Julia Vinograd, the bubble lady

 

Sometime before 2018 I bought a lot online and one of the books was this one by an author I had never heard of before. Then in March 2018 my family went to SF for a family vacation and while in the city I made a point of visiting The Beat Museum and City Lights Bookstore. At The Beat Museum I found a better, earlier printing of this book and bought it. 

Then I started to do some research on this poet. The bubble lady. A Berkeley, California mainstay. A poet who lived off her annual - and I do mean annual book sales. She produced a book a year and lived off the sales of her books that she hawkishly did as the street poet she was. 

As amazed as I was at her output, I began to look for and find copies of her chapbooks. THEY interested me in ways that her later books didn't. The ones produced by Zeitgeist Press didn't have the same zing (for me) as her earlier ones did. But, the later ones did provide her with a steadier income which, as a street poet, is what she needed most. 

Sadly, later the same year that I happened across her book at The Beat Museum, she past away. 

I continued to seek out and get as many of her chapbooks as I could find before the prices - well, they began to get ridiculous. 

Julia's legacy truly began after her passing. A volume of her collected work appeared,A Symphony for Broken Instruments: Selected and Unpublished Poems by Julia Vinograd was published in 2019 (haven't gotten it yet), a documentary has been made of her life. She has a lifetime of friends and admirers who are not willing to forget her anytime soon. Nor should they. She made some astute observations about culture and life that remind me of early Frank Zappa. Darn near painful at times. 

It's all rabbit hole from here

 Take a book, a signature, a bookstore (in say - Brooklyn) a publisher (hobnobbing in Austin, TX) WRITE BLOODY PUBLISHING and you have the framework of a dive into a rabbit hole of deep and meandering context leading to either some interesting conclusion or 

I like how Franny's signature swallows her written name. 

or another blog entry which may, or not, have any connection to this one.

Books that need to be turned into films

Tim Sandlin's first novel, Sex & Sunsets, ought be made into a movie. It's better than the three books of his that have been turned into films. Yes, it's quirky but come on, in the Post-Twin Peaks world we live in, quirky is GOOD.

Hey filmmakers, get on the stick! Turn this book into a film already. Katie Holmes as Colette. Come on people, use your imagination! This book is dying to become a film!

Bookgasm returns - yes, I have a "problem"

 Once upon a time the milk crates in the photo were my book cases. Some of them. At my worst I had more than a dozen such plastic cubes before we were able to get wooden book shelves. 

There's a video I have watched a number of times and it has to do with two people who meet at a wedding reception but they are way off the outside of the entire affair and they strike up a conversation - it's about 20 minutes long and I find it sweet but that's not the point - early on the woman talks about how she has drained the battery in her phone because she kept checking it, basically to not be bored with her surroundings, and she then admits "I have a problem" and the way she says it just strikes me as both humorous and truthful. 

So, yeah, I have a problem. I have BOOKGASMS each and every time I go into a library or a bookstore or a flea market or a thrift store or a little (free) library. Anywhere there are books to be surveyed, I can be found surveying them. 

I live in an unopened book store. I don't think my wife would argue with this assessment although she would also say she never agreed to do so - so, I have some issues to deal with. And several years ago I abandoned this blog to focus on my chapbook blog but I am back because I am going to use this blog as therapy. To ween myself, and/or prepare myself to open an actual (someplace other than where I live) bookstore since I have been collecting for decades and can never read them all. Not in this lifetime or the next. 

In fact, I have to say, I have been gathering these books for the purpose of dispensing with them one day. They struck my eye or they were signed by author or they were important books by neglected authors who critics love but readers are not clued in on. Books for folks NOT the general public. And "I have a problem". I can't say no to these misfits, these orphans. 

 "It strange what happens with old books? They choose you. They reach out to their buyers – Hello, here I am, take me with you. It’s as if they were alive.” From The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte Page 53

Once I post this I am going to go back to re-read this blog in its entirety to capture the aroma of my original intent. And then, I will proceed. 

a book I wish I owned

Beat Museum, San Francisco, California

I have had the pleasure of being able to supply The Beat Museum in San Francisco with a number of Beat Generation items over the years. Recently the bought some rare postcards from me as well as books by the subjects of the postcards: Burroughs, Ginsberg, Creeley. I am glad to have been able to continue to their ever-growing collection.

instantly recluttered

my life is far from empty. my book*gasm continues to expand and overtake my office. It's almost not fair. But it certainly is consistent with my heavy book intake. Many more come in than go out. Troubling in its accumulative nature. Oi vey!

i have an office

As of mid-December 2014, I have an office. The office used to be the right half of what used to be the front porch at the house we moved into in Sept. 2009 and bought from the owner in Sept. 2013. It was one of my wife's first BIG projects. The other half of what used to be the front porch is now our "mudroom". This half, my half, is my work space and book shelving unit and (vain) attempt of creating order out of chaos in my life. An attempt to reduce my "little pieces of paper" problem. It's working, to a degree, but it isn't like a witch with a broom sweeps through and unclutters the place - or my brain. It's in incremental stages.

