THE HANDY GUIDE TO AMAZING PEOPLE by Baxter, Glen - 1974

New York: Gotham Book Mart, 1974. First Edition. Softcover. Near fine. Baxter, Glen. 11 inches tall. [12] leaves, leaves [2]-[12] printed recto only. Patterned covers, side-stapled. Signed by Baxter on the title page. Small dents near staples, very light toning at edges of wrappers, else near fine.

12 portraits of "amazing people" drawn and captioned by Glen "Colonel" Baxter, British artist and poet associated with the New York School. The personalities include a Mrs. Thraxelpod of Trieste, pictured pole-vaulting over a puddle, who "to avoid speaking to her next door neighbour... once travelled over 8,000 miles"; Adolph Milkleg, "The Human Butterfly," seated in a suit and wings upon a branch (he "is an osteopath"); and Mrs. Annie Lugpon, of Venice, who resembles an 18th-century French chevalier and "lives in a two bedroom flat which is shaped like a worm." As an art student in Leeds during the early 1960s, Baxter encountered the writing of Frank O'Hara and developed an interest in New York School poetry and the mimeograph magazines then being introduced to London. After submitting some of his own pieces to ADVENTURES IN POETRY, in 1974 Baxter was invited to the U.S. to read at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery - "I stood at the lectern, dressed in a tweed suit, and began to speak. People burst into spontaneous laughter. I had arrived" (from a 2016 interview in LITERARY HUB). That same year, Gotham Book Mart began hosting shows of his work (at which Edward Gorey was an enthusiastic customer) and published two 11 x 8½-inch format books: THE HANDY GUIDE and FRUITS OF THE WORLD IN DANGER.