Autograph manuscripts comprising the complete draft of 'Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) Continued, 1970-71', fair copy of 'Mureau', and two related texts, [c.1970-71]

John Cage (1912-1992)
Autograph manuscripts comprising the complete draft of 'Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) Continued, 1970-71', fair copy of 'Mureau', and two related texts, [c.1970-71]
The first titled and dated 'Diary VI / Cont.', 1970-71, 58 and 55 leaves, 227 x 152mm, text mostly on one side only, marked up with line-breaks, a few cancellations, in two ring-bound stenographic pads. Provenance: Bob Moran (presentation inscription signed by Cage, San Francisco, May 1971); Sotheby's, 15 May 1996, lot 320.

The text for 'Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) Continued, 1970-71' (published in New Literary History, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Autumn, 1971), 201-214) runs from the first notebook through to f. 47 of the second. The remainder of the rectos of the second notebook comprises heavily revised drafts of a text published as a continuation of the diary in M: Writings '67-'72, while the versos (written in the opposite orientation) comprise a fair copy of 'Mureau', a chance-directed text generated by the I-Ching, marked up with typographic indications (published in M: Writings '67-'72, pp. 35-38). The first leaf of the first notebook is perhaps a set of performance indications for the 'Diary', breaking the manuscript down into units denoted by roman numerals.