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Longshot Poems pirated edition? (1 Viewer)

Rekrab said:
I haven't heard of any early Buk books being pirated in mimeo format, but I've always thought it was entirely possible that it could happen.
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I've had the same thoughts too David. My memories of a mimeo machine are very vague, having only ever used one when I was in primary/elementary school, but as you say, it does seem plausible that someone could reproduce an excellent facsimile with the right paper etc.
 
Well there are two on ABE, so it would appear that someone definitely knocked it off at some point. I sure as hell wouldn't pay $262.50 or $525 (gotta love those ABE prices) for it, but it would be interesting to see a copy.



I see now both bootleg copies are from the same seller. Hmm.
 
mjp said:
Well there are two on ABE [...]

I see now both bootleg copies are from the same seller. Hmm.
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That makes you wonder just how many copies the seller may have tucked away. Of course, the publisher/pirate would have a bunch of them, but the seller may not have more than two.

I used mimeo machines in college. They're easy to work, and copying a mimeo book would not be too hard on one of them. Mostly, it would be the labor of typing all of the text onto the masters, after you've found a typewriter with a suitable typreface that matches the original book, and finding the right shade of mimeo paper.

I had a couple of old broken down mimeo machines in the early 80s and started to publish a chapbook of my own stuff but the machines kept malfunctioning and I never finished the job. But that was those two machines -- when they are in good working order they do a nice job. Then we moved and there was no room in the van for them so I tossed them into a landfill in Southern California. A thousand years from now maybe some archeologist will dig them up and be thrilled -- assuming there are archeologists in a thousand years.
 
Funny you should bring up the mimeo. Look at this. Today is the anniversary of Thomas Edison receiving a patent for the mimeograph - in 1876!
 
Rekrab said:
...(snip..)...
I used mimeo machines in college. They're easy to work, and copying a mimeo book would not be too hard on one of them. Mostly, it would be the labor of typing all of the text onto the masters, after you've found a typewriter with a suitable typreface that matches the original book, and finding the right shade of mimeo paper.

I had a couple of old broken down mimeo machines in the early 80s and started to publish a chapbook of my own stuff but the machines kept malfunctioning and I never finished the job.
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I remember the old mimeograph homework assignments and tests (loved the smell of that ink) and I always thought about using a computer printer to copy that color. A good plain paper copier can duplicate nearly anything so you could duplicate that look for a chapbook.
 
GKL,
I happen to own a mimeo machine. If you have something in mind, I could print it.

Just beware. The quality is really shitty.

We printed a book in Sacramento and Blazek showed up. He did not say much, but he did tell us that the mimeo work that we were doing was about as bad as he has ever seen! It is readable, but not much more above that. Some pages turned out really nice.

The purple that that remember with the smell are "spirit duplicators". People always talk about the smell of mimeo, but that is not mimeo, it is a similar process. Mimeo is usually black and spirit is usually purple (although you could buy other colors of ink, it is SOOOO hard to change colors, that you would stick with one color per machine.

I have not used my mimeo in a year or so and the ink in the drum is still wet. Until it hits the paper it never seems to dry.

Bill
 
bospress.net said:
I happen to own a mimeo machine. If you have something in mind, I could print it.

Just beware. The quality is really shitty.
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Indeed, it is shitty. The two machines I had ranged in quality from okay/readable to barely readable, faint and fuzzy and blotchy. Gotta love it. I kept all the sheets for the unfinished book and someday I'll get another mimeo machine and finish the bastard.

Speaking of old technology, do any of you remember the photocopies they had before Xerox came along? They were negatives, very murky and mysterious. Professors would come back from Europe with suitcases full of negative copies of old manuscripts and rare books. There was something called "Thermofax" at that time and that may have been what it was, or maybe that's something else. No, wait -- it was "Photostat" or "Photostatic copy". My memory is like one of those old mimeos. Turn the crank and something murky comes out.
 
I love the writing of David Barker, because he writes things like this:

My memory is like one of those old mimeos. Turn the crank and something murky comes out.

Only we really know it isn't so murky.
 
Ah shucks, it weren't nuthin. (That's how they talk in these parts). I am old technology, for better or worse. Freaks me to think of my birth year and realize how long ago that is now. I'm living in the creey dystopia I read about in Sci-Fi paperbacks in the 60s, where we're all being monitored by robots hooked up to a giant computer that orbits the earth (or something like that -- don't blame me, blame Philip K. Dick -- it was his idea first. Oh, more coffee!)
 
Rekrab said:
No, wait -- it was "Photostat" or "Photostatic copy".
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Photostat it was. I used to work with a guy a few years ago who always referred to photocopies as "photostats." Whenever he mentioned "photostat," we'd say "OK, go get the Oleo out of the ice box, and I'll make you a photostat."
 
Guess my memory isn't all that bad. We didn't get to make copies of any kind in high school -- only the teachers did that -- so I didn't see any sort of copy machine until college. I think I made only a few copies on a photostat machine, then the Xerox machine came to the library (there was only one on campus at first). It made positive copies, and they were very clear compared to the photostat. Right away, girls would sit on the glass and -- well, you get the idea. They had to stop that after a day or two. I did work the mimeo machines for a while, running off copies of flyers for events, for a little magazine I published, and also chapters of a novel I was writing, to hand around in class so the other kids could tell me what a talentless dolt I was.
 

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