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Finding Aid for the V. Vale Collection of Search and Destroy and RE/Search Publications Records, 1927-2014
LSC.1858
LSC.1858
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Title: V. Vale Collection of Search and Destroy and RE/Search Publications records
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1858
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
265.4 linear feet
(371 boxes, 40 oversized flat boxes, 33 media boxes, 30 flat boxes, 24 record cartons, 19 shoeboxes, 8 half boxes, 7 poster
storage boxes)
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1978-2010
Date (inclusive): 1927-2014
Abstract: Collection contains production materials, administrative records, press and promotional materials, and correspondence from
late 1970’s San Francisco punk zine
Search & Destroy and subcultural publishing outfit RE/Search Publications (briefly V/Search Publications). Established in 1981, RE/Search
documents underground trends including body modification, industrial culture, and zines, as well as countercultural literary
figures such as J. G. Ballard and William S. Burroughs. Material represented in this collection was accumulated by San Francisco-based
publisher, writer, musician, and artist V. Vale.
Physical Location: Portions of this collection stored off-site at SRLF. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance
using the request button located on this page. Oversize materials (Box 327) and Survival Research Laboratories devices (Boxes
504, 515) held on-site.
Creator:
Vale, V.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. All requests to access special collections material must be made in
advance using the request button located on this page.
Conditions Governing Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], V. Vale Collection of Search and Destroy and RE/Search Publications Records (Collection 1858). UCLA
Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase, 2015.
Processed by Molly Horne, Jesse Arlen, and Joyce Wang in the
Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT) under the supervision of Courtney Dean, Summer 2016-Spring 2017.
Series 1-4 processed by Molly Horne, graduate student Information Studies. Series 5-7 processed by Jesse Arlen, doctoral student
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Series 8 processed by Jesse Arlen and Joyce Wang, undergraduate student Microbiology,
Immunology, & Molecular Genetics. Series 9-11 processed by Joyce Wang and Courtney Dean, processing archivist.
The collection arrived at UCLA on 9 pallets and was primarily comprised of loose material housed in plastic tubs. Materials
were also stored in plastic re-sealable zipper storage bags labeled with item counts but little contextual information. The
processing team respected original order to the extent possible. Materials with no contextual information and no explicit
connection to publishing projects, administrative records, or personal papers were organized into collected materials series.
Routine weeding included items such as full editions of major newspapers (e.g.
San Francisco Chronicle) and corporate mass mailings (i.e. junk mail).
Mold remediation was performed on materials housed in Box 532 by UCLA Library Conservation staff.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
8025437
V. Vale, born Vale Hamanaka, is an influential independent publisher in San Francisco who brought to greater public prominence
the eccentricities and personalities of punk, underground, and alternative culture. He was born in 1944 in a Japanese internment
camp in Jerome, Arkansas to the actor Conrad Yama (Kiyoshi Conrad Hamanaka) and Mary Takaoka of the vaudeville trio the Taka
Sisters. He later studied English at the University of California, Berkeley, and attended a semester of graduate studies at
San Francisco State University, before he went on to become one of the early members of the rock/metal band Blue Cheer (1967).
In the early 1970’s, Vale obtained a position as a mail-order clerk at San Francisco’s independent bookstore-publisher City
Lights. There, Vale befriended some of the prominent figures of the 1950’s Beat Generation, namely Lawrence Ferlinghetti and
Allen Ginsberg. In 1977, with support from Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, and a doctor friend, Vale gathered funding to produce the
tabloid-like publication
Search and Destroy. Vale sought to document San Francisco’s burgeoning punk scene and to re-contextualize its image from the one presented by
mainstream media. Emulating the editorial aesthetics of Andy Warhol’s
Interview,
Search and Destroy featured seminal DIY artists and punk rock musicians such as the Ramones and the Weirdos at San Francisco venues like the
Mabuhay Gardens and Deaf Club. Vale also made occasional contributions to other punk rock and underground periodicals/zines
including
Slash and
Another Room.
