Fowlers End (44 page)

Mr. Kersh was born in 1909, in Teddington-onThames. He was, he says, a morose and tearful child but uncommonly hardy. He first gave evidence of his iron constitution at the age of four, when, after being declared dead of lung congestion, he sat up in his coffin. During the London blitz, he was bombed. Later, serving as a war correspondent attached to SHAEF, he was buried alive three times without ill effect.

He has lived in England, France, South America, the Barbados, and Italy. He is married and now a resident of New York City, where his military bearing (a token of service with Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards), his sartorial splendor (waistcoat, walking stick, and fedora), his powerful frame (he was once a professional wrestler), his compelling voice (he is a raconteur in the spellbinder tradition), and his handsome beard (he will not discuss it) make him an extravagant delight to his friends and an astonishment to strangers.

85 The American Express $13.95

The New Traveller's Companion Series, #85

ISBN: 1-59654-207-1

FORMAT: 5x8, Perfectbound

Author: Gregory Corso

About: Beat poet Corso's only novel. Inspired by his days in Europe, anxiously waiting for royalty checks and advances that were slow to appear, this freewheeling and farcical tale is the account of a birth in AmEx, and what came of it. With illustrations by the author. First published 1961 as No. 85 in the Traveller's Companion Series. Never reprinted.

66 Tender Was My Flesh $11.95

The New Traveller's Companion Series #66

ISBN: 1-59654-164-4

Book Type: 5x8 Perfect Bound

Author: Winifred Drake, actually Denny Bryant, for a while the spouse of Baird Bryant, who at one point had a fling with ace Olympia translator Austryn Wainhouse.

About: Perhaps no title so sums up Olympia. This particular book has been referenced in dozens of articles on the firm, generally in a condescending manner. It doesn't seem to have been pirated as much as other Traveller's Companion titles.

Whatever. Tender Was My Flesh is the coming of age story about a girl, Susan Holiday, who lives in a cold and rural place, surviving the harsh winters with help from the fire that burns in her loins. Susan feeds this fire, first with the family dog, later with men, and finally her desires take her to the big city after high school, where she finds work as a dancer.

48 The Young and The
Evil $11.95

Author: Charles Henri Ford, the famed imagist poet, editor, critic, and Parker Tyler.

About: A stunning work, first published in 1933 by Obelisk Press (Jack Kahane's legacy), The Young and the Evil is a non-judgemental depiction of gay life and men who earn their living there, told through characters like Julian (modeled on Ford) and Karel (based on Tyler). With the added interracial connotations (book was set in Harlem and Greenwich), err, anyone surprised that this title didn't clear customs across the Channel or the Pond?

92 Count Palmiro Vicarion's Grand Grim
oire of Bawdy Ballads and Limericks. $13.9
5 The New Traveller's Companion Series, # 92

ISBN: 1-59654-321-3

FORMAT: 6x9, Perfectbound

Author: Count Palmiro Vicarion (poet and Homer savant Christopher Logue, part of the
Merlinois.)

About: Complete in one volume, Bawdy Ballads (published 1955) a
nd Limericks (published 1956.) With Index of first lines.