Twenty years ago or so, when I was still director of The Print Center, I was at a book party, chatting with Jayne Cortez [pictured left] and Ted Joans.
“I need to come out to Brooklyn and talk to you about a book I want to publish,” Ted said.
“One of your own?” I asked.
“No, no,” he said. “Years ago, Allen Ginsberg told me ‘Never publish yourself.’”
I knew Ted and Jayne were friends, but that still struck me as a bit awkward since Jayne famously self-published all her books.
“Well,” she said, “Duke Ellington told me, ‘Honey, always control your own shit.’”
And she always did.
— Robert Hershon