Call Number:

C1727

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 0.4 linear feet
• 1 box

Language:

English

Date:

1969-1998 (inclusive) and 1970-1978 (bulk)

Creator:

Stanton, Johnny, 1943- and Siamese Banana Press

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century, Drafts (documents) -- 20th century, and Underground comics -- 20th century

Abstract:

Consists of records of the Siamese Banana Press assembled by its publisher, Johnny Stanton, which document the role of the press in the history of poetry, underground comics, and mimeograph publishing in New York City in the 1970s, as well as Joe Brainard's work as a book artist.

Johnny Stanton was born in 1943 in Manhattan, the son of Irish immigrants from Galway. He attended Columbia University, where he became friends with many poets, writers, and artists of the New York School. He published works by several of these writers via his Siamese Banana Press and ran the Siamese Banana Press newspaper. Stanton is also the author of the novel Mangled Hands and many short stories. He lives in the East Village with his wife, the poet Elinor Nauen.

The Siamese Banana Press was formed by Johnny Stanton, a fiction writer associated with the New York School. The press began in 1970 by publishing the Siamese Banana newspaper, which documented local happenings at the Rhinelander Center on East 88th Street, where Stanton did social work with local youth. The newspaper was comedic in nature and featured comics alongside satirical articles intended to entertain the center's youth. In the early 1970s, Stanton began publishing works by Joe Brainard, Anne Waldman, Tom Veitch, and other notable New York artists and writers. These works often blended poetry and literary writing with illustrations, collage, and comics. The press is also often referred to as the Siamese Banana Press Gang, which refers to Stanton's friends at the youth center, and eventually a theater group that formed out of the community.

Consists of records of the Siamese Banana Press assembled by its publisher, Johnny Stanton, which document the role of the press in the history of poetry, underground comics, and mimeograph publishing in New York City in the 1970s, as well as Joe Brainard's work as a book artist.

The most significant grouping of materials consists of original manuscripts of five early works by Brainard (Some Drawings of Some Notes to Myself, The Banana Book, The Friendly Way, The Cigarette Book, and Self-Portrait with Anne Waldman), along with related correspondence from Bill Berkson and others, production duplicates, and ephemera. These works combine elements of poetry, prose, collage, comics, and gay erotica. Also present are original manuscripts for issues of Siamese Banana: The Rhinelander, a comedic art newspaper that Stanton started while working at a New York City youth center.

There is also a manuscript of Stanton's own work, The Day Our Turtle Was Kidnapped… and cover illustrations for his work Slip of the Tongue. Other manuscript and printed materials exist for works by David Anderson, Paul Auster, Rebecca Brown, Keith Cohen, Hilton Obenzinger, George Schneeman, Tom Veitch, and Don Weingarten. Additional contents include general publishing correspondence, promotional materials related to publications, and fliers for events at St. Mark's Church.