...if you've found this site and have delved this deeply into it you will know well enough that Ashbless is a nothing more than a fictional phantasm.
Actually there is more to it than that. To Powers and Blaylock readers Ashbless is more than a hoax, or a literary urban myth - more than an institution even. Ashbless is a secret we feel really excited to have been let in on! To read one of those so-called "introductions" by Ashbless in which he talks about Blaylock (My favorite is in the ASAP bibliography. A ruder and more scathing evaluation of a body of work you could not hope to read! - see below) is to get a chance to share in a joke that has been amusing Powers and Blaylock for years. Or to pick up a new Powers novel and wonder how he has weaved the poet's name (and that one notable time, the poet himself!) into the story - what fun!
Other authors have started to do this now in homage to the Ashbless myth and to those behind its creation - notably Freedom & Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull in which a volume by Ashbless is mentioned as being part of the protagonist's library. Most definitely a nod towards the ever growing influence of the works of Powers and Blaylock on readers and writers alike.
I once asked Tim if he had ever sketched Ashbless and he couldn't recall having done so. However recently John Bierer (web site benefactor par excellance) acquired much of Tim's material for The Anubis gates including early drafts of the novel and story outlines written in the authors hand. He also chanced upon the above drawing of the poet, the only known artist's impression of William Ashbless. My thanks to him for allowing it to be displayed here.
The origins of Ashbless date back to when Powers and Blaylock were attending Cal State Fullerton in the early 1970's. The story is related in rich detail by Powers himself on the second page of this sites Tim Powers Interview.
"... the school paper would print poetry written by the students and it was still close enough to 1968 that the poems were all free-verse, unpunctuated, unrhymed hippie drivel. Very pretentious though... So Blaylock and I decided we could write stuff that would be way more pretentious and portentous but totally nonsense. And so we started and I would write a line and pass it to Blaylock. He'd write a line below mine and we'd pass it back and forth 'til we had got to the end of the page and the person who saw his line would be the last would make sure to tie it up. And then we cooked up a name for him. I said the last name should be one of those two syllable, two word things... Mitford, you know. And so one of us came up with "Ash", the other came with "Bless" and our friend William was sitting right there, so we took his first name."
Never before seen outside of a private collection, here is one of those early Ashbless poems that Powers and Blaylock wrote together in the way described above. (Powers takes the odd lines and Blaylock the even.) Of this particular poem Powers says, "God knows when we wrote it -- '73 -'75, I suppose. Very typical Ashbless -- a few nice lines, but not a lot of overall coherence!". My grateful thanks goes to John Bierer for this image and to him and Messrs. Powers and Blaylock for their permission to exhibit it here.
Bursting his gravity chains with a full-throat cry,
From his eeled grotto, lunatic, Neptune
Has flung his emerald arms into the sky.
I, afloat with Zephyrous a-billowing the cloth
Am flung into a no-man's land of spray
And crack and hoot amid roiling demons
That twitch our floundering vessel roundabout.
Then, just when that guest of spring winks in,
Helios, calming the waves with an outflung hand,
We rocket off on a mad bedraggled couch,
Our makeshift lifeboat, borne directionless.
What salt-encrusted, green-sea vision is this,
This multitude of disinherit souls
That nest like sea birds all about me?
One speaks: "We are the men Direction scorned
When he handed round charts
Of destiny ... our dooms were preordained
And we've no commerce with those of you
Whose courses from the outset were drawn straight
And whose bloody corpses, goggle-eyed, approach us!
Ah! Now at last they come, the Vegetable Gods...
Piping through, with banners
On which are stitched the humiliation of us all.
