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76.
INTERNATIONAL TIMES #1-32 (London: Lovebooks Ltd., October 14, 1966 - May 31, 1968). Newspaper, broadside and poster formats.
Ed. Tom McGrath (#1-12); Jack Henry Moore (#13-17); Bill Levy (#18-32). A complete run of every issue published by Lovebooks Limited (formed in June 1965 by Miles and Hoppy), including almost every half and quarter issue (#15.25 supplied in photocopy).
From issue #33, following the events of May ’68, the paper was run as a workers’ co-operative, with the (by then enlarged) board of Lovebooks directors - Jim Haynes, Mike Henshaw, Hoppy, Miles and Jack Henry Moore - acting as a board of trustees.
This run of the earliest issues includes all the half-issue posters, as follows:
i) #5.5 (December 24, 1966). Poster on stiff card (76x57.7cm.). Silver ink silkscreened in an edition of c.200 copies. A rendition by Michael English of William Burroughs’ text, “The Invisible Generation (Continued)”, designed so that part of the card could be cut out and assembled to make a word-machine. Three 3cm. closed tears to left edge; creasing and small closed tears to right edge; faint water stain to upper left edge; verso slightly soiled; o/w Very Good;
ii) #10.5 (March 1967). Broadside poster designed by Mike McInnerney, printed offset on both sides in red ink on mustard-colour paper (43x33.7cm.). Fine. Signed by Mike McInnerney;
iii) #141/4 (early June 1967). “Free Hoppy” broadside, featuring a small, uncredited drawing of flowers by Sue Miles (Hoppy was sentenced to nine months in prison for cannabis possession on June 1). Printed offset in dark aquamarine on orange paper (55.5x35.5cm.). Old corner pinholes from having been pinned on the wall at Indica, o/w Very Good plus;
iv) #14.5 (June 9, 1967). Special double-sided poster (“Supplement - Summer Sadness For John Hopkins”), featuring Michael English’s psychedelic design. Printed in yellow and black on white stock (57x39.4cm.). Slight creasing to lower left corner and minor edge wear, o/w Near Fine;
v) #15.25 (mid-June 1967). Supplied in photocopy only. Flyer printing a text regarding the press hysteria surrounding recent drug busts, and the increasing police violence against protesting hippies;
vi) 221/2 New Year issue (late 1967/early 1968). Large newsprint broadsheet, folded twice to make 4pp., with large poster design by Mal Dean printed to verso. Edges a little frayed and paper slightly age-toned, o/w Very Good plus.
These rare supplements and special issues, combined with the consecutive run of 32 regular issues of which they form a part, provide a countercultural cornucopia covering every aspect of the emerging alternative society, from psychedelic drugs and political activism to avant-garde film and music, from new poetry and rock music to communes and macrobiotic food.
Prominent names among the list of contributors include: Jeff Nuttall; William Burroughs; Allen Ginsberg; John Latham; Yoko Ono; Brion Gysin; Julian Beck; John Wilcock; Michael X; and Courtney Tulloch. The equally impressive roster of interviewees includes Morton Feldman; Tony Cox; Dick Gregory; Claes Oldenburg; Steve Abrams; Paul McCartney; Pete Townshend; Frank Zappa; Graham Nash, George Harrison; Arthur Brown; and Mick Jagger, while the ads. that appear throughout illustrate the growth of the underground scene: galleries, small press publishers, bookshops, boutiques and clubs, among them Indica Gallery (Yoko Ono and Takis); the Robert Fraser Gallery; Better Books; Indica Books; the Fulcrum Press; Cape Goliard; UFO; Middle Earth; Happening 44; the Arts Lab; Granny Takes a Trip; Hung On You; and many more, a diversity similarly reflected in the regular “What’s Happening” listings.
All newspaper issues Very Good to Near Fine, each one stored flat and preserved in archival clear polyester L-Velopes.
The run (40 items) includes all three variants of issue #17, and the front cover of issue #11 (a photograph of a body-painted Susie Gawler-Wright, the ‘psychedelic debutante’) has been signed by artist Mike McInnerney.
