Big Table 1 / Big Table 2 / Big Table 3 / Big Table 4.
Chicago: Big Table, Inc., 1959-60. Paperback. First four issues (Volume I, Nos. 1-4). Small 8vo. Stiff pictorial wrappers. 152pp, (6pp ads); 122pp, (2pp ads); 120pp; 141pp, (3pp ads). Illustrations (one foldout). Very good to near fine. Item #48097
Handsome, tight and near complete (4 out of 5) set of this short-lived Beat quarterly that begins with the premiere issue (Spring 1959) and the first appearance of Jack Kerouac's "Old Angel Midnight" and William S. Burroughs' "Ten Episodes from Naked Lunch," along with contributions from Edward Dahlberg and Gregory Corso -- these first two of which brought obscenity charges from the U.S. Postal Service. Three following issues likewise feature a "Who's Who" of contributors that include Leon Golub, Paul Bowles, Brother Antoninus, Andre Breton, Paul Blackburn, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsburg, Robert Duncan, John Ashbery, Aaron Siskind, Robert Creeley, Norman Mailer, Peter Orlovsky, Jean Genet, Richard G. Stern and many others. Subscription form laid into first volume along with 23 June 1959 "Chicago Daily News" clipping "Call Beatnik Magazine Obscene." A superb grouping.
Price: $250.00