Letter from Brion Gysin to Roger Knoebber, 2 January, 1965







New York City: Brion Gysin (letter), 1965.
letter: 12" x 8.25", one page, both sides.
envelope: 4.5" x 5.75".
RK19650102_LBG1_1

A letter from Brion Gysin through his agent Peter Harold Matson in New York City (but mailed from France) to Roger Knoebber in San Francisco, California.

This reads:

℅ Harold Matson & Co.
30 Rockefeller Plaza

New York
2.1.65

Dear Roger

The first letter of the New Year greets you. ‘Shamed to say I’ve been one month in the States, today, and not one thing has happened. Dreamachine business hangs in the air but does not spin.

I am still staying with the pleasant people who advanced money for fare etc. & have the above Matson connection for commercial agentry. We’ll see.

William was here & has gone off to St. Louis + Palm Beach – going to write a “Back to St. Louis” piece for Playboy. The Customs took him apart when he arrived – but clean. There were several parties for him which he enjoyed while staying at the Chelsea Hotel where I would like to move myself. There are four kids here & I like them all but my own empty head makes any work impossible. I see money melt & begin to panic.

The unbelievable blow is that the airlines have lost a bag stuffed with – well, my whole bag of tricks – sight, sound, & mss. Inky black magic.

Send news of yourself, plans, etc. How’s American Larbi?

Hope to see you in a while but can’t see just when.

Love
Brion

[written upside down: “Larbi forwarded form Tangier but haven’t had time to read it yet. Sooner.”]


Notes:

"William": William S. Burroughs

"going to write a 'Back to St. Louis' piece": Playboy rejected this piece, and it was instead published in The Paris Review, volume 9, number 35, Fall 1965.

"staying at the Chelsea Hotel": Also known as Hotel Chelsea, 222 W. 23rd Street, New York City. Brion would later live in the residential hotel. See the following letter.

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