Brett Rutherford: Songs of the I and Thou (PDF)

Songs of the I and Thou, by Brett Rutherford — This is Brett Rutherford's first collection of poetry, from 1968, scanned from the last surviving copy in our archives. This book contains the poet's earliest extant works, from his Whitman-Ginsberg period. Some of these poems were premiered in coffeehouses in the Haight-Ashbury district and published in The Haight-Ashbury Free Press. Printed at Edinboro State College in Pennsylvania, this book reflects the author's fascination with Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters, mixed with a dose of San Fancisco psychedelia. The books were printed via mimeograph, employing a photographic stencil-making system developed by the Gestetner Company; this made it possible to reproduce line drawings via mimeograph. Some of the printed pages were then hand-marbled, and the book was sewn. About 100 copies were made, numbered and autographed; twelve of these were bound hardcover by a commercial bookbinder in Erie, PA.