This book is the first attempt to produce a critical edition of a large number of Kathy Acker’s unpublished early works. Apart from the posthumous publication, in 2002, of the early manuscript Rip-off Red, Girl Detective and The Burning Bombing of America: The Destruction of the U.S. by Amy Scholder and Grove Press in one volume, in 2002, as well as Gabrielle Kappes’ chapbook, no other important publication had been attempted in this field.
These – mostly unpublished – texts were all composed between 1969 and 1976. Yet they are representative of Acker’s published output only for the period running from 1971 to early 1974. These texts all exist as “clean” typewritten copies, probably intended to be kept, shown, maybe even published. The editor chose not to include Acker’s manuscripts. The transcriptions in this volume were made directly from the original typescripts. Original pagination, manuscript addenda, missing pages and other idiosyncrasies of each file have been preserved; our editorial notes at the end of the texts all feature a material description of the source version used.
The organization of this volume is chronological. The texts’ respective date of composition is often the result of an estimate based on their content and form (an estimate that is then justified and defended).
Such a collection shows how prolific, diverse and always in-progress Acker’s production was in those years. It isn’t, however, Acker’s complete early works. More typescripts exist at the Fales Library which aren’t featured or alluded to in this book. Their publication and analysis may in the future suggest a whole new set of interpretations that will, or might not, contradict the present editor’s exegesis. Moreover, the comparison of the typescripts with manuscript versions will undoubtedly inspire new perspectives on Acker’s creative process and intentions during those years.
Table of contents:
Are You Surprised that Kathy Acker Was an Aries Because I’m Not — Claire Finch
Section from: Diary (1-2/1971) — Kathy Acker
Portraits (7/1971) — Kathy Acker
Portraits and Visions (ca. summer 1971) — Kathy Acker
Diary Warmcatfur (1/1972) — Kathy Acker
Politics (pub. 5/1972) — Kathy Acker
For H. (ca. 5/1972) — Kathy Acker
Revolutionary Diary of an Anarchist (ca. 5/1972) — Kathy Acker
Journal Black Cats Black Jewels (summer 1972) — Kathy Acker
Gold Songs for Jimi Hendrix (ca. summer 1972) — Kathy Acker
Breaking Up (ca. summer 1972) — Kathy Acker
[Letters to Bernadette Mayer] (summer-fall 1972) – Kathy Acker
Homage to LeRoi Jones (fall 1972) — Kathy Acker
[Letter to Bernadette Mayer] (ca. fall 1972) — Kathy Acker
Entrance into dwelling in paradise (fall 1972) — Kathy Acker
[Exercises] (fall 1972) — Kathy Acker
Stripper Disintegration (2-3/1973) — Kathy Acker
Section from Diary (3/1973) — Kathy Acker
[Letter to Bernadette Mayer] (6 / 2? / 1973) — Kathy Acker
The beginning of the Thesmophoriazusae (7-9/1973) — Kathy Acker
Part I of Breaking Through Memories into Desire (11 / 1973) — Kathy Acker
Part II [of Breaking Through Memories…] (ca. 1 / 1974) — Kathy Acker
Conversations (1/1974) — Kathy Acker
Talking as Music (2/1974) — Peter Gordon
From Part III of Breaking Through Memories… (2-3 / 1974) — Kathy Acker
[Letters to Alan Sondheim] (2-3 / 1974) — Kathy Acker
[Letter to Bernadette Mayer] (3 / 3 / 1974) — Kathy Acker
[Untitled Tape] (3/1974) — Kathy Acker & Alan Sondheim
[About the Untitled Tape] (ca. 3/1974) — Emily Cheng
[Untitled Tape 2] (ca. 3/1974) — Kathy Acker & Alan Sondheim
Various Memory Experiments, I (4/1974) — Kathy Acker
[Letter to Bernadette Mayer] (4-7 / 1974) — Kathy Acker
[Postcard to Kathy Acker] (7/24/1974) — Alan Sondheim
[Letters to Bernadette Mayer] (10 / 1974-10 / 1975) — Kathy Acker
[Songs] (1974-1975) — Jill Kroesen
[Flyer for the Whitney Museum] (11/1976) — Kathy Acker & Alan Sondheim
About the « Blue Tape » (2012) — Alan Sondheim
[About the Untitled Tape 1] (2018) — Emily Cheng
14th Street studio and Fun City (2019) — Justin Gajoux
Kathy Acker and Sex Work in the Section from Diary (2019) — Justin Gajoux
Porno-graphing Actions of the « Blue Tape » (2019) — Anna Maria Pinaka
Afterword — Matias Viegener