An Anthology of the Albany Vortex

… or, everything on the internet is forever, including things that were not ever on the internet.

My first foray (second, actually) into small-press publishing was An Anthology of the Albany Vortex, published by Bert Schultz's Cominsane Press in 1973. I served as editor of this collection of poems & other adolescent musings by myself, Charles Dugan, Joe Figel, Hugh O'Connor & Bert Schultz. The collection was centered on (& inspired by) a mimeographed zine, Naitnecniv that Charlie, Joe & I had produced in high school & that was subsequently banned ("squashed" actually) by our school principal. In recent years I've read my introduction from the book that describes this incident at Banned Books Readings sponsored by the local ACLU chapter.  I think it's still a good read & has held up well over time.

Recently Bert sent me this link from Google Books: here  -- note the generic graphic for our cover art. If you click through the Amazon links you will find there is one copy for sale from Jeff Maser, Bookseller  for $25.00 (!).  Hell, they sold for $5.00 in 1973 money -- & Bert tells me he still has a box of them left.

If anyone out there wants a copy, email me & I will put you in touch with Bert Shultz. Then I guess you can turn around & sell it on eBay for $25.00 -- Good Luck!