ACKER, KathyABAA
80 results
1988ref. 215024New York: Grove Press 1988. First edition and first printing. Hardcover. 227 pages. Review copy with laid in publisher sheet. A novel from this well regarded writer who sadly died at the age of only fifty. A near fine copy in paper covered boards with a cloth spine with some minor wear and in a near fine dust jacket. Grove Press unknown books
2010ref. USCHFRO00efWiley 2010. Very Good. Schlecht Neil Edward. Frommer's New York State. Acker Kerry; Gavin Tom; Silverman Brian. Hoboken New Jersey: Wiley 2010. 4th edition. 470pp. Indexed. Illustrated. 8vo. Paperback. Book condition: Very good with faint crease in rear cover and slightly curled corners. Wiley paperback books
2012ref. UACKCOM00LRAmherst University 2012. Fine. Acker Jennifer editor. The Common #4. Amherst Massachusetts: Amherst University 2012. 215pp. 8vo. Paperback. Book condition: Near fine. Amherst University paperback books
1989ref. 167397London: British Film Institute BFI 1989. Softcover. First UK Edition. Includes 18 essays on Warhol's film work. Very Good plus in perfect-bound wrappers lightly toned on the wrapper edges. British Film Institute [BFI] unknown books
1996ref. 199481New York: Grove Press 1996. First edition and first printing. Hardcover. 277 pages. A grrrl pirate story loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." A tight near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with some minor wear. Grove Press unknown books
1994ref. 170907San Luis Obispo CA: Garden Street Press 1994. First edition. Softcover. A paperback original collection of poems. A fine copy in wrappers. Signed and very warmly inscribed by Acker to poet Marie Ponsot on the title page. A nice association copy. Garden Street Press unknown books
1904ref. 006161Paris: Octave Beauchamp. Printer: G. de Malherbe 1904. First edition. Hardcover. Cloth spines. Wood boards. Slipcase. Near Fine. Folio 33 by 26 cm. Unpaginated. With pieces on Victorien Sardou Sarah Bernhardt François Coppée Mme Edmond Adam Anatole France Mme la Duchesse D'Uzès Jules Lemaître Mme Réjane Jules Claretie Mme Segond-Weber Jean Richepin Marthe Brandès Coquelin Aîné Jeanne Granier Jules Massenet Aïno Ackté Mounet-Sully Jane Hading J-L.Gérôme Jane Hatto Antonin Mercié Marie Delna Luc-Olivier Merson Sibyl-Sanderson F.-A. Bartholdi Mme. Carrère-Xanrof Alfred Capus and la Reine Ranavalo. With each following a title page two pages of biography a portrait page and a note biographique page the former being more impressionistic seeking to convey something of the personages character charisma and basis for renown and the latter more a straightforward concise biography. Also on a glossy leaf is a photograph surrounded by chromolithographed Art Nouveau decoration and a facsimile holograph inscription and autograph. Without extra Cappiello caricatures. The boards are of wood with an inset medallions of Sarah Bernhardt in her role as "La Princesse Lointaine" after the illustration by Alphonse Mucha. With publisher's slipcase. Condition: Slipcase with moderate shelfwear. Octave Beauchamp. Printer: G. de Malherbe hardcover books
1974ref. 90135Oakland: Strange Faeces 1974. First Edition. Quarto 28cm. Side-stapled sheets pictorial card covers and pictorial dustjacket; unpaginated 150pp; illus. Light rubbing to wrapper edges else Near Fine. In the original dustwrapper creased at wallet edges torn at upper spine panel but complete; Very Good. A generous double-sized issue of this noted mimeo poetry journal which appeared between 1971 and 1975 featuring much of the best underground writing of the period. Includes a very early Kathy Acker appearance "Poem of Murder by Rip-Off Red." Other contributors include Jack Hirschman Andrei Codrescu Keith Abbot Tom Veitch Bernadette Mayer and others. Artwork by Frank Ferguson aka Sir Quaxalot Britton Wilkie Norman Mustill and others. Strange Faeces unknown books
1964ref. 161870N.p.: Juniper Productions 1964. Two vintage studio still photographs from the 1964 film. Both photographs with provenance stamps on the versos. An obscure 1960s sexploitation film from director and screenwriter Jai Hais. 8 x 10 inches. Near Fine. Juniper Productions unknown books
1984ref. 85393London: Aloes Books 1984. First Edition. Octavo. 21cm. Publisher's original pink decorated card wraps. 29pp. Some minor creasing and scuffing to the edges and extremities a touch of sunning around the spine area; internally clean. A very good copy. A short piece originally published as a short form story entitled "Girl Gangs Take Over The World." Published immediately prior to "Blood and Guts in High School" often cited as Acker's breakthrough publication "Algeria" is an intense introduction to Acker's speeding lush weird writing style where every event is bitter ammunition for an assault on comfort complacency and the things we hold taboo. Aloes Books unknown books
