Sinclair Beiles in London, August 1975

Photos of Sinclair Beiles by Susan Janssen

Source: Beat Books

Poet Nanos Valaoritis, 98, dies

The prolific and esteemed Greek poet, novelist, playwright and translator Nanos Valaoritis has died, according to an announcement on his Facebook page. He was 98 years old, and “lived a life full of riches,” fellow poet Dinos Siotis said in a Facebook post.

Valaoritis was close friends with Sinclair Beiles for many years and edited his selected poems, A South African Abroad, published by Lapis Press in 1991.

Read more.

Houses of Joy by Anonymous

Houses of Joy by Anonymous, Masquerade Books, 1991.

Originally published by Olympia Press in 1959 under the pseudonym Wu Wu Ming (or Meng).

Source: Beat Books

Renowned Greek sculptor Takis dies at 93

World-renowned Greek sculptor Takis has died aged 93, his foundation said Friday, just as London's Tate Modern museum holds a major show of his work.

The poised stalks, coloured lights and moving balls of Takis's creations made him a noted figure of the 20th-century "kinetic" art movement along with the US artist Alexander Calder.

The Takis Foundation that promotes his work announced his death in a tribute to him on Facebook, without giving any details.

It called him "a true pioneer, innovator and legend... A prolific and visionary mind, whose ingenuity, passion and imagination was endless". Read more.

Letter to Astrid Noppen from Anthony Russell, on behalf of Sinclair Beiles, March 1966

A letter to Astrid Noppen in Tel Aviv, from Anthony Russell in Hydra, in March 1966, notifying her that Sinclair had been hospitalised due to a nervous breakdown.

Postcards from Sinclair Beiles to Astrid Noppen, 1965

Postcards from Sinclair Beiles in Hydra to Astrid Noppen in Tel Aviv, 1965.

Courtesy: Cold Turkey Press

Chopin in Majorca: Sinclair's beautiful failure (sold out but not forgotten)

Chopin in Majorca was recorded at The Velvet Tongue Studios in Johannesburg 1989. In those studios Sinclair Beiles is heard reading his play, a poetic counterpart of George Sand’s ‘Un hiver à Majorque’, in which the author (whose real name was Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin) relates the disastrous winter that she and her lover Frédéric Chopin spent on the island in 1838-1839. In an effort to counterbalance George Sand’s self-centred account, Beiles’ tries to picture in his one-man play what the winter on Majorca must have looked like from Chopin’s point of view. More here.

Letter to Astrid Noppen, 10 November 1965

Letter from Sinclair Beiles in Athens to Astrid Noppen in Tel Aviv.

Courtesy: Cold Turkey Press

The Poetics of Minutes to Go

The Poetics of Minutes to Go, by Oliver Harris and William S Burroughs, published by Moloko Print, Germany, 2012.

The volume contains 'Burroughs is a poet too, really: The poetics of Minutes to Go', an essay by Oliver Harris (in German and English); '17 cut-up poems' by William S Burroughs; and 'Permutations and Interferences' by Robert Schalinski. 

William Burroughs' cut-up of Sinclair Beiles's prose poem 'Stalin'

William Burroughs's cut-up of Sinclair Beiles's prose poem 'Stalin', as published in Minutes to Go. The cut-up as shown above is reprinted in The Poetics of Minutes to Go, published by Moloko Print, Germany, 2012.

The volume contains 'Burroughs is a poet too, really: The poetics of Minutes to Go', an essay by Oliver Harris (in German and English); '17 cut-up poems' by William S Burroughs; and 'Permutations and Interferences' by Robert Schalinski. 

Manuscript of the poem 'Giraffe'

Manuscript of the poem 'Giraffe', sent to Astrid Noppen, in 1965. The poem appeared in Sinclair Beiles's debut collection, Ashes of Experience, in 1969.

Courtesy: Cold Turkey Press