Brass Furnace Going Out. Song, After an Abortion
Buffalo, NY: Intrepid Press / PulpArtForms Unltd. 1975. 11 x 8.5 inches. [16] pages. "Fertile Donation Box", rear wrapper with ads and half-tone portrait of the author. Illustrated wrappers, stapled, showing a sculpture by Suzanne Benton. Light toning to the paper, as usual, generally fine. Item #410375
Presumed first edition. This is The Beau Fleuve Series no. 9. "In 1960, aged just 25, Diane terminated a pregnancy under pressure from LeRoi Jones, her partner at the time and the man with whom she went on to edit the newsletter The Floating Bear. The regret and bitterness which she felt about the event were excruciatingly detailed in her poem ‘Brass Furnace Going Out – Song After An Abortion.' The poem, with its graphic images of the unborn foetus, pulls no punches, and indeed the explicit content of her work often saw her harassed by the police. In 1961 she was arrested and investigated by the FBI for charging two allegedly obscene poems in The Floating Bear" (Jessie Anand, The Heroine Collective, 2016). OCLC locates no copies of this edition (nor any other).
Price: $100.00