The author's first work
PELIEU, Claude; [Mary BEACH (translator)]. Automatic Pilot. San Francisco: Fug Press. 1964.
4to. Original white wrappers, front and rear covers lettered in black; half-tone portrait of the author on front cover; stapled binding; minimal pen stain to front cover; foxing to edges; internally clean; otherwise very good.
First edition, first printing, of the extremely scarce first book of the French Beat poet, printed at Ed Sander's Fuck You Press and sold by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books.
The blurb to Automatic Pilot reads, "Claude Pelieu…when asked for biographical info, ..replies with phantom calligraphy". The French artist, poet and translator, Claude Pelieu met his future wife Mary Beach, translator of this work and later the owner of Beach Books, Texts and Documents, in 1962 in France. Together they emigrated to the United States where they forged connections with Sanders and Ferlinghetti and became central figures in the Beat movement. This book was the first fruit of the couple's artistic life in America.
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