Sea Urchin Editions

11/08/2025

First copy of a new Sea Urchin:

PIE, Japanese bound edition with obi strip. Cover of elephant dung paper. Edition of 15. Language: English. Design and translations: Ben Schot.
€ 20,00

PIE marks Sea Urchin’s 25th anniversary. The slim compilation of 10 prose and poetry pieces offers a taste of Sea Urchin’s publications since 2000, when the press was launched as an artist’s project on the historical avant-garde and its 19th-century predecessors. With: Henri Michaux, Edgar Allan Poe, Georg Trakl, Urmuz, Johannes Baader, and others.

Let me know if you're interested.

08/08/2025

in stock:

JEAN-JACQUES LEBEL - KOZMIK ZIGZAG

12" vinyl released by Slowscan in 2023. Edition of 250. Artwork: Jean-Jacques Lebel. Design: Johnny Van de Koolwijk.
€ 25,00

Artist, writer, curator, theorist, and activist Jean-Jacques Lebel (Paris, 1936) has been a spearhead of the avant-garde since the 1950s. Lebel formed an early link between the European avant-garde and the American Beat Generation, introduced Happenings to Europe, was one of the creative minds behind the May 68 revolt, organised the Festival de la libre Expression (which evolved into the Polyphonix festivals), provided first French translations of works by Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and William Burroughs and has curated large exhibitions on Francis Picabia, Antonin Artaud, Henri Michaux, Pablo Picasso a.o. La Maison rouge in 2009 and Centre Pompidou in 2018 dedicated comprehensive shows to Lebel’s works, views and international connections.

The 12″ vinyl ‘Kozmik Zigzag’ that Jan van Toorn’s Slowscan has now released, contains pieces that were recorded at Lebel’s home in Paris in 2021, a performance together with jazz improvisations by Joëlle Léandre in 1993 and a talk (in English) between Lebel and Andres Pardey of the Tinguely Museum, Basel, in 2022. The artwork of this beautiful release is by Jean-Jacques Lebel himself, the design of the sleeve by Johnny Van de Koolwijk.

Pieces that were recorded at Lebel's home in Paris in 2021, a performance together with jazz improvisations by Joëlle Léandre in 1993 and a talk (in English) between Lebel and Andres Pardey of the Tinguely Museum, Basel, in 2022.

04/08/2025

in stock from MOLOKO PLUS:

RICHARD BYRNE - HOTEL MAYFLOWER

English / German edition published by Moloko Plus, Schönebeck, 2024. German translation: Mark Kanak. Design: Ralf Zühlke.
€ 20,00

True story: Before finding fame as a writer, Beat Generation icon William Burroughs met a German Jewish woman named Ilse Herzfeld Klapper in Dubrovnik. A year later, in 1938, they married. Ilse Burroughs received a U.S. visa from this marriage, which allowed her to escape N**i Germany. She arrived in New York in 1939, where she worked for exiled anti-fascist German writer Ernst Toller. During his exile, Toller had become a leading figure in the anti-fascist resistance. He gave speeches, wrote articles, raised money for the hungry in Spain and even wrote film scripts in Hollywood. In his play ‘Hotel Mayflower’ Richard Byrne imagines how Toller, Herzfeld Klapper and Burroughs met and collided in a Manhattan hotel in 1939. Byrne’s ‘Hotel Mayflower’ is a fictitious world based on historical facts: a picture of exile and displacement amid growing fascism, and attempts to erase and rewrite history. Where does that leave the artist? As Byrne himself puts it: “Toller and Burroughs are at opposite poles in their views about writing and politics. And the story of Ilse Herzfeld Klapper Burroughs – polyglot, refugee, friend to the famous – is utterly enigmatic. ‘Hotel Mayflower’ was my opportunity to explore a tangle of key issues in our moment through the prism of a forgotten story of 1939 that should be better known.”

