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81.
Chappaqua Or the Invocation of Bran.
Athens, Greece: privately published by the author, 1963. First edition. Sm. 8vo. Printed wrps., with front and rear flaps. 14 leaves. Colophon states an edition of 150 copies signed and numbered by the author, though this copy is neither signed nor numbered.
The poem draws on Rooks’s experiences with drugs and alcohol in mythological terms, particularly in relation to Native American culture in Chappaqua, the small town in Westchester County, New York where he spent five years of his childhood. It also deals with his relationship with his recently deceased father, Russell Rooks, one of the founding Presidents of Avon Cosmetics (he came up with the phrase “Ding Dong Avon calling”); in one section, Conrad, heir to his father’s fortune and an addict by the age of eighteen, writes: “Litte rich boys/ We are all doomed immured in pleasure/ and desire/ there are no Buddhas on Wall Street”.
Rooks dedicated the poem “to my father”, but in this copy the dedication has been crossed through and an ink word, indecipherable to this cataloguer, written below. In addition, the first page of the poem has been annotated in the margins, similarly indecipherable, the copyright date altered to read ‘1964’, and the address in the colophon amended in pencil.
In 1963 an extract from the poem appeared in the first issue of the short-lived Greek avant-garde magazine, To Allo stin Techni, edited by Leonidas Christakis (Rooks, Sinclair Beiles, Gregory Corso, Harold Norse, Ted Joans, Alan Ansen, Philip Lamantia, John Esam and Dan Richter all lived in Greece for various periods in the early to mid-‘60s, and work by them appeared in little magazines sympathetic to the Beats, including Pali and Residu, the latter edited by Richter).
Rooks used his inheritance in 1966 to write and direct “Chappaqua”, a semi-autobiographical film exploring similar subjects to those in his poem - drug addiction, withdrawal, and his travels through Europe and elsewhere. The book’s title page has the title crossed through in pencil and the word Taxidi, Greek for journey, written alongside in pencil; although the author of these holograph changes is unknown, this alternative title consciously emphasises the poem’s literal and metaphorical meanings. Rooks portrayed himself in the film (as ‘Russell Harwick’), alongside Jean-Louis Barrault (‘Dr. Benoit’), William Burroughs (‘Opium Jones’), Allen Ginsberg (‘Messie’), Ornette Coleman (‘Peyote Eater’), Moondog (‘The Prophet’), and The Fugs.
The book’s condition isn’t particularly good: the wrappers are worn, marked and partially faded, and the tail of the spine panel is partially split. The front free endpaper bears the bookplate of the painter and (Cold Turkey Press) publisher, Gerard Bellaart. It is rare, however, both commercially and institutionally, with OCLC locating only one copy at Emory University Library.
