GUSHER - VOL.1, NO.1 (SPRING, 1959)
Houston: Marshall Printing Company, 1959. First Edition. Item #8120
Slim octavo (21.75cm); original pictorial card wrappers, stapled; 36pp; illus. Light wear and subtle toning to wrapper extremities, some very faint foxing to wrappers, though contents are clean; Very Good+ or better.
First and only issue of this one-off literary journal by American journalist, editor, and underground press publisher John Bryan (1934-2007). Gusher was Bryan's first substantive publication in a long, storied career – a combination of poetry and prose by Houston locals and others outside the scene, like Beat poet Jack Micheline, whose "Cross of Stone (to Dave Meltzer)" appears here for the first time. This issue includes Bryan's writings on jazz, as well as works by Del Weniger, Vivian Ayers, Frank Leeds, Fred Hand, Cleon Grant, and others. An uncommon and short-lived publication from Texas's nascent counterculture scene; OCLC notes just 2 holdings (UCLA, Brown), with none in Texas.
Price: $250.00