Vale met Andrea Juno in May 1980, and the pair went on to produce a number of works under RE/Search Publications, abandoning
the title
Search and Destroy as the punk scene garnered increasing popularity. Through monetary support by Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records, the two
produced
RE/Search #1-3, which maintained much of the same stylistic features and tabloid-like format as
Search and Destroy. In 1981, they created the commercial typesetting business RE/Search Typography, to gain greater financial and editorial
liberty for their publications. In 1982, Vale and Juno produced their first book,
RE/Search #4-5, focusing on the works and insights of William S. Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle, and Brion Gysin.
Subsequent projects had similarly centralized themes.
The partnership between Juno and Vale led to the publication of more than 20 books, including works by J.G. Ballard, Daniel
P. Mannix, and Octave Mirbeau, among others.
Modern Primitives,
Pranks, and
Incredibly Strange Films are some of their most notable publications. Following a period of administrative disagreement where RE/Search Publications
was briefly relocated to New York, Juno and Vale dissolved the company in late 1995. Andrea Juno went on to start Juno Books,
and Vale began publishing under V/Search, although he continues to use the RE/Search brand.
Following the split, Vale started working with his current partner, filmmaker and documentarian Marian Wallace, at his same
studio in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francicsco. Along with continuing to publish magazines and books, the two started
a monthly, hour-long interview program on cable TV entitled
The Counter Culture Hour in 2005. He periodically gives lectures at various universities and is a frequent panelist at art and zine festivals. Vale
and Marian Wallace have one daughter named Valentine.
This collection is comprised of production materials, both paper-based and digital; administrative records; and press and
promotional materials for
Search and Destroy, RE/Search Publications, and V/Search Publications, accumulated and stored by independent publisher V. Vale in San Francisco.
It also contains a significant amount of correspondence, gifts, and project proposals that were sent to RE/Search Publications
during the 1990s, illustrating the breath and interest in local and international subcultures. It is important to note that
the collection does not contain production or administrative material for every title produced by RE/Search or V/Search, nor
does it contain a back catalog of the final works themselves. The majority of the content related to the publications exists
in the form of proofs, layouts, manuscript edits, interview transcripts, and research subject files, providing valuable insight
into the production process. Administrative and business related materials include financial records, lawsuit settlements,
invoices, and business consultation materials for RE/Search Publications and RE/Search Typography, as well as those for smaller
ventures (e.g. RE/Shirts). The collection also contains a rich selection of underground and alternative publications, including
books, zines, comics, and periodicals, as well as audiovisual materials collected by Vale, representing subjects ranging from
Beat poetry to punk and sadomasochism. A small amount of Vale's personal correspondence, ephemera, and memorabilia are also
included.
Publishing projects and administrative records are organized chronologically, while research, collected materials, and personal
papers are arranged by subject or type. Original order was maintained to the extent possible.
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Search and Destroy and Early Punk Materials, 1970-1997
- Subseries 1.1: Original Issues and Production Materials, 1977-1979
- Subseries 1.2: Search and Destroy: Photographs Project, 1980-1981
- Subseries 1.3: The Complete Reprint, Volumes I and II, 1995-1997
- Subseries 1.4: Research and Content, 1971-1981
- Subseries 1.5: Early Punk Materials, 1970-1981
- Subseries 1.6: Correspondence, 1971-1981
- Subseries 1.7: Administrative Materials, 1977-1980
- Series 2: Original RE/Search Titles, 1980-1995
