http://www.beasleybooks.com We sell first editions of modern literature, jazz and blues, labor history, African American studies, Surrealism, and Illustrated Books. Many people have asked about where the Beasley in Beasley Books came from, and here is the story. In 1970 I discovered an essay by the psychoanalyst Sandor Ferenczi, and wanted to give the essay a wider exposure. It was called “The Ont
ogenesis of the Interest in Money. A Psychoanalytic Investigation of the Origins of Capitalism.”
I decided to publish it as a pamphlet, but needed a name for the imprint. At the time I was somewhat obsessed with frogs, and I had been an ardent blues fan for a decade. Combining the three interests of psychoanalysis, frogs, and the blues seemed natural, and I knew just the song I wanted for inspiration. The blues singer Walter Beasley released two records on the Okeh label in 1927. and one of the songs was “Toad Frog Blues.” The song contained the line, “If a toad frog had wings, he’d be flying all around.” A vision came to me: Name the new imprint after Walter Beasley, and use a frog with dragonfly wings as the logo. We printed less than 500 copies. For the next ten years, Beasley Books was inactive, but when Beth and I decided to enter the used and rare book business in 1980, we revived the name and the logo for our new enterprise. We released our first catalog with the frog on the cover in 1981, and we continued to issue printed catalogs for over 30 years. Oh, yes, and the rest of the verse was, “He wouldn’t have his bottom bumpin’ thumpin’ on the ground.”
