This Body of Black Light - Gone Through the Diamond

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore

"This Body of Black Light - Gone Through the Diamond" is a handprinted and handbound book of poems written by Daniel Moore, a San Francisco-based Beat Generation poet later known as Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore when he converted to Sufism in 1970. These poems - meditations on spirituality and the human condition - were written in 1962, but as the Vietnam War began ramping up in the mid-1960s, Moore decided to compile them and publish them in this experimental softcover book, with an addendum referring to the follies of war on the last page. Due to its ephemeral nature (diazo prints are very light sensitive and not typically meant to last), we presume that this uneditioned book is one of very few, we have found no other examples.

Each of the 26 fully illustrated pages was printed using the diazo printing method (see below). The images were printed by Fred Stone in Cambridge, MA, on French-folded sheets of thin cream wove. These were then bound by the artist between two pieces of avocado-green heavyweight wove papers, decorated with a pasted-down cover illustration and borded by hand-painted detailing. A very rare work.

The inside cover is inscribed in pencil: "Dear Marty / This book reminds me / of you and so is yours / if you want it, / with my good wishes / and Love / Pat / Dec. 9, 1968."

Born in 1940 in Oakland, California, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore's first book of poems, "Dawn Visions", was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books, San Francisco, in 1964.

The "diazo", also called "whiteprint", is defined in Wikipedia as: "Whiteprint describes a document reproduction produced by using the diazo chemical process....It is a contact printing process which accurately reproduces the original in size, but cannot reproduce continuous tones or colors. The light-sensitivity of the chemicals used was known in the 1890s and several related printing processes were patented at that time.

Whiteprinting replaced the blueprint process for reproducing architectural and engineering drawings because the process was simpler and involved fewer toxic chemicals. A [diazo print] is not permanent and will fade if exposed to light for weeks or months, but a drawing print that lasts only a few months is sufficient for many purposes.""

His work and more information can also be seen on his website: http://www.ecstaticxchange.com