111.
A group of thirteen flyers and documents issued by the Anti-University of London, most of them mimeographed, c. January - August, 1968.
i) Flyer printing an open invitation from Doris Meibach to an evening of “discussion on the antiuniversity” at its ‘campus’ at 49 Rivington Street on February 3, one week before its opening. Quarto, printed recto and verso. A list along the lower edge and continuing over lists the names of 44 faculty members, followed by a concluding note announcing that “sometime in the afternoon… there will be a demonstration of concrete music by some of the participants.” Two faint, soft creases (vertical and horizontal), o/w Fine.
ii) Circular from the Ad Hoc Coordinating Committee, dated February 5 and headlined “The following things are afoot”. Foolscap, printed recto only. Lists six announcements relating to the forthcoming opening of the Anti-University, among them the decision to go ahead with the participation of “several antiuniversity people on ‘Late Night Line-Up’, Thursday, 8 Feb” (a TV programme broadcast on BBC2). Three very faint horizontal creases and minor age-toning to extremities, o/w Near Fine.
iii) Flyer announcing a “Schedule of Meetings - Antiuniversity Winter 1968 (Begins Feb. 12)”, and printing a list of 43 participants from the faculty, among them Cornelius Cardew, Bob Cobbing and Anna Lockwood, RD Laing, David Cooper, Jim Haynes, Miles, Ed Dorn, John Latham, Joseph Berke, Harold Norse, Alexander Trocchi and Juliet Mitchell. Three very faint horizontal creases, o/w Near Fine.
iv) A TLS on Anti-University stationery from Barry D. Gahan to Barry Miles, dated March 6, informing him of “the list of people who are registered for your Wed afternoon course, as requested.” Miles’s course was listed in the catalogues as “Underground Communication Theory”. Three old horizontal creases and one vertical crease, all very faint, o/w Near Fine.
v) Flyer announcing an open poetry reading (March 16), and a Black Power Forum (March 23) with speakers Obi Egbuna, Allen Krebs, David Cooper, Brother Young and Leon Redler. Quarto, printed recto only. Nigerian novelist and playwright Obi Egbuna formed the Universal Coloured People's Association (UCPA) following Stokely Carmichael’s visit to London for the Dialectics of Liberation Congress in July 1967, and later co-founded the British Black Panther Movement (initially known as the British Black Power Movement). Faint mailing folds, o/w Near Fine, with franked and stamped typed mailing label to Miles affixed to verso.
vi) An ALS on Anti-University stationery written by a student from Steve Abrams’s course, “Borderlands of psychology” (ESP, drugs, Jung), dated May 26. The student, Peter Holmes, offers his services as a voluntary subject “for research work with various psychotropic drugs”, and adds that he “would personally very much like to help you out there”. Three old horizontal creases and one vertical crease, all very faint, o/w Near Fine.
vii) A mimeographed Anti-University of London circular letter written by Bob Cobbing, dated May 30, signed by him and addressed to Miles. The letter requests course details and information for inclusion in the catalogue for the third session (Cobbing also designed the cover for the first and only Antiuniversity magazine in March 1968). A double-sided mimeographed newsletter, dated June 7, and a foolscap flyer titled “You and the Anti-U” have been attached by staple to the top left corner. The newsletter announces Richard Hamilton’s “second talk on the work of Marcel Duchamp” and details of Carolee Schneemann’s planned meetings to discuss “something that could be performed at the Antiuniversity itself” (her film “Fuses” was shown). The flyer announces a general meeting at the Anti-University on May 11 to discuss its future direction, bordered in the margins by questions and potential suggestions, such as “What about an anti-Antiuniversity university?”, “Can students teach teachers?”, and “Rent St. Pancras Station!” Slight creasing to right edge of letter; very faint, soft horizontal and vertical creases, o/w Near Fine.
viii) A mimeographed newsletter, c. June 1968, printed recto and verso. Includes news of The Action Research Project on Racialism in Britain, the participants of which “have been tape-recording interviews with black and white children and adults in London, focussing on attitudes bearing on racialism.” Also reports on Counteruniversity meetings, news of the Sensitivity Training Group, updates on the summer catalogue, and an announcement of the London Film-Makers Co-operative holding a general meeting at the Anti-University on June 30: “it is hoped that regular showings of underground films at the Antiuniversity may soon become a possibility.” Three old horizontal creases and one vertical crease, all very faint, o/w Near Fine.
ix) A mimeographed flyer announcing that the “Antiuniversity of London” has had “to give up the premises at Rivington Street because of lack of funds, and until we have more money, courses and seminars are being held in members’ homes and other places.” No date (August 1968). Quarto, printed recto and verso. The flyer, written by Bill Mason, goes on to inform that “A room will be rented in a pub for a general meeting and get together on the second Friday in September when future courses could be discussed”, followed by a list of courses “now meeting” and, “if there is sufficient interest”, future courses by, among others, Allen Krebs (“Life in a Television Set”), John Latham (“Antiknow”), and Gustav Metzger (“Theory of Auto-Destructive Art”). Reprinted with a different layout in Oz #14 (item #118). Bill Mason’s flat in Soho was used as a hub and postal address for the Anti-University after it moved out of the building in Shoreditch. Fine.
x) A mimeographed Catalogue Supplement. No date (c. February 1968). Foolscap, printed recto and verso. Together with a blank registration form (identical to those inserted in the first catalogue, but printed mimeograph rather than offset). Near Fine.
A scarce collection of printed documentation from the short-lived Anti-University of London.
(13 items).