Barry Gifford has become one of the most important friends to the synaesthesia press.
It began simply enough. When Steve Fisher’s Rock Salt & Glissandos was published, Barry generously contributed a back-cover blurb. He didn’t have to. He barely knew me. But he read the work, believed in it, and offered his support. Looking back, that small act of kindness helped set a great deal in motion.
Barry’s first book with the press was The Strangest One of All, a short narrative recounting a visit to William S. Burroughs’s Bunker in New York City. Accompanied by his son and former baseball player Jimbo Carothers, Barry spent an afternoon with Burroughs discussing subjects that seemed perfectly suited to Burroughs himself: poisonous darts, deadly spiders, and the strange corners of life. Originally published in SPEAK Magazine in 1997, the piece was issued by the synaesthesia press in an edition of 176 copies. The book featured woodcut illustrations by Billy Childish and design by Johnny Brewton. The 26 lettered copies included three additional Childish woodcuts housed in a manila envelope and signed by both Barry and Billy.
The collaboration continued. In 2001, the synaesthesia press joined Barry and Don Ellis of Creative Arts Book Company to produce The Lost Christmas & Other Stories: A Holiday Trilogy. An edition of ninety-nine copies was printed, none offered for sale. Instead, the books were mailed as holiday gifts to friends of the author, the press, and Mr. Ellis.
In 2004 I published Elegies, a pair of poetry broadsides devoted to two of Barry’s literary heroes: Jack Kerouac and Gregory Corso. The poems, “On Viewing The Manuscript Scroll of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road in the Tosca Bar, San Francisco” and “Small Elegy For Corso,” were printed on card stock and housed in a three-panel folder with a die-cut cover inspired by the Dada artists I admire. Barry signed the entire edition at his mother’s kitchen table while we talked about books, films, the novel he was working on, and Barry Bonds. Some publishing memories stay with you forever.
Two hundred copies of Elegies were printed. The text was digitally composed, printed by hand, and letterpress printed on a Vandercook No. 219 Old Style press—the press that remained the backbone of the synaesthesia press until 2025.
When I look back at the history of the press, I see books, broadsides, and collaborations. More than that, I see generosity. Barry Gifford believed in what we were doing long before there was any reason he should have. the synaesthesia press is a better thing because of that.
