RICHARD HELL’S FIRST BOOK

Posted by Kyle Schlesinger on

uh by Ernie Stomach was first published in 1971 by Genesis : Grasp Press in New York. Stomach’s aim was a version of the Roman alphabet in which the glyphs correspond in their differentiations to lower-case block-lettered forms, but stripped to the naked elliptical minimum so that they would be not only sexy, but hard to distinguish from each other (facilitating misreadings and forcing the reader to pay attention). The letterform contents of that book were created crudely by the author using X-Acto knifed mylar templates and a felt-tip pen. Now, with the advent of font software, Stomach has been able to recreate the book as he would have done it at the time were such technology available. This book’s design differs from the original edition only in the improved technology and materials used.

 

Ernie Stomach is a heteronym of Richard Meyers (Richard Hell / Theresa Stern). In 1970, young poet Richard Meyers, who was also an editor of Genesis : Grasp magazine and press, imagined he might spend the rest of his life making works in the personae of several different artists he conceived. Ernie Stomach was the first, then Theresa Stern (most of whose poems were collaborations with Tom Verlaine of the band Television), and then Richard Hell (best known as a progenitor of “punk”). By 1974, he’d settled into a career as Richard Hell and little by the other authors has been published since.

Paperback, 8.5 x 5.5 in. 64 pages. b&w throughout

ISBN: 978-0-9860040-7-0

Order here

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