What I didn’t see today at the Rare Book Show NYC:
“Explorations by Powered Airship of the Sarmoung Sisterhood across Central Asia, the Arctic and Americas” – Original monograph in Russian with intro by VitVitSkaia and GI Gurdjieff, 1898, St Petersburg, 123 pages, signed, #33 of 100, folio, 12 tipped-in early photogravures of the female pilots and engineers, and gold cover inlays, with congratulatory notes from Blavatsky, Kropotkin, Tsiolkovsky and Skridlov. Steampunk occulture freaks, prepare to fork over your life savings!
Coolest s**t I DID see:
- Digger dollar bill (mimeo?) – $500 – can there be a more brutal irony?!
- “L’Internationale Situationniste” — complete run w those oh-so-sexy metallic covers, different shade each issue — after all these decades to finally see the real thang, objet aesthetique non-pareil! (Division Leap)
- “The Situationist Times” — Jacqueline DeJong knocks it out of the park with non-dogmatic explorations w Asger Jorn & other post-surrealist, quasi-provo, not-quite-fully-approved-situationist cats, complete set, 62-67 (Division Leap) (recently re-issued in facsimile by Boohooray Press).
- Bazooka-designed set of “Libee” – slang for “Liberation” – the major new newspub post-68 Paris (so cool to be reminded of the Bazooka gang – tres avant, tres punque!) (Arthur Fournier)
- “La Revolution Surrealiste”, miscellaneous copies, 1920s-30s. The Pope of Surrealism’s official organ / rag, so to speak.
- Original handwritten manuscript by Kostantin Tsiolkovsky, founder of Russian Kosmism & airship / propulsion physics pioneer (Globus)
- Mention of Anarcho-kozmist zines from 20s Russia w invented alphabets!!! by two brothers & not Khlebnikov, but influenced by him!?! (Globus) Further research required.
- Italo avant early-70s pub “King Kong” — a minor discovery.
- Penka from Berlin had some sweet subcult ephemera too, as did the folks at LuxMentis in Portland, ME.
…
So, who wants to fund the Mars Pre-History Arkiv?
