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50.
NOW NOW NOW (SF: 1965) + TLS.
Ed. Charles Plymell. Folio. Wrps., bound with red string (12pp., incl. cover). The third and final issue of Now. Cover photograph by Ralph W. Ackerman.
Burroughs contributes “Method Text”, a facsimile of a three-column layout manuscript with the heading “Afterbirth of Dream Now”, based in part on passages taken from the first issue of Now (sent to him by Plymell).
Also: Philip Whalen (“Homage to William Seward Burroughs”); Claude Pélieu (a series of telegrams to Burroughs featuring cut-up texts, reproduced in facsimile); drawings by Antonin Artaud and ‘Manny Lipschitz’ (Dean Stockwell); collages by Norman Mustill and Charles Plymell; more.
Lightly creased, with mild rubbing to back cover, o/w Very Good plus.
Together with: A Typed Letter Signed from William Burroughs to Charles Plymell (105 words), dated February 21, 1965, in which he explains the methodology used in making his contribution: “Now is an excellent magasine [sic] and I thank you for sending it to me - Reading through the issue I typed out passages that strcuk [sic] some particular chord of association in one column and in another column pieces of dream and text and the last words of Dutch Schultz and the Farmer’s Almanac preparing a composite text which I hope you can use in a subsequent issue. I enclose alos [sic] the two columns from which the text was made to show the method. Best of luck with you magasine [sic] Cordially William S. Burroughs [signed]”.
The original manuscript (like the letter, typed using a black and red ribbon) was sold through the rare book trade a few years ago. Burroughs gives his address as “c/o Grove Press” (he was staying temporarily in the Hotel Chelsea, whose other residents at the time included Claude Pélieu and Mary Beach), and the letter was written a week after his first public reading in America (the Valentine Day’s reading at the East End Theater) and a month before he moved into his loft apartment on Centre Street.
Two old mailing folds, o/w Very Good, together with the original mailing envelope.