Part of the Ray Johnson Estate. One side of a letter from Ray Johnson to Dick Higgins on Michael Malce stationary reproducing a conversation between Johnson and David Bourdon regarding Higgins that was purportedly rejected from the Village Voice. The letter is dated 8 December 1964.

Part of the Ray Johnson Estate. One side of a letter from Ray Johnson to Dick Higgins on Michael Malce stationary reproducing a conversation between Johnson and David Bourdon regarding Higgins that was purportedly rejected from the Village Voice. The letter is dated 8 December 1964.

Part of the Ray Johnson Estate. One side of a letter from Ray Johnson to Dick Higgins on Michael Malce stationary reproducing a conversation between Johnson and David Bourdon regarding Higgins that was purportedly rejected from the Village Voice. The letter is dated 8 December 1964.

Part of the Ray Johnson Estate. One side of a letter from Ray Johnson to Dick Higgins on Michael Malce stationary reproducing a conversation between Johnson and David Bourdon regarding Higgins that was purportedly rejected from the Village Voice. The letter is dated 8 December 1964.

 

David Bourdon (1934-1998) was an American art critic, journalist, editor and author known for monographs he produced on Calder, Christo, and Andy Warhol, whose famous workplace (“the Factory”) Bourdon frequented. In September of 1964, Warhol (and/or Bourdon) placed an ad for a nonexistent art exhibition on view in the hospital room where Ray was being treated for hepatitis. The same month, an article by Bourdon, “An Interview with nosnhoJ yaR,” appeared in Artforum, the second feature on Ray Johnson ever to appear in a mainstream magazine, as The Paper Snake was being assembled. This typescript probably dates from around that time (this version is dated 8 December 1964 by Ray). Michael Malcé, Ray’s friend and the owner of the letterhead Ray used here, isn’t mentioned in this text. It is not known if Ray actually submitted this to the Village Voice for publication, or if he then sent it to Diane di Prima, who in 1964 was co-editor (with LeRoi Jones) of the Floating Bear, an offbeat, irreverent journal to which Ray sometimes contributed. It is not known if he really ever sent this to Dick Higgins or if he ever actually had a conversation about Dick Higgins with David Bourdon.