1974ref. 85928San Francisco: Tales of San Francisco; Dykes 1974. First Edition. Octavo. 21.5cm. Original white paper wraps. 25pp. pagination runs 167-192 contiguous with previous parts. Strong and clean with some toning to the spine area and some areas of soiling to the white covers light edgewear; internally clean and fresh. A very good copy. The sixth and final instalment of Acker's second novel published by Acker under the pseudonym "The Black Tarantula" and issued in parts before having a single volume publication in 1980. Scarce and ephemeral issued in very small numbers and mailed to their recipients and very characteristically part novel part aggressively stated expression of existence. Tales of San Francisco; Dykes unknown books
1981ref. 86209Buffalo NY: Top Stories 1981. First Edition. Octavo. 21cm. Publisher's illustrated stiff card wraps. 24pp. Light wear to extremities a couple of small scratches to the front panel; internally clean ink stamp of "Top Stories" NYC address to copyright page. A very good clean copy. An early piece of searing Acker prose dealing with themes of abuse crime and sexuality illustrated with photographs by Anne Turyn. Originally published in "Crawl Out Your Window" journal a year prior. "Top Stories" was created by Turyn and distributed by Hallwalls a small indie gallery space and publishing house in Buffalo. Top Stories unknown books
1983ref. 160523New York: Horizon Films 1983. Vintage studio still photograph of Sandy McLeod shot by and credited at the right margin to Nan Goldin from the 1983 film. Shown is actress Sandy McLeod in seeming triplicate. Goldin also has a brief role in the film. A striking image. An aspiring writer takes a job as a ticket-taker at an adult film theatre in Times Square soon finding herself drawn into the seedy world of the theatre's customers. The film drew together a veritable who's who of New York underground regulars with a screenplay by Kathy Acker music by John Lurie cinematography by frequent Jarmusch collaborator Tom de Cillo and still photography by Nan Goldin. Set and shot on location in New York. 8 x 10 inches. Near Fine. Horizon Films unknown books
1989ref. 54284New York: Grove Press / Evergreen 1989. Second Evergreen Edition. Octavo 23.25cm; photo-illustrated card wrappers; ii67-1657pp; illus. Trivial wear to extremities else Fine. A sharp copy of Acker's best-known novel written in the 1970's and first published by Pan Books in London in 1984. Grove Press / Evergreen unknown books
ref. 146188N.p.: N.p. 1976. Archive of six autograph letters signed and one typed letter signed from Kathy Acker to fellow experimental novelist Rudolph Wurlitzer twenty five pages total undated but written during the first half of 1976 based on dates mentioned in the body of one of the letters. From the collection of Rudolph Wurlitzer with provenance. Acker and Wurlitzer were in a relationship begun while they were both in New York and continuing briefly after he left the city for Nova Scotia where he was a the time of this correspondence. Two of the letters directly address their relationship and correspond to letters written by Wurlitzer as quoted in Chris Kraus' 2017 biography of the late writer "After Kathy Acker." The letters offered here were not available to Kraus something she mentions when discussing the relationship with Wurlitzer and have never been published or previously available for sale. In addition to Acker's frank discussion of her feelings toward Wurlitzer the letters take a broadly confessional tone as Acker discusses her mental and emotional state as well as her conflicted feelings regarding the writing she was doing at the time. She writes candidly about feelings of isolation introversion and exhaustion with life in New York and its attendant social obligations presenting a version of Acker that is at odds with both her own self-mythologizing and her already established persona as a post-punk literary icon and chronicler of the downtown avant garde scene. Acker is similarly candid regarding her own writing mentioning both "The Adult Life of Toulouse-Lautrec" and "Florida" both 1978 as in-progress saying of the former "the hell with Toulouse I wanted to finish it off with hell and this is hell" and of the later that it "is about characters. Have to make characters grow." She