Tag Archives: Anne Waldman

Elephant

1. ELEPHANT, No. 1, edited by John Perreault
New York City: John Perreault, Summer 1965
First edition, saddle stapled in illustrated wrappers, 7” x 8.5”, 72 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Kathleen Fraser – “Trench Coat”
      Kathleen Fraser – “Little Poem for Frank”
      Kathleen Fraser – “Talking”
      Kathleen Fraser – “Medium-Size Poem for Joe”
      Kathleen Fraser – “Telegram”
      Kathleen Fraser – “Francine”
      Kathleen Fraser – “The Reason for Violence”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “Habitations”
      Robert Newman – “In Killyville U.S.A.”
      Robert Newman – “Snowdown”
      Ted Berrigan – “Homage to Charles Olson”
      Ted Berrigan – “On the Level of Everyday”
      John Perreault – “Shoe”
      James Brodey – “Conclusion”
      James Brodey – “4 to Kevin’s Joe”
      James Brodey – “10/23/63”
      James Brodey – “Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto, No. 3 in D Major”
      James Brodey – “Energy”
      James Brodey – “The Mindbenders”
      John Perreault – “Readymade: Flag”
      Gerard Malanga – “The Pleasure Seekers”
      Gerard Malanga – “Harakiri”
      Andy Warhol – “The Model that Models for Buick ‘65 Buick”
      Aram Saroyan – [untitled] “A cup of coffee…”
      Aram Saroyan – “French Poets”
      Aram Saroyan – [untitled] “Today, May 6th 1965…”
      Rosemary Ceravolo – “My Mother”
      Rosemary Ceravolo – “Poem” (“Do you love me…”)
      Rosemary Ceravolo – “America”
      Michael Benedikt – “Bonfire of Kings”
      Sotere Torregian – “Poem” (Against the world’s snarl…”)
      Sotere Torregian – “The Letters”
      Sotere Torregian – “Branch Brook Park 10/43”
      Sotere Torregian – “April”
      Sotere Torregian – [untitled] “Poetry should be written…”
      Erik Kiviat – “Waysong”
      John Perreault – “Readymade: The Meaning of Existence”

2. ELEPHANT, No. 2, edited by John Perreault
New York City: John Perreault, Winter 1965
First edition, side-stapled with illustrated cover, 8.5” x 11”, 62 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by John Perreault.

  • Contents:
    1. Allan Kaplan – “I Have a French Mind”
      Allan Kaplan – “The Highriser”
      Allan Kaplan – “Long Island”
      Allan Kaplan – “Poem” (“How many hours…”)
      Allan Kaplan – “My Wife’s House”
      Aram Saroyan – “Placid Teas”
      Aram Saroyan – [untitled] “Walking I am reading…”
      Jack Anderson – “The Hurricane Lamp”
      Jack Anderson – “Giovanni in Summer”
      Jack Anderson – “On the Road to the Eye Hospital”
      James Brodey – “Ordinary”
      James Brodey – “2/11/64”
      James Brodey – “One Poem from The Undice”
      Tony Towle – “Scrap Paper”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “from Habitations”
      Michael Silverton – “Notes from Lake Chud”
      Michael Silverton – “I Would Love You More”
      Michael Silverton – “Dance Beans”
      Michael Silverton – “We Have Black Walnuts”
      Kathleen Fraser – “Anthropology”
      Gerard Malanga – “Burning Days”
      Timothy Baum – “Homage to Jane Austen”
      Ted Berrigan – “American Express”
      Ted Berrigan – “After Breakfast”
      Michael Benedikt – “The Patient Yak”
      Sotere Torregian – “Give Back the Human”
      Sotere Torregian – “We are Living in the Overlap”
      Sotere Torregian – “Poem” (“The mad epithaliums…”)
      Robert Newman – “Survival Facilities”
      John Perreault – “Blue Air”
      John Perreault – “My Shortness”
      John Perreault – “Haircut”
      John Perreault – “Through this Spanish City We Row like the Weather”

3. ELEPHANT, No. 3, edited by John Perreault
New York City: John Perreault, Winter 1966
First edition, side-stapled with illustrated cover, 8.5” x 11”, 48 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by John Perreault. Illustration by Hugo Mujica

  • Contents:
    1. Joseph Ceravolo – “Help”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “Poem” (“Who has the nerves…”)
      Joseph Ceravolo – “Poem” (“You are mine…”)
      Joseph Ceravolo – “Snowy Saturday”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “Poem” (“What do you know…”)
      Ruth Krauss – “Miracle or Goodbye My Poets’ Storefront”
      Ruth Krauss – “A Play, Drunk Boat”
      Ruth Krauss – “Torch Song”
      Ruth Krauss – “Horse Opera with Wings”
      Ruth Krauss – “A Poem-Play, Onward”
      David Shapiro – “A Poem for Joseph Ceravolo”
      Aram Saroyan – “Waht”
      Regina Snyder – “Mandala”
      Jack Anderson – “Weather Report”
      Jack Anderson – “Castanets”
      Jack Anderson – “Precipitation Monday”
      Anne Waldman – “On the Open Sea”
      Anne Waldman – “The Distinct Absence”
      Lewis Warsh – “Suspect”
      Lewis Warsh – “The Report Card”
      James Brodey – “San Francisco, Condensed”
      Sotere Torregian – “From the Uncollected Poems of John Wesley Hardin”
      Sotere Torregian – [untitled] “And cork Paris world magic…”
      Michael Silverton – “Poem in Seven Sections called ‘The Days’”
      Thomas Clark – “The Yearbook”
      Thomas Clark – “The Whispering Lights”
      John Perreault – “Apocalypse”
      Clark Coolidge – “The Repeat Paper”
      Timothy Baum – “Automatic Thought Sequence for Alvin Greenstein’s Birthday”
      Ted Berrigan – “Corporal Pellegrini”
      Ted Berrigan – “Tobacco”
      John Perreault – “Zion”
      John Perreault – “An Interview with Joseph Ceravolo”

