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! 

Picasso's daughter to translate SA poet's works

Published in the Sunday Express, 29 June 1969.

Advert for Nova Broadcast titles, 1968

Nova Broadcast press was run by Jan Herman back in the late 1960s. As indicated by this advert, it was originally planned as a venture in collaboration with Beach Books, Texts & Documents and the literary journal The San Francisco Earthquake. Among others, Nova published works by Ray Bremser, Norman O Mustill, Carl Weissner, Dick Higgens and Wolf Wostell. However, some of the titles announced in the advert did not make it to publication - including  Alice in Progress by Sinclair Beiles and Annie Rooney, his first wife. (Joyce Mansour's Flash Card was later published by Cherry Valley Editions.)