New in French translation: Sinclair Beiles’s Selected Catastrophies & Other Poems

Catastrophes Choisies is not Sinclair Beiles’s first poetry collection to appear in French, but it is the most elaborate. The South African emigré poet, writer, and editor was born in Uganda of Russian-Jewish descent, in 1930, and grew up in Johannesburg from the age of six. An ex-patriate for most of his life, Beiles lived at various times in Tangiers, Athens, London, Rotterdam, and Paris, and sporadically had himself committed to hospital wards to deal with his sometimes fragile mental health  ...  Read more.

Portrait of SInclair Beiles, 1997

 

Artist: Reshada Krouse. Courtesy of the artist.

Sinclair Beiles in Cape Town

 Good to see that Gregory Penfold in Cape Town has received his copy of Who was Sinclair Beiles?, published by Dye Hard Press.

On-Stage

On-Stage is a collection of poems by Sinclair Beiles, published by Ivor Kruger's Limited Editions in 1993. There is a copy at the library of the University of South Africa.

Khakiweeds

Khakiweeds was a collection of poems by Sinclair Beiles, published by Ivor Kruger's Limited Editions, in 1995. There is a copy at the library of the University of South Africa.

Bukowski mentions Beiles reviewing Penguin Modern Poets 13

 'also Penguin Poetry [sic] 13 is out. but it won't be published in U.S. until June 26, this year. Bukowski-Norse-Lamantia. but we are already in trouble. the slick-poetry academy boys and poets are already after our asses. Sinclair Beiles wrote a good review of Penguin 13, said it was the best of the series, but London Magazine refused the print the review and Beiles sent it to a South African paper which also refused to publish the bit. Beiles wrote Norse that he thought Hal and I were the best living writers using the English language ...'

Letter to Jon and Louise Webb, Feburary 5, 1969

(published in Charles Bukowski, Selected Letters, Volume 2: 1965-1970, edited by Seamus Cooney, Virgin Books, 2004.) 

Alice in Progeress by Sinclair Beiles and Annie Rooney

 

In the biography note to Ashes of Experience (Wurm, 1969) it was stated that Sinclair Beiles and his wife Annie Rooney were due to have a book called Alice in Progress published by the Nova Broadcast series in the US, which was run by Jan Herman. In was even listed as a forthcoming title by Nova Broadcast in an advertisement published by City Lights. However, this book never appeared and enquiries about the possible whereabouts of the manuscript led nowhere ... until about a month ago when musician and Burroughs enthusiast Jeffrey Ball kindly answered a question of mine about the contribution that Sinclair and Annie Rooney had published in the journal The San Francisco Earthquake 4, published in 1968 -- it was Alice in Progress! Jeffrey also kindly photocopied the respective pages, though due to concerns over the spine cracking was not able to photocopy them flat - but no matter, the pages can be read. The San Francisco Earthquake was also edited by Jan Herman, so obviously for whatever reason(s), it appeared in journal form instead. Thank you, Jeffrey! 

Glowing review of Who was Sinclair Beiles?

I found this glowing review of Who was Sinclair Beiles? on Goodreads today: I certainly could not have asked for more!

Thank you, Mat!

**************

An excellent 'festschrift' (or 'celebration'), rather than a strict biography, on the mysterious South African beat writer, Sinclair Beiles.

Beiles is probably most famous for helping Burroughs get Naked Lunch published at Olympia through Girodias, at a time when Burroughs was really strung out on paregoric and/or heroin. His most famous work in print is probably as one of the four contributors (Beiles, Burroughs, Corso & Gysin) of the now legendary cut-up compilation, Minutes to Go, published in 1960.

 However, as this book illustrates, Beiles is [sic] quite a prolific poet and playwright and apart from the above two works, much of his writing has surfaced 'under the radar' and hasn't been the subject of much attention by either critics or fellow poets and writers. Beiles is someone whose quality of writing is as notoriously inconsistent as it is hard to track down and read his books in the first place.

One of his books of poetry, Yeoville, for example, was only published in a limitation of 4 copies.

What Beiles has in common with Burroughs is their meeting in Tangier and in Paris, an interest in drugs, an interest in experimental artists and writers and also, interestingly, a regular allowance from their families which allowed them both to focus much time on their writing.

I hope this book goes some way to revealing more about this great writer to the literary world. His poetry and plays have been criminally neglected and underrated and it is high time that his work is evaluated alongside many of the other great beat writers who are already firmly and undeniably well ensconced in the beat cannon and annals of history (in particular Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg).

Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska have done a terrific job of compiling these (mostly flattering) articles on Sinclair and his art. This is the best introduction to a little-known artist.

If you can obtain a copy, I recommend getting the second edition which is revised and expanded and contains an excellent bibliography-in-progress of Beiles' works in print.

Read the original post.

Raymond Foye writes about Who was Sinclair Beiles?

 

Burning the midnight oil with SINCLAIR BEILES, a wonderful poet who I always heard about, but knew very little about. A South African poet who lived at the Beat Hotel and was the editor of Naked Lunch + Samuel Beckett, at Olympia Press, followed by many years of mental illness which he often documented in his poems. Thanks to Gerard Bellaart for sending this book, full of essential information and many poems.

Originally posted on Facebook, 25 September, 2022.

Beiles translated into Greek

 

A small selection of Sinclair Beiles's poems have been translated into Greek by Yannis Lavadis and published by Bibliotheque, Athens.

Inscription in the first edition of Deliria by Sinclair Beiles

Inscription by Sinclair Beiles in number 82 of the first edition of 250 copies of Deliria, published by Cold Turkey Press, Rotterdam, 1971. 'Judy' is probably Judy Shaw.

The preface - a letter to the publisher - was not reprinted in the second edition, published by Small Spaces Press in Johannesburg, in 1994.