Sinclair Beiles was born in Kampala, Uganda in 1930, the only child of Jewish South African parents, who moved back to Johannesburg when their son was six years old. He studied at Wits and left the country in the mid-fifties. After time in New Zealand, Spain and Morocco, he moved to Paris, which was the centre of international bohemia. There he stayed at the legendary Beat Hotel and worked as chief editor for Maurice Girodias's Olympia Press. Beiles saw William Burroughs's Naked Lunch through the press and worked with Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Gregory Corso on the first anthology of cut-ups Minutes to Go. Sinclair Beiles, who suffered from bouts of mental illness, died almost unknown and impoverished in Johannesburg in 2000.

In THE IDIOT'S VOICE Cold Turkey Press brings together poems, artwork, and a letter by Beiles from the Cold Turkey Press archives. In this selection of works, to which a couple of photos were added, Gerard Bellaart pays tribute to his friend Sinclair Beiles.

"...it's tempting to think, as just intimated, that Sinclair was perhaps also privately haunted by some dark demons buried deep in his DNA, the dybbuks and golems of the shtetl which no one would ever be able to do anything about (and Sinclair must certainly have tried - he ran through psychiatrists like boxes of Kleenex)." --Heathcote Williams.

Heathcote Williams is a prolific English poet, actor, artist, and playwright. His first book The Speakers (1964) was published when Williams was 23 years old and his first play AC/DC (1970) was staged both in London and New York. Williams played an active part in the London underground scene of the late 60s and early 70s as an artist, a publisher and a regular contributor to the magazines International Times and Suck.

Williams's POETRY is a long ode to the powers, and notably the revolutionary powers, of poetry. In refutal of W.H. Auden's line "poetry makes nothing happen", with which the poem opens and closes, Williams sums up events from distant and near history in which the power of poetry brought about social and political change.

Heathcote Williams is a prolific English poet, actor, artist, and playwright. His first book The Speakers (1964) was published when Williams was 23 years old and his first play AC/DC (1970) was staged both in London and New York. Williams played an active part in the London underground scene of the late 60s and early 70s as an artist, a publisher and a regular contributor to the magazines International Times and Suck.

In his poem WAS MOBY DICK BEHIND 9/11? Heathcote Williams draws a comparison between Captain Ahab's delirious hunt for Moby Dick (Herman Melville, 1851) and the demonisation of and warfare against states and peoples that possess oil by US governments through the 20th and 21st centuries.

Heathcote Williams is een Engelse dichter, acteur, kunstenaar, en toneelschrijver. Zijn eerste boek The Speakers (1964) verscheen toen Williams 23 jaar oud was en zijn eerste toneelstuk AC/DC (1970) werd zowel in Londen als New York opgevoerd. Williams was daarnaast in de jaren 60 en 70 actief in de Londense underground scene als kunstenaar en uitgever en leverde regelmatig bijdragen aan o.a. International Times en Suck. Zijn polemische gedicht Whale Nation (1988) en lofuitingen van Al Pacino en Harold Pinter brachten hem bekendheid, maar Williams verkoos een teruggetrokken bestaan.

Gerard Bellaart's Cold Turkey Press gaf in 1975 Williams' "Manifestoes" uit en nu - meer dan 35 jaar later - AMERICAN PORN, scherpe, polemische gedichten in een zeer kleine oplage gebundeld door. De bundel bevat de gedichten Mr. President, Snuff Movies at the White House, The US of Porn, Barbie World, Name a Radical Film, en Forbidden Fruit. Slechts enkele exemplaren voorradig.

12 GREAT AMERICANS - de eerste van een serie samenwerkingen tussen Sea Urchin en Cold Turkey Press. De audio CD 12 GREAT AMERICANS bevat alle tracks van de zeldzame LP 'A Cold Turkey Press Special' (1972) met po‘zievoordrachten van toonaangevende dichters uit de counterculture, zoals Ed Sanders, Diane di Prima, Ray Bremser, en Allen Ginsberg. De poëzievoordrachten werden tussen 1966 en 1968 opgenomen door Carl Weissner van het avantgardistische literatuurtijdschrift Klactoveedsedsteen. In 1972 werden 48 minuten van Weissners master tape voor de LP daadwerkelijk uitgegeven. Ongeveer 18 minuten (po'zievoordrachten van o.a. Ted Berrigan, Ray Bremser, en Charles Bukowski bleven vrijwel alle ongepubliceerd. De CD 12 GREAT AMERICANS bevat alle voordrachten op de master tape.

Vertaling van Artauds 'Le style me fait horreur', dat op 13 april 1950 postuum werd gepubliceerd in het dagblad 'Combat' onder redactie van Albert Camus. De tekst is onderdeel van 'Cogne et Foutre' ("Suppôts et supplications") geschreven rond 1946. Vertaald door Hubert Boutoille, die met toestemming van Simon Vinkenoog diens eerdere vertaling als uitgangspunt gebruikte.

Gedicht dat de zieke Ira Cohen samen met Louise Landes Levi schreef n.a.v. het vliegtuig dat op 14 januari 2009 een miraculeuze noodlanding maakte in de Hudson River. De opbrengst van het genummerde en dubbelzijdig geprinte pamflet komt volledig ten goede aan Ira Cohen.