Richard Byrne writes plays and films. He is also an award-winning editor and journalist. His work has been published in places including Time, The Nation, The New Republic, The Baffler, BookForum, New York Press, The Wilson Quarterly, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. Byrne lives in Washington DC. His plays ‘Burn Your Bookes’ and ‘Nero/Pseudo’ have been produced in Prague and Washington DC. His new film, ‘The Drowned Girl’, has been screened in New York City and Washington DC. Moloko Plus has now published ‘Hotel Mayflower’ – originally titled ‘Three Suitcases’ – as a bilingual (English-German) edition with a German translation by Mark Kanak. Design: Ralf Zühlke.

In his play ‘Hotel Mayflower’ Richard Byrne imagines how Ernst Toller, Ilse Herzfeld Klapper and William Burroughs met and collided in a Manhattan hotel in 1939. Byrne’s ‘Hotel Mayflower’ is a fictitious world based on historical facts: a picture of exile and displacement amid growing fasc...

29/07/2025

New in our Collectible zine catalogue:

COYOTE'S JOURNAL # 10

Published by Coyote’s Journal, Brunswick, Maine, 1974. Editor James Koller, co-editor Franco Beltrametti. Language: English. Cover photos: Marguerite Swift-Koller & Jim Hatch. Condition: Very good except for rust stains around the staples.
€ 17,50

‘Coyote’s Journal’ was a literary magazine edited by American poet JAMES KOLLER. Koller (1936-2014) was originally trained as a photographer and became poetry editor of the University of Oregon’s literary magazine in 1964. After the suspension of that magazine he started his own Coyote’s Journal together with Ed Van Aelstyn and Will Wroth later that year. Koller moved to northern California in 1965 and stayed in the Bay Area until the early 1970s. The 10th issue of Coyote’s Journal was edited from Maine, where Koller, always on the move, lived in 1974. Co-editor of the issue was Koller’s friend, Swiss poet FRANCO BELTRAMETTI, with whom he undertook many poetry tours of Europe and the US from 1977 onwards. Apart from making his mark as a poet, publisher and photographer, Koller was also active as an environmentalist.

This copy of Coyote’s Journal #10 is in very good condition except for rust stains around the staples. Among its contributors are Gary Snyder, Franco Beltrametti, Richard Page, Judy Berg a.o.
https://www.sea-urchin.net/collectible/collectible-literature/coyotes-journal-10/

26/07/2025

new in our Collectible catalogue:

GARY SNYDER - A RANGE OF POEMS

Hardcover published by Fulcrum Press, London, 1967. Second edition. Artwork: Gary Snyder & Will Petersen. Photography: Ken Walden. Design: Stuart Montgomery. Condition: Very good, slight discolouration of the page edges. Minor damage to the dust jacket.
€ 50,00

American poet, translator and environmentalist GARY SNYDER was born in San Francisco in 1930. After his parents had moved to Washington State and later to Oregon, Snyder discovered reading, poetry and the folklore of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. He published his first poems during his time at Reed College, Portland and graduated with a dual degree in anthropology and literature in 1951. His experiences working summers as a hand in the timber industry were expressed in his poetry of the early 1950s. Having returned to his native San Francisco in 1952, Snyder studied Asian cultures and languages and began practising Zen. He read one of his poems at the famous 1955 poetry readings at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, which heralded the birth of the Beat Generation. But although there are all sorts of connections with the Beats, Snyder was never really part of that circle and rather thought of himself as belonging to the San Francisco Renaissance, which was spearheaded by Kenneth Rexroth. Snyder started studying Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan in 1955, returned to California in 1958 and divided the next decade between Japan and California, writing poetry, translating and furthering his Zen studies. In 1970 he settled in Kitkitdizze, his property in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California. In the 1980s Snyder was appointed a professor at the University of California and became deeper involved in environmental issues. He has been awarded several prizes for his poetry and is held in high esteem as an environmental activist.

‘A Range of Poems’ compiles several of Snyder’s earlier works from ‘Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems’, ‘Myths & Texts’, translations of poems by Kenji Miyazawa and ‘The Back Country’. It was published in 1966 by Fulcrum Press, London, followed by a second edition one year later. This particular copy of the second edition from 1967 is in very good condition with only slight discolouration of the edges of the pages and minor damage to the dust jacket, which has a 42/- price sticker on its front flap.

