New York: Fuck You Press, 1963

4to, 46 pink mimeographed leaves, unpaginated, secured by staples running the length of left edge. Slight crease to leading edge of first two pages, otherwise a near fine copy.

First edition. Issue Number 9 of this key publication of the Mimeograph Revolution. Presented, confusingly as Number 5 Volume 5. Printed in December 1963.

In the 'fifties and 'sixties, one-man underground publishing enterprises such as the Fuck You Press rarely got past Issue One -- indeed, many failed even to get that far. Fuck You, A Magazine For The Arts ran for thirteen issues between 1962 and 1965, featured contributors comprising most of the principal cast of that period's counterculture scene, and is now acknowledged as one of the main freeways connecting the end of the Beats to the beginning of the Yippies. In Sanders' own words, 'Fuck You was part of what they called the Mimeograph Revolution, and my vision was to reach out to the 'best minds' of my generation with a message of Gandhian pacifism, great sharing, social change, the expansion of personal freedom (including the legalisation of marijuana), and the then-stirring messages of sexual liberation.'

Contributors to this issue include Englishman Harry Fainlight (brother of Ruth), Herbert Huncke, Tuli Kupferberg, Peter Orlowsky -- and making his debut in the magazine, Orlovsky's partner Allen Ginsberg, whose The Change: Kyoto-Tokyo Express July 18, 1963 appears over four pages. Ginsberg is described in the Contributors' Notes as '...a countersquirt martian cock agent for The Order of the flaming Belly. Recently puked back to NY where his craggy shriek-brows + panting body are vectors of the TOTAL TURNON.' Not the approach the New Yorker would take, but fair enough.

Around 500 copies of each issue were produced, firstly on the nearby Catholic Worker's Speed-O-Print and later on an A.B. Dick stencil duplicator. They were then distributed free of charge wherever Sanders found himself.

A near fine copy.