Kathy Acker — The Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula

Softcover. 152 pages. 11.5 × 16.5 cm. First paperback edition. New York: PM / TVRT Press, 1978.

A small green paperback from the moment Kathy Acker's literary project was becoming visible. Published before her wider institutional recognition, the book introduces many of the procedures that would define her practice: borrowed identities, unstable authorship, repetition, confession, and theft as method.

The title circulates through the voices of historical female criminals and outsiders. Biography becomes fiction. Fiction becomes quotation. The author appears less as origin than as editor, transmitter, and host.

Produced within the infrastructure of late-1970s independent publishing, the book survives as both literary object and document of a particular distribution network: small presses, alternative bookstores, artist communities, and informal exchange. Its scale remains modest. Its influence does not.

A copy retained from circulation. A paperback that records the moment experimental writing, punk culture, feminism, and appropriation began occupying the same space.

Condition: Good vintage condition. Light rubbing, edge wear, corner softening, and age toning consistent with handling and storage.

Shipping and handling included in the listed price.