Ins & Outs: A Magazine of Awareness

Edward Woods
Amsterdam

Nos. 1–4/5 (1978–80).

Ins & Outs 1 (1978).

When Jane Harvey and I found ourselves flat broke in Amsterdam, we couldn’t think of anything better to do than start a magazine. Actually there’s quite a lot of truth in that quip, even though the publication was initially someone else’s idea. A travel agent looking to emulate London’s highly successful Time Out with a smattering of feature pieces but mainly local events listings. Yet after a few months of trying, he simply couldn’t get his idea off the ground. Ultimately he encountered me, and insisted I take on the job of editing Ins & Outs in return for room, board, and pocket money. He hadn’t a clue what he was letting himself in for. I even signaled my intentions by adding the subtitle A Magazine of Awareness.

Ins & Outs 2 (1978).

The first three issues were produced in the most amazing manner. Together with Jane, I quickly gathered round me a slew of fascinating poets, writers, and photographers whose work went beyond the so-called cutting edge of artistic endeavor. Among those was Ira Cohen, whom we’d met two years earlier (1976) in Kathmandu. Along with writing for the magazine (Henry Miller was totally blown away by Ira’s “Kathmandu Dream Piece”), he set about connecting me with any number of literary people in various parts of the world. Meanwhile I had my own contacts. All of which in due course led to us publishing the likes of William Levy, Charles Henri Ford, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles, Jack Hirschman, Heathcote Williams, Gregory Corso, Gerard Malanga, Mel Clay, et al. The illustrious list kept growing. Never mind that the creatively madcap 24/7 office scene had the travel agent diving for cover, Ins & Outs was well launched.

Ins & Outs 3 (1978).

By the time issue no. 4/5 appeared in mid-1980 (again with a 2,500-copy print run), the travel agent was out of the picture. Shortly thereafter we founded Ins & Outs Press and embarked on additional publishing activities (including books, postcards, audio cassettes, silkscreen prints, etc). We also ran a bookstore for a spell, until I converted the ground floor of the eventual Ins & Outs building into a gallery-cum-performance space where Jack Micheline, Harold Norse, and Herbert Huncke gave truly memorable readings that are now available on CD. In between these two “incarnations” of Ins & Outs, Ronald Sauer compiled a special poetry anthology entitled Crippled Warlords. It bore the Ins & Outs imprint and was dedicated to Eddie Woods and Jane Harvey.

Ronald F. Sauer, ed., Crippled Warlords (1979). Contributing editors: Charles McGeehan, Ira Cohen, William Levy, and Simon Vinkenoog. Cover photo by Ira Cohen.

I like to think that each of our four issues vibrates with intense doses of unforgettable experiences for the alert reader. Not just from the stories, poems, and frequently stunning visual artwork, but right down to the strangely timeless catalog of events, the adverts, letters to the editor, reviews, and so on. Raising awareness was our aim, and I believe we achieved that. In spades. Or as Charles Plymell put it, ”Ins & Outs is the only exciting mag going in underground literary tradition.“

— Eddie Woods, Amsterdam, January 2017

Ins & Outs (complete)

Cohen, Ira. Das Bauen im neuen Reich. 1980. Silkscreen print by Kirke Wilson, from a “bandaged poet” photograph of Jules Deelder by Ira Cohen.

Huncke, Herbert. Herbert Huncke—Guilty of Everything. 2012. Double CD. Live recording of Huncke’s 1987 reading at Ins & Outs Press. Coproduced with Unrequited Records, San Francisco.

Jones, Woodstock. Other World Poetry Newsletter. 1979.

Levy, William. Natural Jewboy. 1981. Illustrations by Peter Pontiac.

Micheline, Jack. Jack Micheline in Amsterdam. 1983. Audio cassette. Live recording of Micheline’s 1982 reading at Ins & Outs Press.

Micheline, Jack. Jack Micheline in Amsterdam. 2012. CD. Live recording of Micheline’s 1982 reading at Ins & Outs Press. Coproduced with Unrequited Records, San Francisco.

Norse, Harold. Harold Norse Of Course. 1985. Audio cassette. Live recording of Norse’s 1984 reading at Ins & Outs Press.

Norse, Harold. Harold Norse Of Course. 2010. CD and double LP. Live recording of Norse’s 1984 reading at Ins & Outs Press. Coproduced with Unrequited Records, San Francisco.

Sauer, Ronald. Manifesto: Cosa Nostra di Poesia. 1979.

Sauer, Ronald, ed. Crippled Warlords. 1979.

[Various artists]. Postcard series. 1980–81. Photographs and drawings by various visual artists, including fourteen of Ira Cohen’s “Bandaged Poets.”

Wilson, Kirke. Limited-edition silkscreen print of William S. Burroughs. 1985. From a photograph by Ira Cohen.

Wilson, Kirke. Limited-edition silkscreen print of Snuffie, the Gangster Woof of Amsterdam. 1987. From a photograph by Eddie Woods.

Wilson, Kirke. Limited-edition silkscreen print of Herbert Huncke. 1987. Copublished with Soyo Productions, Amsterdam. From a photograph by Peter Edel.

Wilson, Kirke. Limited-edition silkscreen print of Allen Ginsberg. 1992. Copublished with Turret Books, London. From a “bandaged poet” photograph by Ira Cohen.

Wilson, Kirke. Limited-edition silkscreen print of Xaviera Hollander. 1993. From a photograph by Tony Newitt.

Woods, Eddie. Dangerous Precipice. 2004. CD.

Woods, Eddie. Sale or Return. 1981. Dutch translations by Hans Plomp.

Woods, Eddie. Tsunami of Love: A Poems Cycle. 2005.

Woods, Eddie. Tsunami of Love: A Poems Cycle. 2007. CD.

Ins & Outs 4/5 (1980).