Letter from Brion Gysin to Roger Knoebber, 26 January, 1979

Paris, France: Brion Gysin (letter), 1979.
letter: 11.75" x 8.25", single sheet, recto only.
envelope: 4.5" x 6.375"
RK19790126_LBG1_1

A letter from Brion Gysin at 125 rue St. Martin, Paris, France to Roger Knoebber in San Francisco, California.

This reads:

135 Rue St. Martin Paris 4
26 Jan 79

Ah, dear Roger

Just got your letter of Dec 2 today, I’m afraid James is a lot less reliable than he looks. I left my Domaine Poétique slides with him to be xeroxed and because they have still not come I have had to bow out of a show in which I belonged by rights and have thus lost or mislaid my seniority in this game of pushy poets.

I’m furious. I would certainly have come to S.F. for at least one long great night with you. I really can’t think there will be a next time but who knows? It smells like 1939 to me over here. Perhaps we will all be in California by next summer. Save me a room in that Beat Hotel will ya?

I am writing my last book: Beat Museum – Bardo Hotel. The first chapter is in “Soft Need #17”. Have you seen it! I am half way through on the third floor, after going through the second floor as a girl, the hero is back into a male body again – trying to become a young Greek god before some woman makes him into a monkey on the top floor and he splits over the rooftops – or sumpin’ ….

I am making Dreamachine in Basel for a show in June to coincide with the Art Fair where the big baboon by the light of the moon will be combing his hair. A show of big color photos in Geneva on Feb 1 and then to India with my doctor – for a weekend. Fatepur Sikri between Delhi & Agra is all I want to see out there in this lifetime – no hippies, no holymen

[written along the left edge: “I dreamt I was with you last night and nothing else mattered. Love Brion”]

Notes:

"James": Possibly – but not necessarily – James Grauerholz, secretary to William S. Burroughs, given the timeframe and the Nova Convention in the prior year.

"S.F.": San Francisco, California

"save me a room in that Beat Hotel": Perchance a reference to his fictional hotel at the Palmdale Bulge.

"Beat Museum – Bardo Hotel": This specific book was published in 1986 as The Last Museum by Grove Press (in the US) and by Faber and Faber (in the UK)

"Soft Need #17": Soft Need #17, published by Expanded Media Editions and edited by Udo Breger in 1977 is titled “Brion Gysin Special” – the complete issue dedicated to Gysin.

"in Basel for a show": At Galerie von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland, opened on June 7, 1979. Organized by Carl Laszlo.

"the big baboon by the light of the moon will be combing his hair": “Blue Baboon” was a song that Brion Gysin recorded later with saxophonist Steve Lacy and band.

"big color photos": Likely these photographs were the “Beaubourg” photographs.