The Floating Bear

THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 24, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones (New York, September-October 1962)

The subtitle “A Newsletter” is the key to The Floating Bear’s chief contribution to literature of the 1960’s; it was a newsletter, a speedy line of communication between experimental poets. Diane di Prima, in the introduction to the reprint edition of Floating Bear, recalls Charles Olson’s tribute to the magazine: “The last time I saw Charles Olson in Gloucester, one of the things he talked about was how valuable the Bear had been to him in its early years because of the fact that he could get new work out that fast. He was very involved in speed, in communication. We got manuscripts from him pretty regularly in the early days of the Bear, and we’d usually get them into the very next issue. That meant that his work, his thoughts, would be in the hands of a few hundred writers within two or three weeks. It was like writing a letter to a bunch of friends.”

>>> further reading >>>

Adventures in Poetry

Cover of Adventures in Poetry, No. 8, 1971. Photo by Rudy Burckhardt.

Published between 1968 and 1975, Adventures in Poetry was edited by poet Larry Fagin and printed and assembled at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery.

>>> further reading >>>

Adventures in Poetry

Published between 1968 and 1975, Adventures in Poetry was edited by poet Larry Fagin and printed and assembled at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery. Featured in its pages is writing by many poets associated with the first and second generation of the New York School. Surreal and often playful, the work provides a valuable access point into a vibrant and social community of writers who overlapped both in life and on the page.

Alongside poetry and art, Adventures in Poetry also includes a number of journal, diary, and travelogue entries.


1. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 1, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, March 1968

First edition, side-stapled in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 70 pages. Cover by Ron Padgett. Illustrations by George Schneeman and Joe Brainard

  • Contents:
    1. Joe Ceravolo – “Night Ocean”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Night Swim”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Consolation”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Panorama”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Separation”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Forgive Me”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Holiday Dinner”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Fog”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Sleep”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Jungle Love”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Nothing”
      James Schuyler – “Amy Lowell Thoughts”
      James Schuyler – “Milk”
      Ted Berrigan – “For Tom Veitch”
      Dick Gallup – “The Boot-Blacks, A Play in Three Acts”
      Anne Waldman – “Economy”
      Anne Waldman – “Getting Light”
      Ron Padgett – “8 Ball”
      Johnny Stanton – “from Mangled Hands”
      Tom Clark – “Bijous”
      John Giorno – “Flavor Grabber”
      Ted Berrigan – “from Clear the Range”
      Guillaume Apollinaire – “Julie or The Rose” (trans. Christine Grodzicki and George Tysh)
      Dick Gallup – “La Boheme”

2. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 2, edited by Larry Fagin
San Francisco: Adventures in Poetry, July 1968

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 90 pages. Cover by Joe Brainard. Illustrations by Leon, George Schneeman, Ron Padgett, and Bob Jenney.

  • Contents:
    1. Edwin Denby – “from Scream In A Cave”
      Beaumont & Beaumont – “from Furtive Days”
      Joe Brainard – “Jamaica Diary”
      Lewis Warsh – “New York Diary”
      Tom Clark – “from Riot the Garrick Theatre”
      Dick Gallup – “Life of Tom Veitch”
      Tom Veitch – “from The Transfigured”
      Johnny Stanton – “from The Jissom Trail”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Peaches Littlejohn”
      Anne Waldman – “from The Egypt Journal”
      Ron Padgett & Tom Veitch – “from Star Gut”
      Jim Carroll – “from a diary”
      Ron Padgett – “The New Plagiarism”
      Bill Berkson – “In the American Rain”
      Larry Fagin – “Two Dog Stories”
      John Ashbery & James Schuyler – “from Nest of Ninnies”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Breach Baby”
      Michael Brownstein – “Kites”
      Francis Picabia – “5 Minute Intermission”
      Tom Disch – “Sinking Into Trouble”
      Johnny Stanton – “In the Moonlight”
      Pierre Reiter – “Craze Man Whiliiker”

3. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 3, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, January 1969

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 58 pages, mimeograph printed by Don Santina at the San Francisco Neighborhood Arts Program. Cover by Gordon Baldwin.

  • Contents:
    1. Clark Coolidge – “Amount”
      Francis Picabia – “Drawings by the Girl without a Mother” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Tom Veitch – “from The Luis Armed Story”
      Aram Saroyan – “Electric Poetry”

4. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 4, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Summer 1969

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 56 pages. Cover by Ed Ruscha. Illustration by Joe Brainard.

