now it can be—why did it fail before? [limited edition]

Porter, Bern, Fredrik Averin, Mark Melnicove, eds.

Portland, OR: The Idea of the Book, 2023. Softcover. First edition of 222, with 23 issued as the ‘1911 Porter Settlement (Houlton), ME’ limited edition, numbered 1–23, and 199 issued as the ‘2004 Belfast, ME trade edition,’ numbered 24–222. This being a numbered example from the limited edition. Softcover 8vo printed in black on white paper throughout with four pages rubber-stamped in blue. Unpaginated [232 pp.] Laid inside pictorial dust jacket printed in black on recto and verso with two rubber stamps in blue. To which is added a clear bag with a circular label printed in black and rubber-stamped in blue, 3.5 x 2 inch business card printed in black on recto and verso, 7 x 2 inch bookmark rubber-stamped in blue on recto, found educational physics card, white pencil foil stamped in black, blue canvas bag silk screened in white, perforated sheet of artists’ stamps printed in black on gummed paper laid inside a white paper bag rubber-stamped in blue, two 5 x 7 inch black and white photographs of Bern Porter also laid inside a white paper bag rubber-stamped in blue, and a found folded blank check rubber-stamped in blue on recto and verso. New from the publisher.

Artists’ book featuring a collection of over 220 analog found poems by Bern Porter on the topic of self-help and mindfulness. An aspect of his work that has not been commented upon before, nor been the stated purpose of his previous books. The founds have been culled from six Porter titles, which combined contain over 2,000 founds. Titles culled from include ‘The Waste Maker: 1926–1961,’ 1972, ‘Found Poems,’ 1972, ‘The Manhattan Telephone Book,’ 1975, ‘The Book of Do’s,’ 1982, ‘Here Comes Everybody’s Don’t Book,’ 1984, and ‘Sweet End,’ 1989. The founds have been sequenced chronologically by book, based on the year they were originally published, creating a new singular self-help narrative from beginning to end.

Edited by Fredrik Averin and Mark Melnicove, with art direction and design by Fredrik Averin, this first significant publication of Bern’s found poems in decades offers a contemporary perspective on this modern-day renaissance persona just in time for the digital age. Includes a posthumous introduction by Mark Melnicove written in the voice of Bern, an essay by Bern titled ‘one is a plasma of energy’ originally published in 1990, a list of where to find Bern Porter collections, an essay on Bern’s enigmatic archives by James Schevill originally published in 1992, and an essay on how this new publication came about by Mark Melnicove.

Excerpt from back of dust jacket: Hung up? Fed up? Downtrodden? Uptight? Overworked? Underpaid? Too busy to say? Too busy to think without a phone in your hand? Do you ever wonder if you are your best self? Are you metaphorically and/or literally gambling your life away? Have you ever wished for a different kind of self-help book to embark you on a new kind of journey toward discovery, understanding, and recovery?

Order the limited or trade edition of ‘now it can be—why did it fail before?’ directly through The Idea of the Book website by October 31, 2023 and receive a 10% discount off the list price. New. Item #1057

Price: $150.00 save 10% $135.00