Please join us for the book launch of Hysteresis: A Portrait of Brion Gysin by Roger Knoebber at The Grocey Studios.
Friday October 18 2024
6-9pm
Limited capacity–reserve your spot!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hysteresis-book-launch-tickets-1036487731707
Written between 1986 and 1996 by Roger Knoebber, Hysteresis includes first-hand recollections of Brion Gysin (1916-1986) by many of his closest friends and associates. This is the first time that this work has been published – a cooperative effort between Inkblot Publications and The Grocery Studios.
Program for the evening:
6:00 doors open
6:30-7:30pm
Theo Green of Inkblot Publications and Cosmo Knoebber, son of Roger Knoebber, will be joining us to celebrate this publication, with free but limited seating between 6:30 and 7:30pm for talks about Brion Gysin, Roger Knoebber, their history together, and the history of this unusual biography.
Copies of the book, both in softcover and in a limited lettered hardcover edition will be available for purchase. Theo Green will also have small quantities of Inkblot titles available for purchase.
We will have video, art, and photographs of Brion Gysin up for viewing during this event, which ends at 9 PM.
Saturday Launch event at Long Brothers
The next day, on Saturday, October 19th between 5 PM and 8 PM, Long Brothers Fine and Rare Books will be hosting a second launch event for Hysteresis. Theo Green, Cosmo Knoebber, and demi and janet from the Grocery will be in attendance to sell and sign copies of the book. This is open to the public, unticketed.
Long Brothers Fine and Rare Books is at 400 Occidental Street in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle. Learn more at https://www.longbrosbooks.com/about.php
About Brion Gysin, briefly
Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) is best known for his literary collaborations with the author William S. Burroughs (directly in The Third Mind, Minutes To Go, The Exterminator, and others, but also through his contributions to Burroughs’ Cut-Up method of writing. Brion wrote non-fiction (To Master a Long Goodnight: The Story of Uncle Tom – for which he received one of the first Fulbright Fellowships), fiction (The Process, The Beat Museum, et al), interview (Here To Go: Planet R-101 with Terry Wilson), short stories (Stories), and more.
Brion was also a painter, photographer, performing artist, sound poet, and mystic. Brion was briefly in the Paris Surrealist group, he performed with the sound poetry group Domaine Poétique in Paris, ran a restaurant in Tangier, Morocco, lived in the “Beat Hotel” with William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Harold Norse and others, was briefly associated with Fluxus, invented the Dreamachine, performed with Steve Lacy and Ramuntcho Matta, collaborated with Keith Haring, and much much more – a very full and dynamic life.
About Roger Knoebber, briefly
Roger Knoebber (3 July 1939 – 15 September 2004) moved to Paris in 1959 entranced by the vibrant bohemian culture and found his way to the “Beat Hotel” at 9 rue Gît-le-Cœur, where he lived until 1962 along with many of the foundational figures of the Beat Generation, including William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Harold Norse, Brion Gysin, and others. He quickly became close with Brion Gysin during that period, and corresponded with Gysin from 1962 through 1984 – through a long period in California raising a family and returned to Paris in 1984, living near to Brion Gysin in Brion’s final years.
Following Brion Gysin’s death in 1986, after an attempt to edit an anthology of Brion Gysin’s writings, Roger focused on developing a “profile” of Brion Gysin which became Hysteresis. Roger solicited first hand recollections of Brion Gysin for this work – which incorporates “the voice of Brion” – completing it in 1996. Sadly, Roger was unable to publish the creative biography prior to his death in 2004.
Roger Knoebber is also the author of many yet-to-be-published novels and short stories – such as Rupert & Beatrice and WOO.
