This extensive archive consists of the printer and publisher's original file copies of books that were either printed and published by Troubador Press or were printed by Troubador for City Lights Books in San Francisco. Troubador Press was founded in San Francisco by Brayton Harris and Malcolm Whyte, two friends who had met as Naval officers, as a small publishing and printing firm. In addition to printing their own line of greeting cards and the occasional poetry book, they printed books for other small press book publishers, such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books and LeRoi Jones' Totem Press. In the past, PBA has offered other archival material from Troubador Press. This lot consists of the balance of file copies from the press.
Contains: 7 copies of Bob Kaufman's Abomunist Manifesto, 1959, First edition; 2 copies of Second April, 1959; First edition, 2 copies of Does The Secret Mind Whisper?, 1960, First Edition; 7 copies of Alan Watts, Beat Zen, with printers cover art; 2 copies of Maurice Kenny, Dead Letters Sent and With Love To Lesbia, 1958; 1 copy of Oliver Pitcher, Dust of Silence, cloth, DJ and 3 in wrappers; 8 copies of Corso, Gasoline in various printings; 3 copies of Hemingway's Poems, the City Lights pirated edition; 2 Lord Buckley, Hiparama of The Classics 1960, First editions, City Lights; 9 copes Ferlinghetti, Pictures of The Gone World, various printings; 9 copies of Kerouac's broadside, Rimbaud, second printing, (red on yellow paper); 3 copies of Loewinsohn, Watermelons, 1959, one inscribed to the printer and one apparently a proof copy in untrimmed state; 1 copy of Meltzer, Ragas, 1959 First Edition; 3 copies of Mailer, The White Negro, with 50 and 75 cents cover prices; 4 copies, Ferlinghetti, Where Is Vietnam? City Lights, 1965 First editions, one inscribed to printer Mal Whyte; 3 copies The Merry Muses, the scarce first City Lights edition hand made with padded spine in 1962 from which the later editons were published; 3 copies of Jerry Kamstra's translation of Chaucer's Millers tale, 1961; 24 copies of Ginsberg's Howl, various printings done by Troubador, including a proof copy of the 13th printing in preparation for the 14th printing (perfect for the Howl scholar). 2 copies, Ginsberg Reality Sandwiches; a copy of Kaddish and Planet News, First Edition and Indian Journals; Lenore Kandel's The Love Book, 1966; Jazz #5 1960 and 3 copies of the Pocket Poets, Topor. Approximately 25 other small press items plus City Lights catalogs and ephemera; some correspondence with Charley Plymell about the literary scene in San Francisco. An interesting and important trove.