Back to top
98.
FIRE #1-15 (all published). London: 1967-1972.
Ed. Joseph Berke. First two issues printed by the Poets’ and Painters’ Press in loose-bound folio-size wrappers in editions of 1000 and 3000 copies respectively (24pp. + 31pp., illus.), designed by Jutta Werner; #3-9 issued in a single hardback volume in association with Peter Owen as “Counter Culture: The Creation of an Alternative Society” (lge. 8vo., 416pp., profusely illustrated), designed by Paul Lawson; #10 issued in folio-size staplebound wrappers (25pp.), designed by Asa Benveniste and printed by the Daedalus Press in an edition of 1500 copies; #11-15 issued as “Sphere of Light” by Roberta Elzey Berke, co-published with Trigram Press (narrow 8vo., dark red cloth, printed dustjacket). Rare to find all volumes together.
i) The first issue (July 1967) includes contributions from David Cooper (the title given on the contents page is “The Dialectics of Revolution” and at the contribution itself as “The Dialectics of Liberation”); Gary Snyder (“Buddhism and the Coming Revolution”); RD Laing; Roberta Elzey; and the editor. Small chip to edge of lower wrapper, o/w Very Good. This issue was offered for sale at a bookstall in the Roundhouse during the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, and all 1000 copies were sold out by the time the second issue was published.
ii) The second issue (March 1968), subtitled “A dialectic between direct revolutionary action and cultural guerrila warfare”, includes contributions from Lawrence Ferlinghetti (“Fuclock”, accompanied by a drawing by Jutta Werner); Spike Hawkins; Gary Snyder (“Passage To More Than India”); Che Guevara; Julian Beck (“Dialectics of Liberation on the Theatre” + interview); Calvin Hernton; and Joseph Berke on the founding of the Free University of New York. Age-toning to wrappers, with faint dampstaining to upper edges, o/w Very Good. Mimeographed subscription form loosely inserted.
iii) The single hardcover volume, titled “Counter Culture: The Creation of an Alternative Society”, comprising issues #3-9 (1969) - see also item #10. Later described by Berke as a “McLuhan generation book [with] integrated text and visuals, hundreds of graphics from UPS, a handbook of alternative life-styles.” His closing section on the Dialectics of Liberation Congress describes how the book came out of it, and itemises the series of LP records that documented it. Contents also include Berke’s 16pp. section on “The Free University of New York” and Roberta Elzey Berke on “Founding an Anti-University” (20pp.). Other contributors include RG Davis; John Gerassi; Tuli Kupferberg; Julian Beck; Simon Vinkenoog; Allen Ginsberg; Stokely Carmichael; Jeff Nuttall; Peter Stansill; Stephen Dwoskin and Simon Hartog; Morton Schatzman (“Madness and Morals”, a text on Kingsley Hall); Russell Stetler; and David Mairowitz. The volume also prints “The Post-Competitive, Comparative Game of a Free City” (from “The Digger Papers”), and extracts from Abbie Hofmann’s booklet “Fuck the System” and the pamphlet it inspired, Nicholas Albery’s “Project Free London”. Foxing along top edge; small, faint name and contemporary date to front free endpaper; o/w Very Good plus in dw.
iv) The tenth issue (no date given) includes contributions from Spike Hawkins; Pip Benveniste; Calvin Hernton; Morton Schatzman; James McCann (an arms smuggler for the IRA, drug trafficker, and later, benefactor of Brion Gysin); Joseph Berke (a short play located in “The operating theatre of any state mental hospital with more than 10,000 patients”); George Montgomery; Susan Sherman; and Mary Barnes writing on her experiences at Kingsley Hall, later much expanded upon in her book co-authored with Joseph Berke (item #105). Wrappers slightly rubbed and marked, o/w Very Good.
v) The single volume comprising issues #11-15 is the poetry collection by Roberta Elzey Berke (1972), with each poem faced on the opposite page by a woodcut by the poet printed in colour. Signed by the poet/artist on the front free endpaper. Fine in dw.