In the Tim Powers Interview Powers goes on to describe how he and Blaylock both used Ashbless as a character in their respective novels The Anubis Gates and The Digging Leviathan. Editing both novels, Ace Books editor Beth Meacham noticed this rather striking coincidence and at her suggestion the two authors worked to define the poet's character further. There is a wonderful section early in Blaylock's The Digging Leviathan in which he describes what occured when Ashbless attended a lecture given by one Brendan Doyle "...that idiot from the university [who] lectured us on fish imagery in Romantic literature... Ashbless went for him that night, though. Blew his top. Told him he'd tweak his nose, do you remember? Just because of some historical discrepancy. Ashbless is a peculiar one." To any of this site's visitors with whom that excerpt has no resonance, you need to read Powers' novel The Anubis Gates urgently!
Indeed you'll find quotes by or references to Ashbless littering the works of both authors. Powers has got to the point where "...it would be bad luck to leave him out!" A comprehensive listing of Ashbless references in the works of both Powers and Blaylock can be found on Chris Branch's Ashbless Page.
For Ashbless's tenth birthday in 1983 Powers told me in our correspondence that he "... once made up a batch of Ashbless curry powder, limited to 20 numbered bottles, and on the "label" I had the head of, I think, Famine from Durer's print of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. (It was very good curry powder -- all from fenugreek seeds & cardamom pods & whatnot.)...It was for the Ashbless 10th anniversary party, at Blaylock's house in '83, I think. Dean Koontz was there, and stood on a table to recite a poem he had composed for the occasion."
In 1985 Cheap Street Fine Press Publishers under the guise of the International William Ashbless Society published a delicate item entitled Offering the Bicentennial Edition of the Complete Twelve Hours Of The Night. They described it thus:-
In 1987 a pamphlet was produced by The Folly Press entitled "A Short Poem By William Ashbless."
Powers says of this rare and emphemeral item, "The Folly Press thing was a fluke -- a friend took the liberty of
writing a sort of Ashbless joke and publishing it as a pamphlet. He was a good friend, so we let him get away with it. Blaylock and I didn't write it, though."
The short poem in question was actually written by Phil Garland, the publisher. It reads "Ho/Ho/Ho" and was written out by Powers and Blaylock and also signed by them (as Ashbless). There were three states of 26 lettered copies issued. Those in tan wrappers are known as the "Hastings" and those in blue as the "Cahuenga". The third state has red wrappers but I have never managed to find out what they called it! (Please e-mail me if you know) The pamphlet was laid in a white imprinted envelope and was intended for private distribution.
I have yet to see one of these rare items offered on the collectors market and have no idea what their market value might be.
In the UK Morrigan published three Blaylock novels in hardcover - The Digging Leviathan(1988), Homunculus(1988) and The Magic Spectacles(1991). Each were released seperately as trade editions with a print run of a thousand or so. Of these 300 (250 in the case of the latter) were slipcased and signed by the contributors. (Powers provided an introduction to The Digging Leviathan). There were a further 10 PC copies fully bound in leather.
In 1991 number of these editions were offered together in one package as a trilogy and with this set was included a pamphlet entitled A Word About the Author by William Ashbless. I understand only 50 were ever issued. The pamphlet is signed by Ashbless and on the rear cover by Blaylock and the cover artist Ferret.
The very next year Ashbless had more to say about Blaylock when he contributed an introduction to this very nice little bibliography of Blaylock's works produced by ASAP in August of 1992.
Produced in two states, there were 25 copies in acrylic slipcases and 225 trade copies. All were signed by Blaylock and Phil Parks (who produced the wonderful cover art and wrote the afterward.) They also contain an Ashbless signature, Blaylock signing "William" in red and Powers "Ashbless" in purple.
The text of Ashbless's introduction is a hoot. Clearly he doesn't think much of Blaylock's talent!
"The first in Subterranean Press' plans to bring to light some unduly neglected works by noted poet William Ashbless, this new chapbook contains "Slouching Toward Mauritius," a piratical short story written more than 25 years ago but never published, along with a lengthy pirate poem, "Moon-Eye Agonistes." Ashbless' notorious compatriots Tim Powers and James P. Blaylock have contributed an introduction and afterword, respectively, to put the pieces in their proper historical perspective. Printed in two colors throughout, this deluxe chapbook is fully illustrated with four two-color illustrations by Gahan Wilson".
