Please Plant This Book

Santa Barbara and San Francisco: Graham Mackintosh, 1968. Santa Barbara and San Francisco: Graham Mackintosh, 1968].

First Edition. Limited edition (exact quantity is unknown, but somewhere between 1,500-5,000 copies). Small folder (7 x 6 1/4 inches; 176 x 160 mm when closed). Folder contains eight seed packets. Each seed packet has a poem by Brautigan on the front and planting instructions on the back. Four flower seed packets (California Native Flowers, Sweet Akyssum Royal Carpet, Calendula, and Shasta Daisy) and four vegetable seed packets (Carrots, Parsley, Lettuce, and Squash). This folder was to be for free distribution.

Front cover of folder printed with three sepia photographs of young girl Caledonia Jahrmarkt by Bill Brach, a Haight-Ashbury photographer. Front and back lettered in brown ink. Inside, eight seed packets of various colors (orange, yellow, blue, green, and brown), each with a different poem by Brautigan printed on it. Overall fine with seed packets unopened.

"First published in March 1968, Please Plant This Book, a collection of eight poems printed on eight seed packets placed in a folder, was Brautigan's fourth collection of poetry; his sixth poetry publicaton...A limited edition (exact number unknown; reports suggest 1,500-5,000 copies; Brautigan stated 5,000 in his 1968 application for a Guggenheim Fellowship) was published, all for free distribution. This was Brautigan's last independent publishing venture...Given Brautigan's interest in the presentation of his work in print it seems likely that he had some specific order in mind for the seed packets. There is, however, no definitive information about what that order was to be... Reportedly, the first copies of Please Plant This Book were to be given away on 20 March 1968, at the First Day of Spring Celebration in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park." (From Brautigan dot net).

HBS 67851.

$1,350.