Dana Young Archive with Brion Gysin, Charles Henri Ford, Ira Cohen, Ray Johnson, David Rattray, and Harold Norse

Dana Young Archive with Brion Gysin, Charles Henri Ford, Ira Cohen, Ray Johnson, David Rattray, and Harold Norse

Dana Young was an essential member of the Kathmandu psychedelic expatriate community of poets, musicians, artists, and spiritual seekers in the 1970s. His poetry and shamanic art blended Eastern spiritual imagery with American pop and consumer culture. He was an active member of the Bardo Matrix collective and is best known for his book Opium Elementals (Bardo Matrix, 1976) that features his beautiful woodblock prints along with two poems by Ira Cohen. He contributed to several other Bardo Matrix publications including Cohen’s Blue Oracle broadside (1975), the frontispiece to Paul Bowles’ Next to Nothing (1976), and Ira Cohen and Roberto Francisco Valenza’s Spirit Catcher! broadside (1976). His artwork also appears in publications such as Montana Gothic (1974) and Ins and Outs (1978). Dana designed the logo (included in the archive) for John Chick’s Rose Mushroom club located at the end of Jhochhen Tole, known as “Freak Street,” in Kathmandu. Most recently, one of Dana Young’s wood block prints was featured on the album cover of the recent release of Angus MacLise's Dreamweapon II.

Materials in the present collection comprise the archive of Dana Young supplemented with letters, photographs, and assorted items from the Ira Cohen archive via Richard Aaron, Am Here Books.

This archive is sold.