At the time of writing only the chapbook state of this publication has been issued. Further details and images of these editions will be added here in due course. I can tell you though that the two hardcover states were sold out very quickly and will now only be available via bookdealers. Try Bookfinder.com if you wish to acquire a copy of either of these states. If you want the chapbook, it is possible that Subterranean still have some available or alternatively, try eBay.com where copies may be being offered for auction.
I am reliably informed that both Powers and Blaylock are rather good cooks and so I supposed we shouldn't be too surprised to find that they have had the notion of writing a cookbook, thus combining one of their talents with another. The idea of having Ashbless involved with such an endeavour seems, somehow, only natural!
However, though I understand this project was begun some years ago by the two (three!) of them, other things have sidelined it and it still has yet to see the light of day. Perhaps feedback from this feature might encourage Powers and Blaylock to finally get this thing published!!
Thus I am delighted to present to you a couple of recipes from THE WILLIAM ASHBLESS MEMORIAL COOKBOOK. These two, written by Powers (I should say written out by Powers as they are, of course, Ashbless's recipes!) appear here with the author's permission. I have not tried them myself, but I'd be very interested to hear what they turn like. Enjoy!
Subterranean Press have recently announced that they will be publishing the long-awaited William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook. Here is their blurb ...
Both editions feature stunning dustjacket art by Phil Parks. The deluxe limited edition will be bound in full leather, traycased, and be accompanied by a chapbook with additional recipes deemed unacceptable for the main edition!"
This release will consist of 750 autographed, numbered copies priced at $40.00 and also 100 deluxe copies, autographed and housed in a special traycase. These will be priced at $150.00.
More info will be posted here as I get it. In the meantime rush along to the Subterranean Press web site to order yours now. This release is guaranteed to sell out very quickly.
(Ashbless submitted this recipe, with this title, to a contest in some ladies' magazine in about 1988 -- the recipe didn't win, and the magazine didn't return it, but luckily Ashbless kept a carbon copy.) Procedure:
Eggs, 8 or 10
Break the eggs into a big bowl, add the parsley, oregano and thyme and a cup of the Parmesan cheese, and beat until well blended.
In a big cast iron pan, heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil (it needn't be your best grade) and cook the onions and the bell peppers in it over a high heat until the onions are transparent. (No garlic here -- Ashbless said it doesn't benefit eggs.) Add the ham and cook until hot through. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool off for a minute or so.
Pour the eggs into the pan and push everything around until it's all pretty evenly distributed. Then lay the aparagus tips in, pushing them down under the surface of the egg mix. Do a couple of shakes of salt over it all, and five or six grinds of pepper.
Turn the heat down to the lowest visible flame and put the pan back over it. Cooking this will take a while -- maybe as much as half an hour. Every few minutes rotate the pan a quarter turn to make sure no one side gets more heat than another, if your burner, like mine, is not level. Check the heat by touching the rim of the pan; if the heat is correct, you should be able to touch it for four or five seconds before you have to move your finger. If you can't touch it for that long, your heat's too high.
Eventually the fritatta will set from the bottom almost all the way up to the top, with the surface still a little runny. At this point put the whole pan under the broiler -- use a pot-holder, and use both hands because this is heavy.
Do make sure you've got the broiler lit, and turned all the way up.
Check the fritatta every minute or so, and when the top it set and solid and just about to brown, spread the grated Mozzarella cheese all over it, stopping maybe half an inch short of the edge. Put it under the broiler again.
When the Mozzarella is bubbling and just starting to brown, lay the tomato slices over it, not overlapping too much; then sprinkle on the minced basil; and then sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese over it all. Put it back under the broiler until the cheese is lightly browned.
