RE/SEARCH #4/5: A special book issue. William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Throbbing Gristle
VALE, V.
San Francisco: RE/SEARCH. 1982.
Description:
Inscribed by Burroughs. 277x215mm. pp. 96. Illustrated wrappers. Some very slight rubbing and a small crease to the top left corner of back cover but otherwise in excellent condition throughout. Extensively illustrated. The title page has been inscribed "To Jonathan, William S. Burroughs". Burroughs is very much the main event in this special, double edition of the important counterculture magazine RE/SEARCH. There are six pieces by Burroughs including excerpts from The Place of Dead Roads, and Early Routines plus a 'chapter not included' from Cities of the Red Night (the novel had been published the previous year). In addition, there is a long interview with Burroughs by V. Vale, the founder and editor of RE/SEARCH (and before it, the punk magazine Search and Destroy). Two significant sections are devoted to the artist Brion Gysin and the band Throbbing Gristle. Although the magazine is divided into three sections, links are drawn and threads woven between the writer, the artist and the band. But there is no doubt that it is Burroughs, the godfather of the counterculture, who ties the three parts together. He also sets the tone for the air of danger and wildness that runs through the magazine (indeed, ran through the whole of RE/SEARCH). The first photograph (opposite the title page) shows Burroughs with a handgun. He appears elsewhere with a rifle and much of the interview with him focuses on his love of firearms. Later, Genesis P-Orridge appears with a tee-shirt declaring that "Free men bear arms" and the back cover of the magazine is emblazoned with the Throbbing Gristle red, white and black lightening bolt with its deep nod to the British Union of Fascists. All of which is a useful reminder that the counterculture is a broader church than one might think.
Description:
Inscribed by Burroughs. 277x215mm. pp. 96. Illustrated wrappers. Some very slight rubbing and a small crease to the top left corner of back cover but otherwise in excellent condition throughout. Extensively illustrated. The title page has been inscribed "To Jonathan, William S. Burroughs". Burroughs is very much the main event in this special, double edition of the important counterculture magazine RE/SEARCH. There are six pieces by Burroughs including excerpts from The Place of Dead Roads, and Early Routines plus a 'chapter not included' from Cities of the Red Night (the novel had been published the previous year). In addition, there is a long interview with Burroughs by V. Vale, the founder and editor of RE/SEARCH (and before it, the punk magazine Search and Destroy). Two significant sections are devoted to the artist Brion Gysin and the band Throbbing Gristle. Although the magazine is divided into three sections, links are drawn and threads woven between the writer, the artist and the band. But there is no doubt that it is Burroughs, the godfather of the counterculture, who ties the three parts together. He also sets the tone for the air of danger and wildness that runs through the magazine (indeed, ran through the whole of RE/SEARCH). The first photograph (opposite the title page) shows Burroughs with a handgun. He appears elsewhere with a rifle and much of the interview with him focuses on his love of firearms. Later, Genesis P-Orridge appears with a tee-shirt declaring that "Free men bear arms" and the back cover of the magazine is emblazoned with the Throbbing Gristle red, white and black lightening bolt with its deep nod to the British Union of Fascists. All of which is a useful reminder that the counterculture is a broader church than one might think.