Materials are arranged chronologically by original publication date.
Purchased, 1999 August.
[identification of item], "I Dreamt I Was a Nymphomaniac: Imaging" and "Adult Life of Toulouse Lautrec" by Kathy Acker, SPEC.RARE.0269, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Ashleigh Minor, 2019 March; Finding aid written by: Ashleigh Minor, 2019 March.
Kathy Acker (1948-1997), born Karen Lehman, was an experimental, feminist writer from New York City. She studied classics at Brandeis University before transferring to the University of California, San Diego, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1968. When Acker returned to New York, she spent two years studying classics at the graduate level at the City University of New York, but didn't earn a degree. While in New York in the 1970s, Acker spent time working as a secretary, file clerk, stripper, and porn performer. During that time, she often moved back and forth between San Diego, San Francisco, and New York City. Acker's work, influenced by the New York punk movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, combines biographical elements with themes of power, sex, and violence. She won the Pushcart Prize in 1979, for her short story "New York City in 1979." Acker lived in London during the early 1980s, and wrote several novels there. When she returned to the United States in the late 1980s, she worked at the San Francisco Art Institute as an adjunct professor, and a visiting professor at several other American universities. Acker died from cancer complications at an alternative cancer clinic in Tijuana, Mexico in 1997.
"I Dreamt I Was a Nymphomaniac: Imagining" and "Adult Life of Toulouse Lautrec" by Kathy Acker contains the original 12 volumes of Kathy Acker's books published between 1974 and 1976, some of which were published under various pseudonyms.
"I Dreamt I Was a Nymphomanic: Imagining," Acker's second novel, was originally published in 6 volumes in 1974. The first and sixth volumes were published under the title "I Dreamt I Became a Nymphomaniac!: Imagining." Volumes 3-6 also include subtitles. The first volume was published by Empty Elevator Shaft Poetry Press, volumes 2-4 do not list a publisher, and volumes 5-6 were published by Musicmusic Corporation. Volume 3 was published under the pseudonym "Peter Gordon." Volumes 3-6 are copyrighted under another pseudonym, "The Black Tarantula."
"Adult Life of Toulouse Lautrec" was originally published in 6 volumes; the first 5 were published in 1975, and the sixth was published in 1976. All of the volumes, with the exception of volume 3, also include a subtitle. The first 5 volumes were published under the pseudonym "Henri Toulouse Lautrec." Volumes 2-5 are copyrighted under "The Black Tarantula," and volumes 1 and 6 attribute copyright to Kathy Acker. Volume 3 was published by TVRT, but the other volumes do not list a publisher. Volume 6 includes an acknowledgement that Acker received support from the 1975-1976 Creative Artists Public Service Program (CAPS).