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59.
ALTERNATIVE LONDON. London: privately published, December 1970 + February 1971. First and second editions (of six published).
12mo. Wrps., 192pp. + 268pp. Illustrated with line drawings.
The first two editions of Nicholas Saunders’s underground bible, a distillation of his tips on everything from squatting and transport in London to drugs and hitching to the East. Funding for the book came indirectly from his mother, who gave him money to enable him to move out of his Chelsea squat, but he preferred instead to stay put and use it to develop and sell a series of flats.
As his friend Nicholas Albery noted, he believed that he was the first to use the term ‘alternative society’, and, true to his word, he distributed copies of the book himself, often using sellers who bought carrier bags of them from him at half price.
Faint lower corner crease to upper wrapper of first volume; slight rubbing to spine edges; small loss to top corner of p.31/32; o/w a tight, Very Good plus copy; faint reading crease to spine of second volume, o/w Very Good.
