Before there was a band, there was a book... This is the literary DNA of the Dead.

These items reveal the Grateful Dead not just as a band, but as a literary movement: a community of poets, scholars, and writers whose work gave shape and meaning to the music. For collectors and scholars alike, this is a rare opportunity to own pieces of that story.

An artisan created a beautifully detailed metal casting of Mouse and Kelley's iconic skeleton-with-roses design, the famous Grateful Dead symbol. A few were later turned into bookends. These are heavy, beautifully built pieces.

A fascinating poetic exercise that grew into a full-length work, Idiot's Delight was printed in Beat poet Raymond Foye's Hanuman Press series of pocket-sized works. Funny, insightful, and moving, this is one of Hunter’s rarest works.

This interview provided the first sustained, book-length view of the Dead as they entered the 1970s from the mind of the musician who for many fans represented the leader and guiding spirit of the band.