Irving Rosenthal

Sheeper [First Edition]

New York: Grove Press, 1967. In blue boards with gilt to front cover and spine, with original pictorial dust jacket. Very good. Item #5949

First edition of the influential novel by Irving Rosenthal, editor of the Chicago Review, founder of the Kaliflower commune, and star in several films by underground filmmaker Jack Smith.

The cover was designed by Richard Brodney of Grove Press and features a dragonfly against a stained glass inspired design, a nod to Rosenthal’s line in Sheeper, “Style belongs to the insects.”

Rosenthal first gained notoriety as the editor of the Chicago Review in the late 1950’s, where he published works by Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and other Beat writers. Throughout the 1960’s he split time between New York, Cuba, and Tangier, publishing works through a variety of small presses as well as appearing in Jack Smith’s films Flaming Creatures, No President, and the Borrowed Tambourine. Upon the release of Sheeper he moved back to San Francisco with George Harris, founder of the Cockettes, and co-founded the Kaliflower commune, running the Free Print Shop there.

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