Beaubo by Jim Gulyas and Richard Sassoon

This uncommon 1967 publication is a manifesto of sorts, outlining in a disjointed, satirical fashion a fictional religion known as “Beauboism.” The written contents—presumably all the work of Sassoon—vary from “excerpts” of pseudo-mystical and pseudo-mythological source materials, to loosely related stories and prose poems, with pronounced emphases on the profane, lascivious, and/or scatological. Profusely illustrated throughout with Gulyas’s black-and-white line drawings, which articulate an absurd and psychedelic vision of reality very much in sync with Sassoon’s.

Sassoon is best known for his tempestuous early relationship with American writer Sylvia Plath. Though he reportedly wrote poetry throughout his life, aside from a few appearances in literary journals, Beaubo is his sole book-length credit. Gulyas’s drawings can be found in several other contemporaneous Bay-area counterculture artifacts, including Child’s Hat. Beaubo was published by Frank Westbrook’s Bindweed Press, which produced some of the era’s most recognizable rock posters for venues like the Avalon Ballroom.