Unbound, Illustrated Single Sheet from A Manual for Cleaning Ladies

Washington DC [Actually Healdsburg, CA]: National Endowment for the Domestic Arts / Zephyrus Image, 1977. First edition. 6 3/4 x 9" sheet, letterpress printed with two linocuts.

A proof, or unused single sheet from the first edition of Berlin's debut as a writer, which preceded the publication of Angel's Laundromat by four years. The book came about after Berlin sent the manuscript - originally entitled "Suicide Note, A Manual" to Ed Dorn. Her letter, which is quoted in Johnston, mentions scathing rejection letters, and concludes "P.S. 42 days sober Think I'm going to make it. Hard to write without Jim Beam, on the other hand I can read what I wrote the next day." [Johnston, p. 126].

It is fortunate, perhaps that the story was rejected elsewhere, for the book that, Holbrook Teter, Michael Myers and Dorn created a striking book in which all the details of the publication resonate intimately with the text of the story, giving it the feel of a truly collaborative artists' book. One of Myers linocuts painstakingly details the 14 bottles of sesame seeds found in the story. The most striking illustration in the book shows a linocut of a cleaning lady standing boldly on top of a stove, wiping Coke off of the ceiling; the model pictured was based on a neighbor of the ZI crew in Healdsburg.

Berlin was pleased with the result; in a letter to Teter quoted in Johnston, she writes "Manual is really beautiful. I'm, well, elated, never have had anything printed, (really) before. Thank you." [Johnston, p. 126].

It would be another four years before Berlin's work would be printed in book form again.


Fine.