Haul the pan out to a counter and slide a spatula vertically between the fritatta and the side of the pan, and run it all the way around the pan's inside perimeter to cut the sides free. Then use the spatula, again held vertically, to chop the fritatta into sections like a pizza and use the spatula as a shovel to scoop under the sections and lift them free. I hate using the word "spatula" so frequently. Ashbless called the thing a "flipper".
Serve this hot. It serves four hungry people, but if you've made more than you can all eat, it heats up wonderfully next day in the microwave for lunch.
This is just the way Ashbless made this. At one time and another he included bacon, mushrooms, meatballs, broccoli, spinach, potatoes ... chorizo, with salsa dumped over everything at the end ... he even claimed to have made a dessert version, with strawberries in it and powdered sugar and maple syrup on top, but I think that was a lie.
There are plenty more fun recipes in the book including this short one which I include here as a bonus for those of you who have read this far!!
It's simple, but startling. Dump the juice out of a jar of maraschino cherries; refill the jar with 101-proof Wild Turkey whiskey; let the jar sit in your refrigerator for six months; serve with toothpicks.
Ashbless in Vietnam?? There's a Powers or Blaylock novel that would make interesting reading!! I hope you have enjoyed this look at the works of William Ashbless. Please visit the feedback page or feel free to e-mail me with your comments.
Page created 25th January 2000 -
Last Updated:
© John Berlyne
Intended to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Ashbless' birth, reportedly only 355 copies of this very pretty ephemera were ever printed thus making it hugely collectable to Powers - and Ashbless! - fans. They very occasionally appear on the market and I have seen copies offered for $100! However Cheap Street were recently offering copies for as little as $25, so use the above link to take a look at their site and see if they have any left.
On Pirates
An original Ashbless Chapbook was published by Subterranean Press in mid 2001.
Entitled On Pirates, this publication is described in the press release thus :-
The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook
"...We've even written a cookbook! -THE WILLIAM ASHBLESS MEMORIAL COOKBOOK - which we have never published. It's all of Ashbless's recipes excerpted from Ashbless's correspondence. We say "Excerpted from a letter to Marcel Proust" and translated into English. So we've excerpted Ashbless's favourite recipes from his correspondence with famous people."
"The mad poet and his compatriots return! In addition to being liberally sprinkled with excerpts from correspondence to a bestselling author, biographical bits, bickering, and the sort of humor you’ve come to expect from these three, The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook is also (so they claim) a legitimate cookbook, with field-tested and malaria-safe recipes! We (being safety- and litigation-conscious publishers) will make no claims on that count, but we are certain this is the funniest, most idiosyncratic cookbook you’ll ever encounter.
Unflavoured low-calorie yoghurt, as much as you like
Bacon, half a pound
One large yellow onion, root and top ends trimmed off
Two 7-oz cans solid white tuna in water
Two stalks celery, minced
Miracle Whip, about half a cup
A-1 Sauce, a teaspoon
Dijon-style mustard, a teaspoon
Ketchup, a teaspoon
Sourdough bread, sliced and toasted
A vine-ripened tomato or two, thinly sliced
Romaine lettuce
Serves three lavishly, or five realistically.
Grated Parmesan cheese (no need for Parmigiano Reggiano) about a cup and a quarter
Parsley and thyme and oregano, half a teaspoon each if fresh and finely minced
One onion, north and south poles trimmed off, cut into half rings
A third of a red bell pepper, same treatment
One roughly chopped eight-ounce can of asparagus tips, drained
Cooked ham, julienned, 2/3 cup
Mozzarella cheese, 2/3 cup, grated
Vine ripened tomatoes, one large or two small, thinly sliced
Fresh, minced basil, one teaspoon (or, if you must, a teaspoon of crumbled dried basil)
Ashbless learned this from a friend named Jimbo Morningstar who he claimed to have met in Vietnam.Return to The Works Of Tim Powers
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