Minutes to Go.

Paris: Two Cities Editions,, 1960. Signed by Gysin First edition, first printing, signed on the title page by Brion Gysin, next to his printed name. This was the first book of cut-up poetry published by Burroughs, Gysin, and their collaborators: "the original manifesto and manual of the method" (Harris), and marks the first of Burroughs and Gysin's many collaborations. Burroughs and Gysin met at the Beat Hotel in Paris, in October 1959, where Burroughs was first introduced to Gysin's cut-up paintings, which influenced much of his later writing. By the time they had met, Gysin had already contributed the notorious marijuana fudge recipe to Alice B. Toklas's Cookbook, and the pair's time in Paris together was dominated by "mirror-gazing, scrying, trance and telepathy, all fuelled by a wide variety of mind-altering drugs" (Stevens, p. 50). It was from this febrile atmosphere that the present book emerged. Burroughs contributes eleven pieces to the volume, and Gysin five, including "First Cut-Ups" and the titular poem, "Minutes to Go". The cut-up technique later influenced some of the 20th century's most important artists, from the Beat Generation to David Bowie. Octavo. Original blue and white wrappers, rear wrapper designed by Gysin, lettering to spine in blue, to front white. Spine a little sunned, extending to front wrapper, extremities a touch rubbed, lower rear wrapper a little soiled with short closed tear, pale foxing to fore edge, a few marks to endpapers else internally fresh. A very good copy indeed. Maynard & Miles A3a. Oliver Harris, "'Burroughs Is a Poet Too, Really': The Poetics of Minutes to Go", RealityStudio, available online; Matthew Levi Stevens, The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs, 1999.