DI PRIMA, Diane

Revolutionary Letters [LETTERS 1-34]

No Place: Privately Published, 1968. 35.5x21.5cm: [20pp.], with this copy having an additional leaf mistakenly bound in, reproducing Letter Nos. 22, 23, and 24. Original thin card self-wrappers, staplebound, with tilting to front. Text printed in black on recto and verso on different colored mimeographed sheets. A few areas of light soiling to wrappers and pages, with some offsetting from the mimeo reproduction process. Light wear to edges. Minor crinkling and creasing to the upper right corner, impacting all leaves. Three ink corrections in Di Prima’s hand to Letter No. 9, with another three to Letter No.15, most likely applied to all copies in this necessarily small print run. Better than Very Good. Scarce, especially so in such nice condition.

First published by the Communication Company, the publishing arm of The Diggers, and the Artists’ Workshop Press (Ann Arbor) earlier in 1968 in the form of 15 poems, similarly produced in small print runs with no discernable priority. This printing appeared in the same year, expanded to 34 poems, and produced under the control of Di Prima herself. Dedicated to Bob Dylan, the poems comprise a potent blend of feminist manifesto, dystopian survival guide, and radical poetics.

Price: $345.00

Item #10602