  • Contents:
    1. Ted Berrigan – [untitled] “Thirty-five is gone…”
      Ted Berrigan – [untitled] “Bobbie, when I punch you…”
      Ted Berrigan – “Entrance”
      Ted Berrigan – “El Greco”
      Ted Berrigan – “It’s Important”
      Ted Berrigan – “Grey Morning”
      Ted Berrigan – “Hash for Breakfast”
      Ted Berrigan – “Dial-A-Poem”
      Ted Berrigan – “Cock of the Walk”
      Ted Berrigan – “Anne’s Birthday: April 2nd 1968”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Waking Up”
      John Giorno – “Cunt”
      Lewis Warsh – “Questions of Travel”
      Lewis Warsh – [untitled] “The woodchuck waddles away…”
      Lewis Warsh – “Hatred”
      Lewis Warsh – “Two People”
      Lewis Warsh – “Drops”
      Dick Gallup – “Eskimoes Again”
      Dick Gallup – “Nite Light”
      Dick Gallup – “Add Water to this Urn”
      Dick Gallup – “The Sharpest Knives in the World”
      Dick Gallup – “Life Says OK”
      Dick Gallup – “Dive Bomber”
      Dick Gallup – “Chicken Wire”
      Michael Brownstein – “The Fledgling”
      Michael Brownstein – “The Booklets”
      Michael Brownstein – “In and Out of Paris”
      Michael Brownstein – “In Search of the Miraculous, for Dick Gallup”
      Michael Brownstein – “Sonnet”
      Ted Berrigan – “Babe Rainbow”

5. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 5, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, January 1970

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 124 pages. Cover by George Schneeman. Illustrations by Joe Brainard.

  • Contents:
    1. Tony Towle – “The Insects”
      Tony Towle – “Snow”
      Tony Towle – “We Plunged into the Western Hemisphere”
      Tony Towle – “Poem, the Dramatic Monologue”
      Tony Towle – “Ballade”
      Tony Towle – “Barbarossa”
      Tony Towle – [untitled] “A skylight of wire…”
      Tony Towle – [untitled] “Necessities are lacking…”
      Tony Towle – “Sunday”
      Tony Towle – “Ode”
      Tony Towle – “Yeats”
      Tony Towle – “On Water Island”
      Tony Towle – “Lines”
      Tony Towle – “Scenes from the Life of Christ”
      Ron Padgett – “Reading Proust”
      Frank O’HAra – “To the Poem”
      Frank O’HAra – “Lisztiana”
      Frank O’HAra – “To Edwin Denby”
      Frank O’HAra – [untitled] “There’s nothing worse…”
      Frank O’HAra – “The Arboretum”
      Frank O’HAra – “A Homage”
      Frank O’HAra – “Spleen”
      Frank O’HAra – [untitled] “The stars are tighter…”
      Frank O’HAra – “A Quiet Poem”
      Bill Berkson – “From a Childhood, for Joe Brainard”
      Bill Berkson – “Dangerous Enemies”
      Bill Berkson – “Tastes”
      Anne Waldman – “Brinks of Fame”
      Ron Padgett – “Wax Museum”
      Aram Saroyan – “Introduction”
      Aram Saroyan – [untitled] “Everybody loves…”
      Aram Saroyan – “Gailyn”
      Ted Berrigan – “Tough Brown Coat, for Jim Carroll”
      Ted Berrigan – “To Anne”
      Ted Berrigan – “Like Poem, to Joan Fagin”
      Ted Berrigan – “In Bed”
      Ted Berrigan – “Life in the Future, for Donna”
      Ted Berrigan – “Prose & Poetry, to Alice”
      Ted Berrigan – “Hall of Mirrors, for Kristin Lems”
      Ted Berrigan – “To Southhampton”
      Ted Berrigan – “Ann Arbor Song”
      Joe Brainard – “The Banana Book”
      Ron Padgett – “A Whiff of Mint”
      Richard Fields – “The Yellow-Breasted Bird”
      John Godfrey – [untitled] “The gravity of our situation…”
      John Godfrey – “Rolling April”
      John Godfrey – “First Taste”
      John Godfrey – “Year Out”
      John Godfrey – “A Woman More Graced”
      John Godfrey – “Touch”
      John Godfrey – “Rain Waste”
      Anne Waldman – “Under the Influence of”
      Anne Waldman – “Up Here, as in India”
      Aram Saroyan – “Pool of Fluff”
      Aram Saroyan – “A Cartoon of Energy”
      Aram Saroyan – “Aunt & Uncle”
      Aram Saroyan – “My Orchestra is Ready”
      Aram Saroyan – “A Joint open Hearing”
      Harris Schiff – “Cross Country”
      Ron Padgett – “The Story of St-Pol Roux”
      Ted Berrigan – “London Air”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Chinese Creep”
      Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “one bow who…”
      Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “for set via…”
      Charles North – “After Vaughan”
      John Ashbery – “100 Multiple-Choice Questions”
      Jim Brodey – “Graveside”
      Jim Brodey – “God Help Us”
      Jim Brodey – “Red Lilac”
      Jim Brodey – “Heart-Send”
      Jim Brodey – “Heartfield, to Ron Cooper”
      Jim Brodey – “Thought-Cycle”
      Jim Brodey – “Imitation Brodey”
      Ted Greenwald – “Chat”
      Ted Greenwald – “The Such Thing”
      Ted Greenwald – “Tropical Dispatch, for Peter S.”
      Ted Greenwald – “Having a Wonderful Time”
      Ron Padgett – “Obscure Destinies”

6. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 6, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, June 1970

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 64 pages. Cover by Jim Dine.

