Dividing Line Books

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.

A contiguous set comprising the first three volumes (eight total issues) of this literary journal, which anthologized the later output of Beat-era writers. Published and edited by the husband-and-wife duo of Arthur and Kit "Glee" Knight, who took the journal's title from Jack Kerouac's "Belief & Technique for Modern Prose," a methodological "list of essentials" composed at the prompting of Allen Ginsberg. To the best of our knowledge, the journal went on to run through fourteen volumes, issued in various formats, many of which, to some confusion, had other primary titles: "The Beat Diary," "The Beat Road," etc.

California, PA: The Unspeakable Visions of the Individual / TUVOTI, 1971-1973. Quarto; first three issues side-stapled, subsequently saddle-stapled; printed black-and-white wraps.