Aloes Editions
Brian D. McCary
bdm at storz.com
Wed Feb 26 17:17:12 CST 1997
Skip Wolfe mentions the Aloes Editions, and does a fine job. I've never
seen the Entropy book, which sounds like something produced by one of those
enterprising types.
I have all four. Here is the missing info:
Mortality and Mercy in Vienna - White Cover, with a sepitone (sp?) cutout
of a young man in a white sport coat and leather boots, walking past
a door, hiding his face with some papers. Too skinny looking to be
who it might be. The pages are unnumbered, and the paper is just better
than newsprint quality. Truely a charming edition: on the second page,
it appears that there was a light spot on the galleys used to make the
plates, because there is a band where the letters are written in by hand
(although this appears to be the way it was printed). The title page shows
the title page from a book called "Murder By Contract", author only known
as "Griff" (in quotes) with Mortality and mercy in vienna and thomas pynchon
written over it. ISBN 0 85652 023 3
Lowlands - As described. GW picture is also off a one dollar bill.
ISBN 0 85652 034 9, hand stamped onto back cover.
Small Rain - As described. ISBN 0-85652-055-1. Also lists printer
Secret Integration - As described. ISBN 0-85652-049-7.
Three of the four books credit Jim Pennington with design and layout.
Printer for Small Rain and Secret Integration was Lithosphere Printing Co-op.
Small Rain lists prices for all four, and no mention of Entropy. (Lowlands
and MMV are listed at 75 pence). Lowlands has other authors listed
in the back, including White Subway by William borroughs and The Night by
Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine. I don't know who Aloes is, but they
have a great catalog.
Judging by the inscription, my sister found The Small Rain for me in
1984, probably somewhere in Washington. The other three I found together
in some long forgotten bookstore, (Oxford, in Atlanta? Is it still there?)
sometime after June of 1985.
I'm not sure how useful any of this is, but I always wondered if I
was the only one out there with these.
Brian McCary
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