  • Contents:
    1. Michael Brownstein – “Something for Everybody
      James Schuyler – “Buildings”
      James Schuyler – “Sometimes”
      James Schuyler – “Alice Faye at Ruby Foo’s”
      James Schuyler – “An East Window on Elizabeth Street, for Bob Dash”
      James Schuyler – “Spring”
      James Schuyler – “Scarlet Tanager”
      James Schuyler – [untitled] “Gulls loudly insist…”
      James Schuyler – [untitled] “Swimming in the memorial park pond…”
      James Schuyler – “Closed Gentian Distances”
      James Schuyler – “A Sun Cab”
      Scott Cohen – “Car”
      Scott Cohen – “Jane”
      Scott Cohen – “Bill Monroe’s Instrumentds”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Night Again”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Girl”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Night Letter”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “God”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “M”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “For the Night Riders”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “To Speak is to Lie”
      Tom Clark – “A Sailor’s Life”
      Hiton Obenzinger – “Motto over a Dorr”
      Hiton Obenzinger – “From a Fork”
      Michel Brownstein – “Footprints on the Moon”
      Frank Lima – “Underground with the Oriole, for Joe & Rosemary”
      Frank Lima – “Salad Exit”
      Frank Lima – “February ’68”
      Frank Lima – “Demitasse, for Patsy Southgate”
      Frank Lima – “Prospero”
      Frank Lima – “Harbor”
      Trevor Winkfield – Robinson Crusoe”
      Blaise Cendrars – “Roof Garden” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “On the Hudson” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “Amphitryon” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “Office” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “Girl” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “Young Man” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “Work” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “Trestle Work” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “The Thousand Islands” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Blaise Cendrars – “Laboratory” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Tom Veitch – “Cooked Zeros”

7. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 7, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, February 1971

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 62 pages. Cover by Aram Saroyan.

  • Contents:
    1. Aram Saroyan – “from The Letter Book”
      John Giorno – “from The American Book of the Dead”
      Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “ace act ado”
      Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “gee get gib”
      Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “pro pea pee”
      Joe Brainard – “Muy Malo”
      Joe Brainard – “At Day’s End”
      Joe Brainard – “Short Story”
      Joe Brainard – “1970”
      Joe Brainard – “Real Life”
      Joe Brainard – “Art”
      Joe Brainard – “Henry”
      Joe Brainard – “Rim of the Desert”
      Joe Brainard – “Life”
      Joe Brainard – “How to Be Alone Again”
      Joe Brainard – “Friday, Nov. 27, 1970”
      Joe Brainard – “Thursday, December 8, 1970”
      Vincent Katz – “Pro Football”
      Bernadette Mayer – “from Moving”
      Byrd Hoffman – [untitled] “And now in saying something…”

8. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 8, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Summer 1971

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 60 pages. Cover by Rudy Burckhardt.

  • Contents:
    1. Dick Gallup – “Charged Particles”
      Lewis Warsh – “True Colors”
      Ron Padgett and Joe Brainard – “Cherry”
      Steve Malmude – “To Portland”
      Andrei Codrescu – “Unchosen Things”
      Andrei Codrescu – “Thru a Grill”
      Andrei Codrescu – “Comedia dell’Arte”
      Andrei Codrescu – “To your Father”
      Andrei Codrescu – “Cossey at the Bots”
      Andrei Codrescu – “Debts”
      Richard Kolmar – “Voluntary”
      Richard Kolmar – “Part of an Elegy”
      Glen Baxter – “Symbar”
      Glen Baxter – “From the Barge”
      Glen Baxter – “Apponitmantes”
      Glen Baxter – “Ack-acks”
      Glen Baxter – “Utopia Parkway”
      Philip Whalen – “Scenes of Life at the Capital”

9. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 9, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Spring 1972

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 125 pages. Cover art by John Giorno.

  • Contents:
    1. Jennifer Bartlett – “from Jennifer Losch: A Biography”
      Glen Baxter – “Morbihan”
      Glen Baxter – “Chauderon”
      Joe Brainard – “Poem” (“Kaleidoscopic umbrellas…”)
      Rebecca Brown – “The Day I Crossed Traffic against Traffic”
      Rebecca Brown – “Dissatisfaction”
      Michael Brownstein – “What America’s Thinking”
      William Burroughs – “Distant Heels”
      Clark Coolidge – “Basil Rathbone’s Bathrobe”
      Edwin Denby – “Army Songs”
      Jim Dine – “The Short History of New York”
      Joe Brainard – “A True Story”
      Louis Eilshemius – “An Unusual Inventor”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Eventual Bruises”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Ground Hog Day Pensee”
      Mary Ferrari – “The Blue and Yellow”
      Gilbert and George – “We are only Human Sculptors”
      Allen Ginsberg – “New England in hte Fall: Autumn Gold”
      John Godfrey – “Idiots”
      John Godfrey – “Sympathetic Fallacy”
      Joe Brainard – “No Story”
      Ted Greenwald – [untitled] “shut down…”
      Ted Greenwald – [untitled] “our faces…”
      Ted Greenwald – “Comb”
      Ted Greenwald – [untitled] “poems pile up…”
      Alice Hedges – “The Door”
      John Koethe – “Some”
      Valery Larbaud – “La Neige”
      Glen Baxter – “Glove Soup”
      Steve Malmude – “Companion Poems”
      Steve Malmude – “Stove & Lamp”
      Harry Mathews – “The Dream-Work”
      Bernadette Mayer – “3 X’s”
      Pat Nolan – “Vision”
      Pat Nolan – “A Controlled Habit”
      Joe Brainard – “What’s Cooking”
      Charles North – “To The Book”
      Charles North – “Elizabethan and Nova Scotian Music”
      Charles North – “Naming Colors”
      Hilton Obenzinger – “The Brunt”
      Peter Orlovsky – [untitled] “A Year and 1/2 Ago”
      Maureen Owen – “Digging Sassafras in July”
      Maureen Owen – “O Propitious Constellation!”
      Ron Padgett – “Gentlemen Prefer Carrots”
      Jonathan Rosenstein – “Vacuum”
      Jonathan Rosenstein – “The Bullring”
      Jonathan Rosenstein – “Popcorn”
      Jonathan Rosenstein – “Coffee Service”
      Jonathan Rosenstein – “Heh-Heh”
      Jonathan Rosenstein – “Charm”
      Harris Schiff – [untitled] “twilight…”
      Harris Schiff – [untitled] “the battery…”
      Harris Schiff – “Memorial for Paul Blackburn Oct 31 1971”
      Harris Schiff – “Too, for Bernadette Mayer”
      Joe Brainard – “Grandmother”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Theater”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Great Poet”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Trepanation”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Russian Escape”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Dynamite”
      James Schuyler – “A Vermont Diary”
      Richard Snow – “Philo Vance”
      George Stanley – “Pitchfork”
      Tony Towle – “On Spring Street”
      Anne Waldman – “Little Poem in Search of the Past”
      Anne Waldman – [untitled] “if you do this…”
      Lewis Warsh – “Single File”
      Joseph White – [untitled] “turn the day over…”
      Joseph White – [untitled] “while tearing up the platform…”
      Joseph White – [untitled] “out to the corner…”
      Joseph White – [untitled] “the back of a drawing…”
      B. Wilkie – “Notes on My Work, 1971”
      Joe Brainard – “Poem” (“Roses are red…”)

10. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 10, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, 1973

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 94 pages. Cover taken from a “Tijuana Bible”.

  • Contents:
    1. This is the anonymous issue published without author, editor, publication and publisher names.

11. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 11, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Spring 1974

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 121 pages. Cover art by Rory McEwen.

  • Contents:
    1. Anne Waldman – “Fast Speaking Woman”
      Michael McClure – “from Fleas”
      Fielding Dawson – “from Oz – with an X”
      Clark Coolidge – “Coda to The Maintains”
      Bruce Boyd – “Introduction”
      Ron Padgett – “Wilson ’57”
      John Wieners – “A Superficial Estimation”
      Tony Towle – “Autobiography”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Water Over Stones”
      James Schuyler – “A Treasury of Birthday Thoughts”
      Ebbe Borregaard – “October Seventh Poem”
      Guillaume Apollinaire – “Zone” (trans. Ron Padgett)

12. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 12, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Summer 1975

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 94 pages. Cover art unattributed.

  • Contents:
    1. Gregory Corso – “Verse”
      Ron Padgett – “Excerpt from a Work in Progress” (“And they’re off…”)
      Alverna Brodecky – “Letter”
      Frank O’Hara – “To Norman, En Voyage”
      Joseph LeSueur – “A Note on the Preceding Poem”
      Jack Spicer – “Babel 3”
      Jack Spicer – “Dardenella”
      Jack Spicer – “Lives of the Philosophers: Diogenes”
      Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Lack of oxygen…”
      Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Invisible zombies…”
      Jack Spicer – “Spider Song”
      John Wieners – “There are Very Important Minutes”
      John Wieners – “I’ve Lived Here Longer than Anybody Else…”
      John Wieners – “Greer”
      John Wieners – “Home Surgery at Merchant Marine”
      Bobbie Louise Hawkins – “Phone Call”
      Bobbie Louise Hawkins – “Conversation between Five Women”
      Charles North – “Two Pathetic Songs”
      Steve Malmude – “Dedication”
      Steve Malmude – “Duchess”
      John Ashbury – “Once Upon a Time”
      Stanley Kunitz – “A Blessing of Women”
      David Meltzer – “from Harps”
      Mary Ferrari – “Fiery Easter, 1972”
      Mary Ferrari – “The Earth Within”
      Mary Ferrari – “The Lamp”
      Kenneth Koch – “The Apes of Banzona”
      Red Grooms – [untitled] “House painted…”
      Red Grooms – [untitled] “Cloud look down…”
      Bill Zavatsky – “Tonight”
      Bill Zavatsky – “Announcement”
      Bill Zavatsky – “The New Capitalism”
      Bill Zavatsky – “The Influence of Flowers”
      Helen Adam – “Cheerless Junkie’s Song”
      Allen Ginsberg – “End Vietnam War”
      Ted Greenwald – “The Coast”
      Tony Towle – “Quotes”
      Alfred Starr Hamilton – “Tenement”
      Alfred Starr Hamilton – “The Flag”
      Alfred Starr Hamilton – “Pink Ants”
      Alfred Starr Hamilton – “Lime Honey”
      Alfred Starr Hamilton – “Night”
      Lewis MacAdams – “Ohio Blue Tip”
      Ed Sanders – “The Critic”
      Ed Sanders – “The 34th Year”
      John Godfrey – “Morning Poem”
      John Godfrey – “Evening Song”
      Valery Larbaud – “Private Devotions” (tans. Ron Padgett and Bill Zavatsky)
      Ron Padgett and Bill Zavatsky – “Notes”
      Michael Palmer – “Without Music, 2”
      Dale Herd – “My Old Man”
      Dale Herd – “Blood”
      Dale Herd – “Welfare”
      Simon Schuchat – “Poem” (“the leaves are turning…”)
      Carter Ratcliff – “Arrivederci, Modernismo”
      Son House – “Dry Spell Blues”

Online Resources:

From a Secret Location – Adventures in Poetry

Ted Berrigan – Collaborations

>> return to Ted Berrigan main page >>

SECTION B:
This index includes collaborations by Ted Berrigan with other writers and artists.


