The glorious tragedy of life

New York: Experimental Literature, 1949. Four volumes (three titles) in one, 32mo (approx. 4¼" x 2¾"), handwritten pagination reading [1-63], 68-313 with each title also separately paginated, containing Immortal Aid or Frozen Trouble; The Absent Volume; and, The Immortal Memory in the Glorious Tragedy of Life (in two volumes). With separate series title page, about 50 pages of additional preliminary material, and a 12-page manuscript appendix; frontispiece and text illustrations, hand-colored details and manuscript additions; full red morocco, gilt ruled spine and boards, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt and tinted red, purple and blue (truncated) to correspond to the sections of the book, two three-cent Poe stamps tipped in, 8 leaves of what appear to be mockups for an alternate edition laid in, fine in fine slipcase. With: The Immortal Memory in the Glorious Tragedy of Life. An Epic Complete Poem. Poemusicdramaliterature. Greenwich Village: Experimental Literature, [1947]; 32mo, pp. [24], 86, [2]; text illustrations; full red morroco, gilt ruled spine and boards, gilt decorated turn-ins, marbled endpapers, a.e.g., fine. Introductory clipping tipped in to flyleaf, one-page typescript explination of the text laid in, fine in lightly rubbed marbled slipcase. With: Ode to Song No. 10. To Seven Birds, Two Stones and a Songstress. New Orleans: Vieux Carre Publishing Co., [1955]. 32mo, pp. [2], 12, [2]; manuscript note on p. 12 and folding typescript poem tipped in to final leaf with a manuscript diagram illustrating how the text of the ode intersects with that of The glorious tragedy of life. A tag with "follow the golden thread" printed on it tied to string sewn through the middle of title page. Full limp calf, gilt title on spine, painted patterned endpapers, edges and spine rubbed, good and sound. With: Immortal Aid or Frozen Trouble. Greenwich Village: Experimental Literature, [1949]. 32mo, pp. [10], 55, [1]; frontispiece, one photo illustration; original yellow cloth, manuscript title page on upper cover and spine, signed by Hoerger on title page; boards lightly soiled, near fine. Both the design and the text in these books exhibit the sort of unconstrainted eccentricity that is often found in outsider art. The text is produced via copied typescript embellished with pen details. Stamps and color flourishes are sprinkled throughout. In the collected volume of The Glorious Tragedy of Life each book is associated with color, precious gems, seasons, weather, time of the day, and states of consciousness. The Absent Volume is not included in the numbering of the contents. The text is self-laudatory ("The highly experimental nature of the means blazes new trails in the major arts, not to mention LITERATURE") and the author regularly comments on his own process. The manuscript note at the end of Ode to Song reads, "The poet's subsequent development of the Ode into 5 stanzas to form the pivot ode, crossing in (x) composition the five song-volumes of the 400 page Epic Poem 'The glorious tragedy of life, song of the human races,' follows." While the manuscript additions to each volume might suggest these are the author's personal copies, the few copies present in institutional holdings also appear to include such embellishments, although they are irregular, with different modifications in different copies. No other copies we could find are in fine bindings. The Immortal Memory is typically found in gilt cloth. Our copy of The Glorious Tragedy of Life is perhaps unique. Other copies of record five volumes in one, pertaining perhaps to the inserted leaves that suggest section heads for an otherwise absent five volume work. We were not able to find much about the author beyond the name he gives us. Two dedications to family members tell us his father was likely a German immigrant who settled in Pennsylvania. His Highroad Number Z describes a life of hitchhiking and rail riding down around New Orleans before he appears to have settled in Greenwich Village, New York. He produced a number of paintings and about a dozen books between the 40s and 50s, but as far as we could find none but Highroad Number Z have received any attention. (Inventory #: 58893)