I have for a number of years used our living space to build a library and conduct a small book selling operation which did, in 4 brief years, help me to pay off my Masters Degree student loans from George Mason University. That's sayin' sumtin'.

I learned alot along the way. About authors, publishers, Presses, illustrators, etc. That process continues even as my attention from this blog obviously has verged elsewhere. I will talk about my various finds and sales soon.

chopped

and then I have something else to write about

We bought this place in Sept. 2013 after living in it as a rental since Sept. 2009 - the whole time we were renting it my wife and I would have conversations about "if we would ever own this place, we would..." Well, after putting a stairwell up into the attic and finishing that space, we tackled our front porch which my wife always to enclose and use the room as a mudroom/an office for me. We started that project in Nov. 2014 and it was finished yesterday. I have begun to take ownership of the space. 7 book shelves, my desk, computers, printers and scanners. Wires and cords and stacks of little pieces of paper AND hundreds and hundreds of books.

wow

great quote

“ It’s it strange what happens with old books? They choose you. They reach out to their buyers – Hello, here I am, take me with you. It’s as if they were alive.” From The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte Page 53

Some books should be electronic, I suppose

case in point : Small-Town Restaurants in Virginia
Joanne M. Anderson
John F. Blair, Publisher
Winston-Salem, NC
(c)1998


So, I found this book, in its 3rd printing (2000) and I pondered whether the concept of this book should have been a book at all but the Internet in 1998 hadn't developed nor had people's lateral thinking hadn't developed in such a way to have conceived of doing this interesting idea as a hyper-text. If it were to be re-made nowadays, it should not be printed as a book but as an updatable text. I wonder how many of the restaurants listed in this book are still in operation 13 years later. How many have the same chefs? How have they been reviewed (or flamed?)

In a case like this, I can see it existing as a "text", ie. e-book.

As for the book here - it's not here, I pulped it. It's gone.

seldom is the day

Seldom is the day that I go into a space that sells used books and I can find a copy of On the Road and Howl on the same shelving but it happened today. I also found, for a buck, a 1951 Ben Shahn chapbook of A Partridge in a Pear Tree printed by the Museum of Modern Art. It's too nice to give to my little Tasmanian Devils. I will keep it for myself.

I was on Youtube today, casually looking over their videos on book scouting and it was slim pickings. One person dismisses using a smartphone to check value of book, another praises them. Are these people aiming their presentations toward rookies? Are they gearing their videos toward clueless fucks who don't actually READ books but are only in it for the money? I was not sure.

I am sure that I won't be checking out those videos anytime soon.

Look - I will say the same thing about getting into the world of used books that I told my sons about drug use: it's not for everyone. Not everyone can handle it.

I am interested in the hunt. I know enough to know that I don't really know enough. Always more Presses to learn about, more authors to research. More titles to find. More sets to complete. Or realize when it's time to cut bait. Start a fresh collection. Discover a forgotten author. A uncollected Press.

There is always more to learn and to know. The adventure is half the goal.

The other half is finding places for your little treasures. I am not a hoarder, if I were, well, I would have nothing but Ex-wives. I have a great wife and she is very supportive of my "gentle madness". She does challenge me to cleanse (my shelves) and I am willing to do that from time to time. If the price is right. I can always fill the open space with new treasures, right?

And now, we are approaching the end of the year - the perfect time to unload.

Still, it's been a good day so far. Nice pick up. I can replace a 1970 23rd printing of Howl and other poems with a 1959 8th printing. Staple-bound copy at that!

the man with bad Steins

He collected Steins because she said she was a genius. He repeated himself in action as she repeated herself in words. But he grew tired of her repetitions of brilliance and her near surface existence, and one day realized all the books he had of her were defective and not great. The condition of the books reflected the condition of his thoughts of her. He did not think of her brilliance or her genius, but of the lack of money he would ever make from the bad copies of her books he now had.

Shortly afterwards he began to feel better about himself and his own otherwise repetitions of book buying and selling, once, that is, that he left the stack of bad Steins in the alleyway three streets over in the middle of a night when he was "out for a stroll". He donated them to the world, and the world accepted the donation because the world is round and that was the only title by Stein which ever did anything for him.

ghost in an old paperback

I don't remember where I first learned of Alfred Bester, but somewhere along the line, I did. I found The Stars My Destination about the same time I was reading another of his better known books, The Demolished Man. Unappreciated, but there is a strong percentage of the books that I read which are by unknown or unappreciated. Under appreciated. Under read.