- Subseries 2.1: RE/Search #2-#3, 1980-1981
- Subseries 2.2: RE/Search #4/5: W.S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Throbbing Gristle, 1982-1982
- Subseries 2.3: RE/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook, 1983-1983
- Subseries 2.4: RE/Search #8/9: J.G. Ballard, 1984-1984
- Subseries 2.5: RE/Search #10: Incredibly Strange Films, 1985-1986
- Subseries 2.6: RE/Search #11: Pranks, 1988-1988
- Subseries 2.7: Jeffrey Vallance Project, 1985-1989
- Subseries 2.8: RE/Search #12: Modern Primitives, 1989-1989
- Subseries 2.9: RE/Search #13: Angry Women, 1991-1991
- Subseries 2.10: RE/Search #14/15: Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 1 and 2, 1993-1994
- Subseries 2.11: Angry Women in Rock, 1995-1996
- Series 3: Original V/Search Titles, 1996-2014
- Subseries 3.1: Bob Flanagan: Super Masochist, 1995-1995
- Subseries 3.2: Zines, Vols. 1 and 2, 1996-1996
- Subseries 3.3: Swing: The Retro Renaissance, 1997-1997
- Subseries 3.4: Photos from the Front: Sue Brisk Project, 1999-1999
- Subseries 3.5: Modern Pagans, 2001-2001
- Subseries 3.6: Real Conversations 1: Ferlinghetti, Rollins, Biafra, Childish, 2001-2001
- Subseries 3.7: Robert Delford Brown Project, 2003-2004
- Subseries 3.8: J.G. Ballard, Quotes and Conversations, 2004-2005
- Subseries 3.9: Pranks 2, 2004-2006
- Subseries 3.10: Steam Punk Live Project, 2008-2008
- Subseries 3.11: RE/Search Pocketbooks, 2013-2013
- Series 4: Other Publishing Projects, 1981-2014
- Subseries 4.1: Great Expectations by Kathy Acker, 1981-1982
- Subseries 4.2: Here to Go by Brion Gysin, 1981-1982
- Subseries 4.3: Tattootime by Don Ed Hardy, 1984-1986
- Subseries 4.4: High Priest of California/Wild Wives by Charles Willeford, 1989-1989
- Subseries 4.5: Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau, 1988-1989
- Subseries 4.6: Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard, 1989-1999
- Subseries 4.7: The Confessions of Wanda Sacher-Masoch, 1990-1991
- Subseries 4.8: Memoirs of a Sword Swallower by Daniel P. Mannix, 1997-1997
- Subseries 4.9: Dating AI by Alex Zhavoronkov, 2012
- Subseries 4.10: Miscellaneous Projects and Notes, 1981-2012
- Subseries 4.11: Collected Cover Proofs, Layouts, and Artwork, 1981-2014
- Subseries 4.12: Collected Digital Media, 1990-2010
- Series 5: RE/Search Correspondence, 1980-2013
- Subseries 5.1: Submission and Proposals, 1980-2010
- Subseries 5.2: Gifts and Promotional Materials, 1980-2008
- Subseries 5.3: General Correspondence, 1980-2013
- Subseries 5.4: Faxes, 1993-2004
- Subseries 5.5: Inquiries and Mail Orders, 1980-2011
- Series 6: Administrative Records, 1980-2011
- Subseries 6.1: Rough Trade Incorporated, 1980-1984
- Subseries 6.2: RE/Search Typography, 1981-1990
- Subseries 6.3: Contracts, Agreements, and Legal Materials, 1981-2009
- Subseries 6.4: Financial and Administrative Materials, 1980-2011
- Subseries 6.5: Notes and Memoranda, 1980-2009
- Series 7: Press and Promotional Materials, 1980-2014
- Series 8: Research Materials, 1930-2014
- Subseries 8.1: Subject Files, 1960-1999
- Subseries 8.2: Subject Collections, 1937-2014
- Subseries 8.3: The Body, 1930-2009
- Subseries 8.4: Clippings, 1946-2011
- Series 9: Collected Publications, 1927-2014
- Subseries 9.1: Zines and Comics, 1954-2014
- Subseries 9.2: Periodicals, 1927-2011
- Subseries 9.3: Catalogs, 1966-2009
- Series 10: Collected Audiovisual Materials, 1950-2011
- Series 11: V. Vale Personal Materials, 1952-2013
- Subseries 11.1: Correspondence, 1970-2013
- Subseries 11.2: Art Invitations, 1987-2013
- Subseries 11.3: Personal Papers, 1969-2013
- Subseries 11.4: Music Studio Materials, 1973-2008
- Subseries 11.5: Bruno Richard, 1981-2005
- Subseries 11.6: Vermillion, 1952-1985
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials in this collection will require assessment and possible digitization
for safe access. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
COLLECTION CONTAINS DIGITAL MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. All requests to
access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Vale, V. -- Archives.
Publishers and publishing--California, Northern--Archives.
Punk culture--California--20th century
Zines