, Read More Books, Boans, etc., this boastful (but accurate) statement done in flat black spray paint on the verso of a fiberglass "No Trespassing" sign, liberated by the artist from an abandoned building, no doubt during his illicit activities. 12.5'' x 18.5''. Mixed media assemblage. Spray paint on fiberglass in welded steel frame.

n.p. [various]: n.p., 1935. Very good plus.. A handsome album compiled by Colonel Robert Theodore Cronau (1896-1996) during his career in the Army Air Corps. Cronau was commissioned with a Class A designation in May of 1917 and quickly earned a reputation as one of the most skilled pilots in the newly established Army Air Service. Internal clippings capture thrilling aerial exploits from his earliest service days. The headline of a 1917 article from Americus, GA about a flying demonstration involving Cronau reads: "Daring Aviators Thrill Throng." A Tampa Morning Tribune piece called his work in the National Air Tournament of 1921, "...one of the most remarkable pieces of work in army air service records." As a First Lieutenant he completed Air Service Photographic School in 1922, joining the 22nd Photo Section, capturing early aerial photographs and developing an aptitude with a camera clearly on display here. Cronau would serve as a Director of Air Corps Flying Training trough the 1930's, stationed… Read More

[Queens, NY]: Salamander Editions [Joseph Cornell], 1954. Very good.. Scarce first edition, privately printed by Cornell in an edition of about 100 copies and given away to his friends as presents, augmented with a collaged element to the last page. This work was inspired by nineteenth-century opera singer Maria Malibran-Garcia and was produced with the same precision and care Cornell brought to his other productions. It is in many ways a Cornell work in book form, not only due to the collaged element present, but also in the appropriation of text, the use of a decorative headpiece from yet another book, and focusing on one of Cornell's signature obsessions. A box of leftover copies of MARIA was discovered with Cornell's estate and are seen on the market with some regularity. These are identifiable, however, by a lack of any collage element in the rear of the book, no blue tissue (which according to his diaries, Cornell labored to find just the right color of), and their generally fine condition… Read More

[Massachusetts]: n.p., 1914. Very good plus.. Hand-accented gift scrapbook of religious iconography created and presented by Julia Morin to her brother, Reverend William Morin, upon the occasion of his ordination. Populated with reproductions of the masterworks of Christian art by Bellini, Gaddi, Titian, Correggio, Raphael, Del Sarto, Renni, Rubens, Rembrandt, Hoffman, among others, each page is carefully engrossed with exquisite titles and borders. Plates likely clipped from THE PERRY MAGAZINE FOR SCHOOL AND HOME, a Boston-based periodical of the era which reproduced fine works of art for use in education. Several instances of hand-colored covering-over an otherwise nude baby Jesus add a note of reverential modesty. Julia's inscription to the cover identifies her as a 1914 graduate of St. Ann's Convent, presumably of Readville, MA. Historical references cite William as having ministered to congregations near Boston, Fitchburg, and North Adams. A touching and lovingly-assembled folk book. Commercial… 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.

[Los Angeles]: Black Sparrow Press, 1970. Near fine.. First edition, association copy, with an extraordinary inscription and drawing from Bukowski at a pivotal moment in his career to Hal Norse, perennial literary scenester and author of the classic cut-up novel BEAT HOTEL. Norse was a frequent Bukowski correspondent beginning in the mid 1960s, and it was Norse who recommended Bukowski to Penguin Press for their Modern Poets series - then Bukowski's highest-profile appearance to date (they appeared together in the thirteenth installment). But the two didn't meet in person until January of 1969, a little less than a year before this inscription. Norse recalls the experience in his book MEMOIRS OF A BASTARD ANGEL: "I knew that a wild Falstaffian ruffian had come to shake things up with more fiction than fact, more fantasy than truth [...] Bukowski was misshapen [...] He looked [...] during down and out" (p. 420). Indeed, the poet was down and out, frustrated at his job for the post office and… Read More

[New York]: Lorenz & Ellen Gude, 1964. First Edition. Very Good.. Signed first edition of the definitive statement of the Second Generation of the New York School as well as Berrigan's most influential, popular, and lasting work, edited by Ron Padgett (who also typed the stencils). The only major American collection of the last fifty years to go through four separate editions, each at different publishers. From an edition of "300 plus an unspecified number of unnumbered copies" (Fischer p. 24), this is from the unnumbered series, estimated (by Berrigan himself; again see Fischer) to be about 100. Decidedly uncommon signed; this is the first we've handled. Original side-stapled wrapper. 4to. Cover by Joe Brainard, offset duplicated; remainder mimeographed. With the usual toning, mild edgewear. Faint penned notation to top edge of front cover. Final leaf (colophon) loose. Lacking rear cover and terminal blank (as in many copies; we suspect many were issued this way). [66] leaves mimeographed rectos… Read More

Brooklyn, NY: Consolidated Lithographing Corp, 1958. Near fine.. An enormous scrapbook of chronologically-arranged printing samples from the Consolidated Lithographing Corporation of Brooklyn, preserving the company's packaging work for the undergarment industry. Labels include bands, tags, wraps and labels from predominantly women's products: stockings, hosiery, lingerie, bras, panties, and the like. Men's and children's products also represented, however (socks, undershirts, etc.). The printing processes evident in the samples evolve from chromolithography to color lithography to photo mechanical in the later examples - all vivid and exhibiting elegant postwar design. Hundreds of brands and products in total: Regent Hosiery, Artemis Underthings, Treo Undergaments, Spick and Span Hosiery, Lowenstein Fabrics, Sport-Wear, The Lone Ranger and Superman Branded Socks, among many others. Consolidated Lithographing Corporation was founded by Jacob A. Voice around 1925 and operated as one of the finest and… Read More

