Ben Marcus

The Thing Quarterly: Issue 21 [Thompson Cream]

San Francisco: The Thing Quarterly, [2013]. Very Good. Item #9145

San Francisco: The Thing Quarterly, [2013]. First Edition. Side-stapled booklet (5" x 5"); 8pp + tin of Thompson Cream (2.5 oz). Housed in original cardboard presentation box.

Booklet clean and crisp with faint bend at top fore-edge corner. Thompson Cream tin unsealed but unperturbed, with plastic seal still present. Box is sturdy with some light distress to opening flap, a patch of sticker residue on top, and a written number at bottom with some smudging and the ghost of a mailing label with no residue or abrasion.

From publisher's website: "Issue 21 is by experimental novelist Ben Marcus. The issue includes a limited-run tin of Thompson Cream - a salve for people and things - as well as an accompanying booklet containing a short story by Marcus. The story traces the disturbing origins of Thompson Cream: 'A child was sick in Kansas. He had fever. His father prodded him awake, dressed him in gear, lead him outside in the dark morning for chores,' read the first few lines.

"Our Thompson Cream was handmade with the help of Metaphor Organic, an SF-based purveyor of fine soaps and salves. It was mixed and poured in Co-Editor Will Rogan’s backyard in Albany, California. It contains all natural ingredients including sunflower oil and beeswax, and a selection of herbs and supplements including bacopa monnieri, gingko biloba, gotu kola, Spanish sage, 5-HTP, and coenzyme Q10. Net weight is 2.5 ounces of salvey goodness. Thompson Cream can be applied to most any situation."

Price: $150.00