Hardcover compilation published by Fulcrum Press, London. Second edition, 1967. Condition: very good with only slight discolouration of the edges of the pages and slight damage to the dust jacket.

24/07/2025

in stock:

WILLIAM LEVY - JEREMIAD CHANTS (An Absolute Polemic)

Published independently, 1979. Illustrations: Peter Pontiac. Design: Willem de Ridder. Paper selected by Anthon Beeke.
€ 40,00

‘For behold, I send among thee serpents, adders which cannot be charmed, And they shall bite you … ‘ Jeremiah, VIII, 17.

JEREMIAD CHANTS, subtitled ‘An Absolute Polemic’, was published independently by William Levy and illustrator Peter Pontiac in 1979. With a print run of only 500 copies and Fluxus artist Willem de Ridder for a designer, this little book is a Rosetta stone of the European counterculture. Levy’s seductively packaged but caustic chapters, often previously published in underground magazines, would form the core of his larger ‘Natural Jewboy’, which was to be published by Ins & Outs Press two years later and would also have Peter Pontiac and Willem de Ridder as partners in crime. ‘From Slavery to Boredom’, one of those chapters, is a recurrent chant of disillusionment, ‘A Call for Chaos’ a subversive invocation, ‘Nihilism in The Netherlands’ a scathing analysis of Dutch progressive and literary circles, and both ‘God Help the Rich, the Poor Can Shift’ and ‘Crystal Night’ penetrating investigations into the power of the written word. All available copies of ‘Jeremiad Chants’ are in fine condition and were supplied directly by the late William Levy.

A Rosetta stone of the European counterculture

23/07/2025

in stock from MOLOKO PLUS:

CATHERINE MARSHALL & SIMON JOHNSON - ORDINARY STUPID PEOPLE
(Joan Vollmer's Life Before the Beats Began)

Published by Moloko Plus, 2024. Language: English. Design: Robert Schalinski.
€ 15,00

“… Joan Vollmer’s memory has long been framed within the narrative of the troubled five-year common-law marriage to the writer William S. Burroughs… her accidental death at her husband’s hand is unforgettable, the most enduring event of her short life. The shooting made her life a taboo topic for those who knew her well and a subject of fascination for those who did not. But the shooting tells us nothing about the 28 years of Joan’s life that preceded it… Joan Vollmer was extraordinary. The dean of her college knew it. Burroughs knew it. We knew it, too…”
(from the introduction to the book by the authors)

The Moloko publication ‘Ordinary Stupid People’ is aptly subtitled ‘Joan Vollmer’s Life Before the Beats Began’. Written by Cathy Marshall and Simon Johnson, the book is a first extract from a wider biographical work on Joan Vollmer which has received support and encouragement from members of the Vollmer family, as well as James Grauerholz of the William S. Burroughs Estate. Supplemented with photos, and beautifully designed by Robert Schalinski, this little book is another fine publication in the series of Moloko’s scholarly studies on Burroughs.

Cathy Marshall has published over a hundred scholarly articles about hypertext, digital libraries, ebooks, annotation, crowdsourcing, and personal digital archiving, as well as a book about ebook research, ‘Reading and Writing the Electronic Book’ (Morgan Claypool, 2009). With artist Judy Malloy, she co-created a collaborative hypertext memoir, ‘Forward Anywhere’ (Eastgate, 1995). ‘Ordinary Stupid People’ is her first foray into biography. A full biography of Joan Vollmer Burroughs, based on ten years of research and interviews, is forthcoming.

Simon Johnson is an archivist, based in Scotland. His research has led to collaboration with James Grauerholz, literary executor of the estate of William S. Burroughs, and he contributed research to Barry Miles’ 2014 publication ‘Call Me Burroughs’. He has conducted extensive research into the life of Anthony Burgess, working in collaboration with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, which invited him to present his findings at the Life, Work, Reputation conference in Manchester in 2017.