1. Berrigan, Ted, Joe Brainard, and Ron Padgett. SOME THINGS
First edition:
New York: privately printed, 1963
Loose sheets in plain unprinted paper folder, 100 copies, signed by all three contributors on the title page, mimeograph printed. Illustrations by Joe Brainard.

2. Berrigan, Ted, and Ron Padgett. SEVENTEEN
First edition:
New York: privately printed, 1964
Side-stapled with printed cover, 8.5” x 11”, 48 copies, mimeograph printed. Plays by Ron Padgett and Ted Berrigan, individually and collaboratively.

3. Berrigan, Ted, and Ron Padgett. NOH
First edition:
New York: Lines Press, 1965
Broadside, 8″ x 13″, 50 numbered and signed copies. Published as Linesheet 1.

4. Berrigan, Ted, and Joe Brainard. LIVING WITH CHRIS
First edition:
New York: Boke Press, 1965
Side-stapled with illustrated cover, 8.5” x 11”, mimeograph printed.

Note: Chris refers to Christina Gallup, the daughter of Dick and Carol Gallup, for whom Ted was babysitting when he wrote this poem.

5. Berrigan, Ted, and Ron Padgett. BEAN SPASMS
a. First edition, paperbound issue
New York: Kulchur Press, 1967
Sewn signatures bound in illustrated wrappers, 7.5″ x 10″, 202 pages, 1000 copies. Illustrations and Drawings by Joe Brainard.

b. First edition, hardcover issue
New York: Kulchur Press, 1967
Hardcover in illustrated paper bound boards, 7.5″ x 10″, 202 copies. Illustrations and Drawings by Joe Brainard.

6. Berrigan, Ted, and George Schneeman. NO HELP WANTED
First edition:
New York: n.p., 1967
Broadside, 35” x 23”, 20 copies numbered and signed by poet and artist, silkscreen printed.

7. Berrigan, Ted, and George Schneeman. 10 THINGS I DO EVERY DAY
First edition:
New York: n.p., 1967
Broadside, 35” x 23”, 20 copies numbered and signed by poet and artist, silkscreen printed.

8. Berrigan, Ted, and George Schneeman. HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY
First edition:
New York: n.p., 1967
Broadside, 35” x 23”, 20 copies numbered and signed by poet and artist, silkscreen printed.

9. Berrigan, Ted, and Anselm Hollo. DOUBLETALK
First edition:
Iowa City: Privately published, 1969
Wrappers, 240 signed copies, letterpress printed by T.G. Miller.

10. Berrigan, Ted, and Anne Waldman. MEMORIAL DAY
a. First edition:
New York: Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church In-the-Bowery, 1971

b. Second printing:
London: Aloes Books, 1974

11. Berrigan, Ted, Tom Clark, and Ron Padgett. BACK IN BOSTON AGAIN
New York: Telegraph Books, 1972

12. Berrigan, Ted, and Joe Brainard. THE DRUNKEN BOAT
New York: Adventures In Poetry, 1974

13. Berrigan, Ted, and Robert Creeley. THINK OF ANYTHING
n.p.: Hard Press, 1977

14. Berrigan, Ted, and Harris Schiff. YO-YO’S WITH MONEY
Henniker, NH: United Artists Books, 1979

13. Berrigan, Ted, and George Schneeman. IN THE NAM WHAT CAN HAPPEN?
New York: Granary Books, 1997

Ted Berrigan – Books, Pamphlets, and Broadsides

>> return to Ted Berrigan main page >>

SECTION A:
This index includes books, pamphlets, and broadsides


1. Berrigan, Ted. A LILY FOR MY LOVE: 13 POEMS
First edition:
Providence: privately printed, 1959
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 20 pages.

Note: some poems previously appeared in Nimrod, The White Dove Review, Alembic.

2. Berrigan, Ted. THE SONNETS
a. First edition:
New York: Lorenz and Ellen Gude, 1964
Side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8.5” x 11”, 134 pages, 300 numbered copies, mimeograph printed. Dedicated to Joe Brainard. Cover art by Joe Brainard. Edited by Ron Padgett.

b. Second edition:
New York: Grove Press, 1966

c. Third edition:
New York: United Artists, 1982

d. Fourth edition:
New York: Penguin Books, 2000

3. Berrigan, Ted. MANY HAPPY RETURNS
First edition:
New York: Angel Hair, 1967
Folded broadside, 7″ x 9.5″, 200 copies (including 4 lettered and signed copies hors commerce), letterpress printed by Grabhorn-Hoyem, for Anne Waldman and Lewis Warsh December 25, 1967.

4. Berrigan, Ted. SONNET L
First edition:
New York: Moil Press, 1968
First edition, broadside, 8.5” x 11”, mimeograph printed. Drawn and lettered by Alice Notley. Published as Free Poems Among Friends #2.

According to a Granary Books catalog entry for this broadside: “This is a spinoff publication inspired by the Detroit Artists’ Workshop Press series of the same name.”