My copy of The Stars My Destination is a 1957 first. But it's now much beaten, brown-pages, falling apart as I read it. When I finish it, I will be purging it. There won't be anything left. If a book has a piece of the soul of its author in it, am I killing him by recycling his book?

no name poets on ebay

I love it how on Ebay people post chapbooks of poetry by unknown or regional poets at prices greater than books by well known and established poets. As if no names are better or more valuable, or everyone knows who these people are.

humorous

changeable mind

"last yesterday" as my 4 year old son would say, I went to a local library intent on finding a specific book in their "valuable" book room ($2.00 per book instead of .50 per book) and I looked down and on the bottom shelf, obscured by other books, I saw a book - picked it up and there in my hands were a first paperback edition of Tokyo-Montana Express by Richard Brautigan which I gladly paid for with the goal of tripling my money - at least.

Then, Katy May read me a section she liked, and I really liked it as well. So, this morning I took it off of my Amazon listed books and put it in my living room bookcase for further reading.

Brautigan was under-appreciated during his lifetime.

I ping-pong on Brautigan, changing my opinion of him almost routinely. I collect him, purge him, collect him again.
I am going to have to read more of his work. That's what it comes down to.

dreams and realities

In my dreams now I am scouting for books. I dreamt last night of being in Portland, Maine or rather going to Portland, Maine and looking for books at flea markets, used goods stores, second-hand shops. In the dream, I wasn't finding anything special but - I was looking. I also had to hurry since I had to fly to Seattle later in the day and look there for books as well.

In my waking life, books are keyboard clicks away. Easy to find, too easy. Of course, half of the search - the physical search is the handling of a book. The thrill of discovery. The validation of a decent sale. Like when I found a copy of a local history book in Pennsylvania that was signed by both authors, and to have it sell for over $100.00. That's cool. That's why I do it. Rescuing unwanted books and finding better homes for them. Like place orphans into good homes. Similar in a way.

The down side of electronic pursuits is when a book, say Minutes to Go by Burroughs, Corso, Gysin, and Beiles comes from across the pond (England) and there's a note written on the inside front cover saying that this is not the copy I want. I want the hard-bound version from 1957(1959?) and not this Beach Books paperback edition with flimsy cover. Shucks! Is that true? Is the very rare hard-bound first edition that much better? I am glad to have any copy of this book. It's an important document in the history of "cut-up". For that alone, it's worth having - but is this copy really that inferior? Would it have made a difference if I had handled the book before buying it? The book has a provenance, it's an association copy. Did someone warn Michael Butterworth that he had the wrong copy? The note goes on to suggest a different book. The note, I failed to mention, was on the inside front of the book.

The Straight Purge

I go from extreme to extreme, bingeing and purging with books instead of food, putting on weight and then peeling it off by unloading a bunch of old HBs. To no avail, really. I feel about the same once the rush of purchase or purging is over. I mean, sometimes I feel good about an odd book that sells for a good deal of money but my house doesn't add or subtract rooms just to suit my mood of the moment. It's just as well. I disgorge books almost as quickly as I acquire them.

Mao's little red book, for instance. Why get this? It was printed in Communist China in 1971. It wasn't signed by Mao (that would have been too cool). Unlike Vietnam, a country that the US fought a war with, China, while being a global power from its beginnings, is less of a draw at the moment. I felt that the market for stuff from the 1960s was strong, there was a lot of interest, but it's selective. China isn't really hot - or Mao isn't - or this book isn't. But I guessed, and guessed wrong.

If I owned a bookstore, I could fudge my bad guesses with plenty of good ones, but being a book scout doesn't offer me the advantages of hoarding (for some future day when everyone comes crashing through my walls with money galore, wanting everything I own). A bookstore owner is a slave to his/her location. I resist that sort of restriction. It goes with the territory.

I like my freedom to NOT do it as much as the having the freedom to drive 3 hours to go booking in a town in a different state. But so much freedom can be too much freedom, undirected "freedom" can be maddening. And of course, one man's treasure is another man's junk

used booksale at local library

I went
I looked
I came home empty-handed


Yes, it's true. How is this possible? Well, even the "good" books were average. Nothing there was remarkable or especially valuable. I was fairly familiar with the stock of books there as I volunteer at this very library and have handled most of what I saw. I didn't need to get any more books, so I didn't get any more books.

that's how it's possible. I hit a brick wall. I saved my fifty cents for another day.

I am as shocked as you are, but that's how it is now. I have peaked. Leveled out. Of course, I got home and there was a sale to deal with. A book I got from one of the "freebie" book sites, Bookmooch - PaperbackBookswap - etc., sold on a different site (Amazon). So, that was a nice little +/+ moment. Patti Smith Early Works 1970-1979. I don't collect Patti Smith, per se, but I do have some of her earlier stuff. Chapbooks. Limited runs. Philly-connections.

A handful of years ago, I went to a similar booksale in a nearly library and rationalized that since I was there I should get something. Because I am in this library twice a week volunteering my time and effort already, I didn't feel the same twinge of guilt or remorse or civic duty. I basically wanted to see the booksale in action and it was pretty pitiful. It's a good thing that none of the other volunteers recognized me. I was there stealth and I left without notice.

Another day, another sale. Nothing new in. Not bad at all.