a: A Novel

New York: Grove Press, 1968. First edition. original cloth, original dust jacket. Very Good/Very Good. FIRST EDITION OF ANDY WARHOL’S “NOVEL”, SIGNED BY WARHOL. In 1968, Andy Warhol set out to write a book by eliminating the author: following an actor named Ondine for a total of 24 hours, taping everything that happened around his protagonist, and paying high school students to transcribe this recording. The result was his wild, innovative, and experimental work, a: A Novel.

a was deeply intertwined with the drug culture of the 1960s and 70s. The book is titled a, after “amphetamine”—a substance the main character is on for most of the book. (truncated) For Warhol, amphetamines enabled artistic creativity, catalyzing an, “openness and a loquaciousness that [was] well suited to an art form based on conversation.” [Wolf].

Although eccentrically created, a took inspiration from existing Beat traditions, using Kerouac’s Visions of Cody—a book of essays and transcribed conversations, assembled under the influence of Benzedrine—as a model. Warhol also drew on James Joyce’s Ulysses. Several chapters of a consciously emulate the monologic voice of Joyce, as a plethora of outside voices and effects are recorded and transcribed, disrupting narrative flow. Warhol also transcribed what the Beats called, “goofing,”—nonsensical wordplay—to comment on the senselessness of what is said throughout the transcription. Further, Ondine’s continued pleas that the tapes be ended—“Let’s relax ‘cause we’ll go crazy”; “Please shut it off, I’m so horrifying”— make Warhol’s presence hard to forget. [Wolf].

Reactions to the work were split. Playboy praised it as a, “genuine microcosm of the world of words, fractured sentences, grunts, giggles, and blablabla that surrounds us.” Other reviews were negative. The New York Review of Books described Warhol as a, “haut vulgarian,” and the book as, “a bacchanalian coffee klatsch.” It is unclear what a description of ‘bacchanalian coffee klatsch’ hopes to invoke. It is safe to say this is not a thing one generally wants their book to be. [Bockris].

Warhol later claimed that he had intended to write a ‘bad’ book, believing that doing something wrong opened artistic doors. Similar care was taken in the editing process—or more accurately, a lack of care was taken—to ensure Warhol’s intention of a bad book was realized by preserving all errors in transcription. [Wolf].

a is bizarre, chaotic, and often incomprehensible. But that’s the point. Where some saw nonsense, Warhol attempted to make art from the confusing and commonplace—addressing the beeps, honks, and everyday fragments that make modern life almost impossible to decode.

New York: Grove Press, 1968. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. Signed in ink in full by Warhol on the front free endpaper. Just a touch of wear at extreme edge of cloth and dust jacket. A beautiful copy. RARE SIGNED.

References:

–Bockris, Victor. The Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1998.

–Quigg, H.D. “Andy Warhol Drags His Feet, But Only When He’s Talking.”Austin American-Statesman. Austin: Texas, Nov. 17, 1968, page 18.

–Wolf, Reva. Andy Warhol, Poetry, and Gossip in the 1960s. University of Chicago Press, 1997. (Inventory #: 2948)