Mining the Archives ‘Un-American Express’ — It Never Happened

Speaking of literary archives, you never know what will turn up. This letter from a half-century ago, for instance: It was discovered the other day by Richard Aaron at Emory University about two literary projects, one of which came to fruition — twice, in fact (Brion Gysin Let the Mice In and Brion Gysin Let the Mice In) — while the other never did (Un-American Express).

Click on letter to enlarge.

Letter to William Burroughs (San Francisco, 1972)

According to papers held at Northwestern University, Carl Weissner and I exchanged a series of letters about “Un-American Express,” which we were working on as the editors. And here we are, below, many years later in Paris at the Le Zeyer, a favored brasserie of Henry Miller, who was possibly the most celebrated un-American American of his era.

Weissner (left) and Herman (Paris, 2009). Photo: Keith Seward

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