5. Berrigan, Ted. MANY HAPPY RETURNS
a. First edition, regular issue
New York: Corinth Books, 1969
Sewn signatures bound in illustrated wrappers, 6” x 8”, 47 pages, 1450 copies. Cover art by Joe Brainard. Book design by Joan Wilentz.

b. First edition, numbered and signed issue
New York: Corinth Books, 1969
Sewn signatures bound in illustrated wrappers, 6” x 8”, 47 pages, 50 copies numbered and signed by the poet and artist. Cover art by Joe Brainard. Book design by Joan Wilentz.

6. Berrigan, Ted. WORDS FOR LOVE
First edition:
N.p.: n.p., 1969
Broadside, 17.5” x 22.5”, 300 copies, letterpress printed by Michael Fine.

7. Berrigan, Ted. A FRAGMENT
First edition:
London: Cape Goliard Press, 1969
Broadside in printed folder, 11” x 15”, 327 numbered copies. Illustration by Jim Dine.

8. Berrigan, Ted. PEACE
First edition:
Detroit: Alternative Press, 1969
Broadside, 8.5” x 13”, letterpress printed by Ken and Ann Mikolowski at the Alternative Press.

9. Berrigan, Ted. SCORPION, EAGLE & DOVE
First edition:
n.p.: privately published, 1970
Broadside, 11” x 17”, 150 copies. Illustration by Fairfield Porter.

10. Berrigan, Ted. IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN
a. First edition, regular issue:
London: Cape Goliard Press in association with Grossman
Publishers, 1970
Sewn signatures in printed and illustrated wrappers, 6.5” x 9.75”, 104 pages. Cover art and illustrations by George Schneeman.

b. First edition, hardcover issue:
London: Cape Goliard Press in association with Grossman
Publishers, 1970
Hardcover in printed and illustrated paper bound boards, 6.5” x 9.75”104 pages. Cover art and illustrations by George Schneeman.

c. First edition, numbered and signed issue:
London: Cape Goliard Press in association with Grossman
Publishers, 1970
Hardcover in printed and illustrated paper bound boards, 104 pages, 50 copies numbered and signed by the poet and artist. Cover art and illustrations by George Schneeman.

11. Berrigan, Ted. A FEELING FOR LEAVING
New York: Frontward Books, 1975

12. Berrigan, Ted. LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES
Grindstone City: The Alternative Press, 1975
postcard

13. Berrigan, Ted. RED WAGON
Chicago: Yellow Press, 1976

14. Berrigan, Ted. CLEAR THE RANGE
New York: Adventures In Poetry/Coach House South, 1977

15. Berrigan, Ted. NOTHING FOR YOU
Lenox, MA & NY: Angel Hair Books, 1977

16. Berrigan, Ted. TRAIN RIDE
New York: Vehicle Editions, 1978

17. Berrigan, Ted. CARRYING A TORCH
Brooklyn: Clown War, 1980

18. Berrigan, Ted. SO GOING AROUND CITIES: NEW & SELECTED POEMS 1958-1979
Berkeley: Blue Wind Press, 1980

19. Berrigan, Ted. IN A BLUE RIVER
New York: Little Light, 1981

20. Berrigan, Ted. PARIS, FRANCES
Grindstone City: Alternative Press, 1981
Postcard

21. Berrigan, Ted. THE MORNING LINE
Santa Barbara: Am Here Books/Immediate Editions, 1982

22. Berrigan, Ted. POSTCARD FROM THE SKY
n.p.: Hard Press, 1982

23. Berrigan, Ted. REMEMBERED POEM
Grindstone City: The Alternative Press, 1983

24. Berrigan, Ted. SONNET LXXX
Minneapolis: n.p., 1985

25. Berrigan, Ted. A CERTAIN SLANT OF SUNLIGHT
Oakland: 0 Books, 1988

26. Berrigan, Ted. SELECTED POEMS
New York: Penguin Books, 1994

27. Berrigan, Ted. GREAT STORIES OF THE CHAIR
New York: Situations, 1998

28. Berrigan, Ted. THE COLLECTED POEMS
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005

 

Once Series

The final issue of the Once Series with Joe Brainard cover art.

An eclectic periodical, published coincident with Tom Clark’s Fulbright study and posting as Instructor in American Poetry at the University of Essex. The titles varied but each was denoted “A One Shot Magazine… No Copyright No Nothin.”

>> further reading >>

Once Series

Edited by Tom Clark, the Once Series is an eclectic periodical, published coincident with Clark’s Fulbright study and posting as Instructor in American Poetry at the University of Essex. The titles varied (all words concluding with ‘CE’) but each was denoted “A One Shot Magazine… No Copyright No Nothin.”

According to Tom Clark: “When I went on from Cambridge to the U. of Essex in 1965 I began editing a mimeograph magazine of my own, the Once series, and through that project got into long-distance postal contact with many younger American poets, particularly those living on the Lower East Side of New York…

“The magazines had deliberately uncataloguable titles: Once, Twice, Thrice, Thrice and a Half, Frice, Vice, Ice, Nice, Slice, Slice Vol. 1, No. 2, and Spice. I filled up the mimeo series with the spillover of poems I was receiving for the Paris Review — which could handle only a fraction of the good new work that was coming in to me — as well as with some ‘assignments’ from friends far and near…

“Joe’s series of covers, a throwaway tour de force of periodical art, lent class, consistency and uniformity to the Once series, bringing a surprising illusion of orderly design to an otherwise rather undisciplined and chaotic enterprise.

