Scope and Contents

Design by Sam Kirkpatrick. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents This poster was designed by Sam Kirkpatrick. Bill Butler (1934-1977) who ran the Unicorn Bookshop at No 50 Gloucester Road from 1960 to about 1970. After he closed the shop, Bill moved to South Wales and then later died of a suspected drugs overdose (October 1977), but whether this was suicide or accidental is unclear. Bill was very much part of the alternative lifestyle set in Brighton at that time. One of his own books, which he published himself under the pen name of Hassan Sabbah, was called Leaves of Grass: the Hash Cookbook. Who he was Bill's full name was William Huxford Butler. He was an American beat poet and occultist. He was very tall (over 6 feet). He lived in Over Street, very near to his shop. A specialist bookshop The Unicorn Bookshop used to specialise in modern poetry, stocking the work of Ginsberg and similar American and British poets. Graham Greene, who visited the shop, wrote: "Unicorn is one of the most interesting bookshops in Great Britain." The whole of the...