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66.
Letters (with printed insert & Stream Records publicity info).
London: Stream Records, nd. (1968). LP record (P 1206). The screenprinted sleeve features a photograph of the poet in profile, taken in Berkeley, California, in 1947.
Limited edition of only 50 copies (the original retail price was 5 guineas, though this was subsequently reduced to “22/6 plus 8/3 tax”).
Consists of a recording of Duncan reading a selection of 22 poems from “Letters: Poems 1953-56”, first published by Jonathan Williams as Jargon 14 in 1958. Duncan, who had never previously allowed anyone to retain tape recordings of any of his readings, spent three evenings making the recordings.
This copy includes an insert printing the contents and a note; a folded sheet detailing the first seven releases from Stream Records; the first Stream Records press release, dated December 2, 1968 (2pp., stapled); and an unfolded, double-sided screenprinted sheet publicising the label (25.7x40.7cm.), designed (like the sleeve) by John and Helen Cassidy, who also made the recordings.
A fire at the Cassidy’s Notting Hill home in 1971 destroyed most of their stock, instantly making rare all extant copies of their records.
Disc Mint in Very Good plus sleeve (faint upper right corner crease with very small area of surface loss).
Price:
£175.00
