Rite of Passage



I have always wondered what made Ted Berrigan starting printing again in 1978 after a considerable gap. Must be a special occasion, right?


I know precious little about Elio Schneeman, but Wikipedia lists his birthday as October 16, 1961. If you look closely above, you can see that his father dated the sketch above as October 16, 1978. In some fashion, the personal details of which I do not know, In February I Think is a birthday present, a rite of passage into manhood, and an initiation into the community of poets and artists.


Personally, I read this publication as a physical gift from father to son. I also take In February I Think, so ephemeral, along with Elio's early death, as reminders that this stubborn and sturdy bond which threatens to become a routine pantomine of constant interaction and even, in troubled times, a burden is actually very fragile and, in some ways, temporary. Yet my age-toned copy of In February I Think with its staples loosening, like a memory, a recollection, and a reflection, persists.


Print and the printed object will never die.


JB

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