(New York): (The Société Anonyme), 1921. First edition. Very good.. The first annual report of the first permanent collection of modern art in the U.S. Founded 1920 by Man Ray, Katherine Dreier, and Marcel Duchamp, the purpose of the Société Anonyme was to promote the exhibition and appreciation of modern art. They sponsored talks, mounted shows (including the landmark 1926 International Exhibition of Modern Art at the Brooklyn Museum, as well as the first American one-person shows of Kandinsky, Klee, Campendonk, and Leger), and published books. The first year of these activities is documented here, during which the S.A. "acted as a leaven in the art world of America." Included are budgets, bylaws, descriptions of exhibitions (revealing notes on display and gallery design), lists of the exhibited artists (demonstrating the internationalism of modern art and including numerous lesser-known names), schedules of lectures held (such as "The First Birthday Party: An Evening with Gertrude Stein"), and… Read More

Dijon: Imprimerie Jobard, 1946. Near fine.. First edition of this rare work forging an early link between graffiti and politics. Jacques Foucart-Borville (1912-2005) was just a young magistrate when he wrote this slender account of the political graffiti of Resistance prisoners under Vichy at the Rue D'Auxonne prison in Dijon. Recognizing the essential ephemerality of these wall writings, Foucart penned and published LES GRAFFITI in the immediate aftermath of The Liberation, dedicating the book in part to his grandfather, who was imprisoned during "The Terror" for hiding a parish priest. Foucart organizes the book by types of prisoners, transcribing the graffiti and attributing it when possible to particular prisoners - often with biographical details. Reprinted in 1966 as LES GRAFFITI DE LA RUE D'AUXONNE: Prison de Dijon, OCLC finds just five copies of this first edition, all in France. (We've also handled a copy in brown wraps, otherwise identical, no known priority.) As Foucart argues near the… Read More

New York: Cameo Editions, 1971. First edition. Very good plus.. First (and almost certainly only) printing of Fran Lebowitz's first published book, a sleaze novel to which she admitted to authorship in 2010 - a sort of JANE EYRE through porn-tinted glasses. Fran Lebowitz, the "famous writer who famously doesn't write" (Freeman), avoided sleaze infamy by publishing under other names in her early career. "I published [HOUSE OF LEATHER] under the name of the headmaster who threw me out of prep school, Robert Paine Cook" (The Private Library), she recalls in a 2010 interview; that name was evidently changed to a house pseudonym by the publisher, an unfortunate obfuscation of an early example of Lebowitz's biting sardonicism. But the contents of THE HOUSE OF LEATHER - which she recounts she wrote for $500 based on "stapled pages [from the publisher] that told you how to write [...] and what had to be in each book" (The Private Library) - retain a certain (unnecessary) literary and cosmopolitan quality… Read More

New York: Fuck You Press, 1965. First edition. Very good.. Scarce final issue (the fourteenth) of Sander's legendary and infamous mimeo, printed "At a Secret Location on the Lower East Side" - from the library of poet and publisher Kenward Elmslie. In January 1966, Sander's Peace Eye Bookstore was raided by police for distribution of obscene material and copies of FU (including this final issue) were confiscated. It seems reasonable to assume this issue's scarcity (and its terminality) are directly related to this incident. Contributors to this installment include Ted Berrigan, John Wieners, Al Fowler, Gilbert Sorrentino, Robert Kelly, and others - including Joe Brainard, whose longtime partner Kenward Elmslie's copy this is. Along with the debut and Mad Motherfucker (with its infamous Warhol cover, which undoubtedly contributed to the Peace Eye raid) issues, one of the most difficult numbers of FU to acquire. 11'' x 8.5''. Side-stapled pictorial wraps. Mimeographed throughout. Cover by Sanders.… Read More

(Los Angeles): Edward Ruscha, 1966. First edition. Near fine in near fine slipcase.. Signed first edition, second issue of this quintessentially Los Angeles book, and one of the great photobooks of all time - with the original wrap-around band intact. Ruscha's fourth book, and arguably his finest, captures the Sunset Strip at a particular moment in time. A monumental and continuous accordion-fold scroll that opens to more than 25 feet, Ruscha documents - as the title suggests - the entirety of the Strip, with even numbered addresses running along the top the page and odd facing opposite along the bottom. "The effect is less like the fluid cinematic pan [...] than a series of jolting jump cuts [...] a ragged progression of gas stations, motels, apartment houses, parking lots, strip-malls, and honky-tonk signage" (Parr 182). A beautiful example of a notoriously fragile production. 7'' x 5.5''. Accordion-fold printed recto only and mounted in printed wrappers. Housed in original silver Mylar… Read More

(New York): Fuck You Press, 1962. First edition. All issues near fine or better.. Rare complete 13-issue run of Sanders's infamous little magazine of the mimeo revolution - in extraordinary condition. A difficult run to assemble under even the best of circumstances - the first issue was handed out for free on the streets of the Lower East Side, both the "Mad Motherfucker" and final issues were subject to confiscation during the Peace Eye raid that ultimately killed FU, and issue 5.1 remains almost inexplicably elusive - this set was put together by the original purchaser and literally pulled from a cabinet in the Village where it had been stored undisturbed for decades. As such, the condition of nearly every issue is practically as the day they were printed. In particular, the "Mad Motherfucker" issue, with its fragile thermofax cover by Andy Warhol, is stunningly well-preserved. Not only does the cover remain mounted to all staples, but it lacks any of the typical chipping or creasing. It is sharp… Read More