goes into some detail regarding her feelings about "The Life of Johnny Rocco" section of "Toulouse" calling it "a horrible book" and noting that she's "scared of this book. Scared to type it up. Something very raw about me in it" but also noting that the "only good thing" about the book is that it was "the first time I created a real character who isn't me." Finally Acker speaks at length about the books and films she is consuming in particular noting the influence of Japanese literature and cinema on her work and often relating them to her own ambitions as a writer. She quotes a long passage from William Faulkner's "Go Down Moses" and compares her work unfavorably to it briefly discusses Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" mentions reading Yukio Mishima Osamu Dazai and Yasunari Kawabata and in one letter provides a lengthy synopsis of the plot of all three films in Hiroshi Inagaki's "Samurai Trilogy" before briefly relating the themes of the film to her relationship with Wurlitzer. Of the influence of Japanese literature she notes her desire in her own writing for "simple paragraphs each paragraph an image. 1 2 3. The flow absolutely like straight line.like those incredible Japanese novels I've been reading." Autograph letters signed on 7 x 8.25 inch lined notebook paper. 23 pages rectos only. Near Fine with faint horizontal folds. Typed letter signed on 8.5 x 11 paper. Two pages rectos only. Near Fine folded twice for mailing. N.p. unknown books
1977ref. 47916Vancouver: Periodics 1977. First edition. Very good minus. First issue of this Canadian literary magazine "devoted to prose" with contributors including Kathy Acker Michael Ondaatje Barry Gifford Larry Eigner Penny Chalmers and more. 7'' x 8.5''. Original pictorial black and yellow wrappers by Michael Corr. 66 2 pages. Some scuffing and toning light soil to front cover. (Periodics) unknown books
ref. 43804New York: Various 1991. Very good overall. Collection of five different versions of Acker's first critically acclaimed work - including a pre-publication copy of her own corrected typescript. The pre-publication copy gives key insight not only into Acker's writing methods but also raises interesting questions about the intended structure of the finished story and highlights the mutable interpretations regarding the published presentation of her prose writing via four different versions included herein. This copy was sent by Acker in late 1979 to friend and fellow experimental writer Paul Buck. The pages have clearly been xeroxed on several different machines with different paper stock and print qualities evident in different sections and pp. 29 is an original typescript passage with visible typed corrections and numbered in holograph in Acker's distinctive hand which has been taped onto the verso of a sheet of letterhead for "Performing Artservices Inc. 463 West St NY" an organization that provided management and administrative services to avant-garde artists. Included with this document are four published editions of the story. The first although not always credited thus was in International Times vol. 5 no 5. January/February 1980. Run as "New York City '79" over the centerspread this version is closest to the typescript form. There is persuasive evidence that the editors of I.T. were working from a similar photocopy and whether instructed thus by Acker or not they took the cut-up style of the piece at face value and ran it as a series of fragments differentiated from one another by the use of typefaces and with no cohesive order. Probably due to space constraints this version is also heavily abridged however the notable omissions of the three statements about lesbians suggests that there was also a degree of selective censorship at work. The first publication of the complete text followed in July 1980 in the pages of San Diego magazine Crawl Out Your Window Issue 7. Here the sentences - which run over multiple pages in the typescript - are conventionalized into standard lines. There are also slight textual differences with a couple of additional sentences added. The first stand-alone publication came in Top Stories 9 1981 which incorporated photographs by Anne Turyn. These images again mutate the text and raise further questions about Acker's editorial intention; the typescript title-page bears the uncompleted subheading "Photographs by" but gives no further allusions to this content. The final example is the 1991 Semiotexte collection HANNIBAL LECTOR MT FATHER which shows still further textual edits. In terms of form the most marked difference between