Johnny Guitar

New York: The Poetry Project, 1969. First Edition. One of 500 copies, now scarce.

The third publication by noted New York poet, activist, performance artist, visual artist, and Buddhist John Giorno, a tall slim volume containing a six page experimental poems, published by The Poetry Project at St. Marks Church In-The-Bowery, April 2, 1969. Cover art by Les Levine.

A pioneer of Performance Poetry, whose work over five decades has cast an irrevocable shadow on performance art, Giorno revolutionized the 1960s New York poetry scene. Inspired by Pop Art and utilizing mechanisms of mass media, Giorno created Dial-A-Poem in 1969, which allowed anyone to call Giorno Poetry Systems (a nonprofit Giorno founded four years earlier) and listen to a random poem by a random author. It was an enormous success, with millions of people dialing in, and in 1970 it was featured at the "Information" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Writers who participated in Giorno Poetry Systems projects include Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, William Burroughs, John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Robert Mapplethorpe, Rod Padgett, Robert Rauschenberg, Peter Schjeldahl, Bobby Seale, Patti Smith, Anne Waldman, and many others.

Fair in wrappers. Front wrapper and page edges dampstained, rear wrapper detached but present.

[Book #152044]