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10.
Counter Culture: The Creation of an Alternative Society.
London: Peter Owen in association with Fire Books Limited, 1969. First edition. Small 4to. Red paper covered boards embossed in silver. 416pp. Design by Paul Lawson. Profusely illustrated throughout.
This copy SIGNED and inscribed by the book’s editor to its publisher, Peter Owen: “for Peter Owen best regards Joe Berke 11 March 1970”.
The volume constitutes issues #3-9 of Fire magazine (see item #98), and is described by Berke in his postscript as “an outgrowth of the Dialectics of Liberation (Anti) Congress which took place during the summer of 1967”. In it, Berke contributes a 16pp. section on “The Free University of New York” (with which he was involved as both an organiser and teacher before his move to the UK in September 1965 to live at Kingsley Hall [see item #93 ii] and his initially unsuccessful attempt to create a Free University of London), as well as the opening chapter, “The Creation of an Alternative Society” (24pp.) and a text on Kommune I in Berlin (6pp.).
Other sections include Roberta Elzey on “Founding an Anti-University” (20pp.), a detailed account of the Anti-University of London she gave courses at and helped establish with her husband, Joseph Berke; Peter Stansill on the New Experimental College in Denmark (22pp.); a selection of courses reprinted from various Free University catalogues (11pp.); Morton Schatzman (“Madness and Morals”, 26pp.) on anti-psychiatry, and Kingsley Hall in particular, where he worked with RD Laing after arriving from America in 1967; David Mairowitz on the Diggers in San Francisco; RG Davis (SF Mime Troupe) on “Cultural Revolution - U.S.A. 1968”; Tuli Kupferberg’s essay, “The Coming Catastrophic Age of Leisure”; “Revolution by Life Style” by John Gerassi; Stephen Dwoskin and Simon Hartog on New Cinema; contributions from Allen Ginsberg, Simon Vinkenoog, Jeff Nuttall, Julian Beck, and others + extracts from Abbie Hoffman’s “Fuck The System” and Nicholas Albery’s “Project Free London”; more.
Extremities of spine and upper two corners slightly tender; top edges slightly spotted; o/w Very Good plus in dw.
