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27.
THE INSECT TRUST GAZETTE #1-3 (all published) + TLS from Ira Cohen.
Philadelphia, PA (#1-2) and Berkeley, CA (#3): Summer 1964, Summer 1965 and Summer 1968. Ed. Robert Basara, Leonard Belasco, Jed Irwin and William Levy. First issue 8vo, perfect bound wrps., 64pp.; second issue 4to, stapled wrps., 88pp; third issue 4to, black plastic comb binding, 154pp. Illustrations throughout.
Burroughs contributes “Burning heavens, idiot” and “Grids” (including an illustrated section from the Grid cut-up experiment) to the first issue, and “File Ticker Tape” (6pp.) to the second issue; Gysin contributes (a permutated) “Poem” to the first issue and “Let The Mice In” (10pp.) to the second.
Other contributors include:
#1 Robert Basara (cover); Jackson Mac Low; Carol Bergé; Jean Genet; Antonin Artaud; Max Ernst and Paul Éluard; Paul Klee; + “Computer Prose Poems” (IBM/arranged by A. Belano).
#2 William Levy (cover); Dom Sylvester Houédard; Eugen Gomringer; Edwin Morgan; Edgard Braga; Augusto de Campos; Ian Hamilton Finlay; Frank Kuenstler; Stewart Paley; Jackson Mac Low; Clark Coolidge; Jess Collins; Sinclair Beiles; and Mel Clay and Ira Cohen (“The Majoun Traveler”).
#3 Annette Riddle (cover); Sinclair Beiles; Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstorn; Claude Levi-Strauss; the editors, and others.
Named after a phrase in “The Naked Lunch” (“a trust of giant insects from another galaxy”), or possibly “The Ticket That Exploded (“privileged Aphids who have performed appreciable services for the Insect Trust”), complete runs of this little magazine are almost impossibly rare, since the second issue was seized by Scotland Yard, as co-editor Jed Irwin explained to Jed Birmingham (RealityStudio.org) in 2007: “Bill Levy had moved to London by the time #2 was ready. We shipped many (that is, a large proportion of what must have been a small press run) over to Bill. They never reached him because they were confiscated by Scotland Yard and never released. I don’t recall whether the Yard ever gave any specific reasons for their action.”
Together with: a TLS from contributor Ira Cohen to co-editor Bill Levy, dated September 12, 1965, beginning: “Brion arrived Tangier last week with raves on new Insect Trust. Would like very much to see the issue & can give or sell copies for you here in Tangier if you like.” He continues with a mention of co-contributor Mel Clay (“here with me… after touring with Living Theatre”), and closes with a request to “please send at least two copies posthaste. & at least 10 more for sale or for such as Paul Bowles, Alfred Chester etc if you want. Yours, [signed] Ira Cohen”. 120 words, together with the original airmail envelope addressed to Levy in Pennsylvania.
Wrappers of first issue lightly rubbed, o/w a clean, unread copy; slight rubbing to wrappers of second and third issues, o/w Very Good plus.
Rare complete.
Price:
£750.00