the typescript copy and the published editions that followed is the way in which the text is divided into a series of passages or episodes numbered at the head of the page. These can be full paragraphs or single sentences or for example the word "syphilis" which has an entire page to itself. This deliberate distribution of white space surrounding the single word which in later editions is returned to the conventional layout of a sentence adds nuance and valence to the story which is arguably altered in transcription. In the key collection of Acker Papers at Duke University there is a comparable copy described thus in their catalogue: "60-page photocopied typescript corrected in the photocopy with original note on the title page My Copy by Acker". We have not been able to locate an original typescript suggesting that this format with Acker's holograph corrections in the copy is as primary a resource for this text as is currently known. A revealing collection about Acker's Pushcart Prize-winning work showing both her working methods and intentions while simultaneously demonstrating their editorial undoing across numerous editions. Photocopy of typescript with one page original typescript bearing top-copy typed corrections and holograph number that page taped to verso of letterhead. 60pp. printed on recto only stapled at top right corner with neat tape reinforcement over staple on title page. Light wear to title page and final sheet tail edge of two oversized sheets rubbed. Taped revision loose from browned tape mounts. With four published appearances featuring the story also provided. [Various] unknown books
1983ref. 372835New York: Wedge Press Inc 1983. First edition. Illustrated designed by Mark Magill printed in two colors. 8vo. Printed side-stapled wraps. Some shelfwear near fine. First edition. Illustrated designed by Mark Magill printed in two colors. 8vo. Signed by Acker on the first page. Wedge Press, Inc unknown books
1983ref. 50895New York: Grove Press 1983. First printing. Fine in a fine jacket. First edition of Acker's rewriting and reinterpretation of Charles Dickens's famed coming-of-age novel. Told with Acker's typical sense of experimentation appropriation and brutal honesty. Oddly uncommon and a beautiful copy. 8'' x 5''. Publisher's quarter black cloth over black boards. In original unclipped $14.95 color pictorial jacket designed by Roy Colmer after art by Sue Coe. 128 pages. Bright and sharp overall. Grove Press unknown books
1977ref. 17664New York: Harper and Row Publishers 1977. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Near Fine in a Near Fine dust jacket unclipped $12.50 lightly bumped and rubbed toned at the flaps. Black cloth a thin strip of fading at the top edge. Square and firmly bound clean internally. Sakoian and Acker's important work about the influence of transiting planets. Harper and Row, Publishers hardcover books
1976ref. 17670New York: Harper and Row Publishers 1976. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Very Good in a Good dust jacket unclipped $10.95 lightly toned bumped and with some creases and short tears moisture stains on the back panel. Black cloth with purple gilt letterings on the spine and front board. Square and firmly bound some rippling to the final fifty pages but no stains. Harper and Row, Publishers hardcover books
1976ref. 17656Weston: ACA Inc 1976. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. About Very Good. Wraps rubbed and bumped faded a few shades at the spine. Firmly bound with a forward lean lightly bumped pages clean internally. ACA, Inc paperback books
1975ref. 17657Weston: Sakoian and Acker 1975. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. Foreword by J.H. Nelson. Errata slip tipped-in inside the front cover. Very Good. Wraps soiled throughout faded at the spine. Square and firmly bound clean internally. Sakoian and Acker paperback books
1978ref. 17673Arlington: CSA Printing New England School of Astrology 1978. Staplebound. Very Good. First two early printings others firsts. About Near Fine. Covers with some bumps and toning. Firmly bound with two staples bookstore stamps clean otherwise. CSA Printing | New England School of Astrology unknown books
1975ref. 17672Arlington: CSA Printing New England School of Astrology 1975. First Edition. Staplebound. Very Good. Ten volumes. Very Good. Covers lightly toned a few stray spots of soiling and rubbing. Firmly bound with two staples many with bookstore stamps or stickers on the title and copyright pages clean otherwise. CSA Printing | New England School of Astrology unknown books
