Harry Oliver
Desert Rat Scrap Book, Packet Two of Pouch Six
Thousand Palms, CA: Harry Oliver, [1953]. First edition; 17 x 22" (folded double three times); heavy cream-colored stock; profusely illustrated with cover art by Art Loomer; minor puncture to lower fold-line and a small rubbed spot to front cover, else minor wear to edges; overall very good to near fine condition.
The "Desert Rat Scrap Book" (or DSRB) was a (somewhat irregularly published) quarterly Southwestern humor periodical created by art director, humorist, and artist Harry Oliver. Boasting to be "the smallest newspaper in the world" and the "only newspaper in America you can open in the wind," the current Packet Two, or The Contentment Packet, included the second installment of western-novels writer Dane Coolidge's "Death Valley Scotty, Prospector and Showman," Don Blanding's "The Desert," and the hilarious article "Mule Decides to Quit Army," etc. Considered by many to be the precursor to the zine culture - few copies of Oliver's journal have survived.