A first extract from a wider biographical work on Joan Vollmer. Supplemented with photos, and designed by Robert Schalinski.

21/07/2025

in stock:

Four JÜRGEN PLOOG related editions:

JÜRGEN PLOOG - LORRE IN METROPOLIS
(book published by Moloko Plus, 2021. With collages by Walter Hartmann):
https://www.sea-urchin.net/books/moloko-books/jurgen-ploog-lorre-in-metropolis/

JÜRGEN PLOOG - TAPES VON UNTERWEGS 1971-1976
(12" vinyl, jointly released by 90% Wasser & Moloko Plus, 2015):
https://www.sea-urchin.net/audio-video/90-prozent-wasser/jurgen-ploog-tapes-von-unterwegs-1971-1976/

UDO BREGER - IDENTITY EXPRESS
(book published by Moloko Plus, 2021. With a ticker tape by Jürgen Ploog):
https://www.sea-urchin.net/books/moloko-books/udo-breger-identity-express/

VARIOUS ARTISTS - BEING ON THE BEAT
(CD dedicated to the memory of Jürgen Ploog and released by Moloko Plus, 2020):
https://www.sea-urchin.net/audio-video/moloko-plus-audio-video/various-artists-being-on-the-beat/

19/07/2025

Sea Urchin Newsletter, 19 July 2025.

George Bacovia (1881-1957) and Dimitrie Stelaru (1917-1971) represent two generations in the long line of Romanian Francophile Symbolists. Although both Bacovia and Stelaru took inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe and the French Symbolists and were also touched by early-Expressionism, the two countryme...

16/07/2025

in stock:

WILLIAM LEVY & COLLABORATORS - POPULAR TEEN SHOT IN FACE BY FIRST LOVE

Orange 12" vinyl released by Slowscan, 2016. Photos: Indra Tamang & Michael Oetker. Design: Johnny Van de Koolwijk. Liner notes: Ben Schot.
€ 25,00

Slowscan vol. 34, a beautiful orange vinyl release, presents the listener with a cross section of William Levy’s controversial audio works. They range from high priestess of p**n Annie Sprinkle reading Levy’s poem ‘Blood’ to various works for radio, such as an excerpt of ‘Europe In Flames’, a successful 1987 radio play in collaboration with Willem de Ridder. Radio has occupied a special place in Levy’s work since his parents’ African American maid turned him onto ‘race music’ in Brooklyn in the 1950s. After having moved to Baltimore, Fat Daddy’s b***y radio shows found further willing and appreciative ears with Levy and his friends in the early 1960s. Several decades later, on the other side of the Atlantic, Levy edited ‘Certain Radio Speeches of Ezra Pound’ for Cold Turkey Press, co-authored the epistolary ‘Sing a Round for Ezra Pound & Other Ranters on the Radio’, wrote ‘Lend Me your Ears: Some New Orality Echoes’ and published the manifesto ‘Radio Art’ and the magazine ‘Radio Art Guide’. Moreover Levy loosely modelled his alter ego Dr. Doo-Wop after Fat Daddy to host his own radio shows. The Dr. Doo-Wop Radio Shows – a tribute to which is included on this LP – were broadcast weekly from Amsterdam from 1987 to 2007 and were re-broadcast by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam. On other tracks of the LP Levy is heard reading poems such as ‘Fantasy Affair’ and performing live on various occasions. All rare recordings directly from Levy’s archives and beautifully packaged for Slowscan by Johnny Van de Koolwijk in a limited edition of 250 copies.

Levy’s b/w portrait on the front of the sleeve was taken by Indra Tamang during Levy’s visit to Charles Henri Ford at the Dakota in 1979 or 1980. A portrait by Michael Oetker in front of the Viennese prison where Levy had just visited his friend Otto Muehl is printed on the back of the sleeve with liner notes by Ben Schot. Those liner notes conclude that the LP is ‘as mouthwatering to collectors as the smell of St Lawrence on the grill must have been to the hungry population of the slums of Rome’.

William Levy Compilation LP. Slowscan Vol. 34, 2016.