THE AMERICAN THEATRE FOR POETS, INC. presents February 14, 1965 William Burroughs VALENTINE’S DAY READING de BURROUGHS, William S

New York City: The American Theatre for Poets, Inc., 1965. First edition. [Maynard & Miles F12; listed as "Theatre Program"]. 4to. 7pp. Stapled sheets, printed on rectos only with silver speckled card- stock title leaf. Theatre program distributed at Burroughs’ famous reading organized by The American Theatre for Poets and held February 14, 1965. Contains the first appearance in print of "Transcript of Dutch Schultz's Last Words," and reprints "The Cold Spring News" from The Spero. Light crease at top front cover corner (at spine), light tanning to extremities of rear cover, else a near fine copy of an elusive, fragile publication, with the text entirely by Burroughs. The reading featured a tape-recorded version of the last words of Dutch Schultz, who was murdered at the Palace Chophouse in Newark by Mendy Weiss and Charlie “The Bug” Workman in 1935. Schultz slipped in and out of consciousness for 22 hours after the shooting as police stenographers recorded his dying words. Burroughs viewed the transcript as a natural cut-up. The cut-ups were all about revealing hidden links — ones that Burroughs believed were a form of prophecy and time travel.East 4th Street was known as Off-Off Broadway Row, the epicenter in New York City for experimental theater. The American Theatre of Poets evolved out of the New York Poets Theatre, which had been established by Alan Marlowe, James Waring, Leroi Jones, and Diane di Prima among others to provide an outlet for drama, poetry and dance created by the multitude of artists in their circle. By 1965, the theater specialized in one-act plays by New York School poets accompanied by set designs by a host of local artists. The American Theatre finally settled in at 85 E. 4th Street, The Downtown Theater. By the time di Prima andcompany moved in, the theater was renamed The East End Theater.In his blog about the The Valentine’s Day Reading, Jed Birmingham states that there is a good chance that Diane di Prima printed the copies of the program on her mimeograph. Around this time, di Prima acquired an offset press and began Poet’s Press. The seven-page program reprinted the official deathbed transcripts of Dutch Schultz as transcribed in shorthand by police stenographer F. J. Lang. The transcript of the last words of Dutch Schultz had appeared in The New York Times in 1935. Burroughs read selections from Naked Lunch and Junkie, but the most interesting part of his reading was the tape- recorded cut-up derived from the deathbed ravings of Dutch Schultz intercut with news articles on Vietnam and air crashes.