“Most of the works I published in the Once series were somewhat or in some way more outlandish or strange than what I could cull for the Paris Review.”

  • Excerpt from Kevin Ring interview with Tom Clark published as Jacket 21 in Jacket Magazine, 2003.

1. ONCE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 14 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Robin Blaser – “Psyche”
      Robin Blaser – “Sophia Nichols”
      Steve Jonas – “Ode for Garcia Lorca”
      Ed Dorn – “A Provisional Fragment, Congested with 3 Titles”
      Ron Padgett – “Poem after Reverdy”
      Ron Padgett – “Light in the Nineteenth Century”
      Aram Saroyan – “The Sentence”
      Max Finstein – [untitled] “You, sonofabitch love you…”
      Edward van Aelstyn – [untitled] “In the morning night…”
      Edward van Aelstyn – “Poem Ending with ‘George Orwell’”
      Phyllis Harris – “The Giant One Legged…”
      Philip Lamantia – “Without Props”
      Sam Abrams – “The 1st Day”
      Allan Kaplan – “Billy and Franz”
      Gerry Gilbert – “The Stakes”
      Tom Raworth – “Not Under Holly or Green Boughs”
      Tom Raworth – “She Sd, Bread, Fred”
      Tom Raworth – “The Third Retainer”

2. TWICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 7 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Robert Howell – “from Ten Great Poetry Readings: VI”
      Ron Padgett – “On Ten Fingers” [translation of following Reverdy poem]
      Pierre Reverdy – “Sur Les Dix Doigts”

3. THRICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, March 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 25 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Max Jacob – “from Le Cornet à Des” (translated by Ron Padgett)
      F.J. Lauria – “Crazyface”
      Joanne Kyger – “This is Water Sons”
      Joanne Kyger – “The Sky Vault. Its Own Legend”
      Joanne Kyger – “Dear, Dearest”
      Aram Saroyan – “Poem” [“I seldom remember what…”]
      Ted Berrigan – “February Air”
      Ted Berrigan – “From a Life for Teresa Mitchell”
      Ted Berrigan – “Epithalamium for Bernie Mitchell”
      Ed Dorn – “Box Score”
      Pamela Millward – “17 November 1965”
      Larry Fagin – [untitled] “Which way is it you want me…”
      Gael Turnbull – “Song”
      Gael Turnbull – “An Intent”
      Gael Turnbull – “A Good Man”
      Richard Kolmar – “Aristophanes”
      Charles Olson – “Maximus to Gloucester, Letter 27”
      Gerry Gilbert – “Living at Claude & Ardie’s”
      Gerry Gilbert – “Bicycle”
      Gerry Gilbert – “Train”
      E.A. McGregor-Plarr – “An Ode”
      Clark Coolidge – “Noon Print”
      Clark Coolidge – “In Land Trip Machine”
      Clark Coolidge – “The Beings There, Not There, House”
      Clark Coolidge – “Scrub Brush, in Lansing Michigan”
      Clark Coolidge – “More Group Slab Reach”
      Clark Coolidge – “Hall Crawl & Tuba Ode”
      Thomas Clark – “Change”
      Thomas Clark – “Doors”
      Thomas Clark – “The Archer”
      Thomas Clark – “You”
      Thomas Clark – “You (II)”
      Thomas Clark – “You (III)”
      Thomas Clark – “You (IV)”
      Aram Saroyan – “Letter to the Village Voice”
      Thomas Clark – “You (V)”
      Harold Dull – “The Dice”
      Harold Dull – “The Door Poem”

4. THRICE AND A HALF: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 2 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Tom Pickard – “The Bodies are Touching”
      Tom Pickard – “Daylight Hours”
      Tom Pickard – “Forbidden Birth”

5. FRICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, April 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 24 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.

  • Contents:
    1. Fielding Dawson – “Hernando’s Hideaway”
      Fielding Dawson – “Oblivion Calling for Philip Guston”
      Michael Benedikt – “Fraudulent Days”
      Michael Benedikt – “Developments”
      Michael Benedikt – “Mr. Rainman”
      Michael Benedikt – “Bedouin Tents”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Portland Aug. 27, 1965”
      Aram Saroyan – “Signs”
      Max Jacob – “Christmas Story” (translated by Ron Padgett)
      Max Jacob – “The Key” (translated by Ron Padgett)
      Max Jacob – “Adventure Story” (translated by Ron Padgett)
      Max Jacob – “Valiant Warrior on Foreign Soil” (translated by Ron Padgett)
      Ron Padgett – “Talking Neutrality”
      Ron Padgett – “Words to Joe Ceravolo”
      Larry Fagin – “Occasional Poem”
      Lee Harwood – “Summer”
      Tristan Tzara – “Volt” (translated by Lee Harwood)
      Tristan Tzara – “The Jugglers” (translated by Lee Harwood)
      Philippe Soupault – “2 Songs” (translated by Lee Harwood)
      John Perreault – “The Americans”
      John Perreault – “Punishment”
      John Perreault – “Renaissance”
      John Perreault – “These Trains”
      Guillaume Appollinaire – “The Chaste Lise” (translated by Thomas Clark)
      Edward van Aelstyn – “Information Explosion”
      Gertrude Stein – “Shakespeare”
      Ted Berrigan – “Living with Chris for Chris Gallup”
      Ted Berrigan – “A Dream”
      Ted Berrigan – “Poem for Ed Sanders”
      Steve Carey – “Sand”
      Ted Berrigan – “A Personal Memoir of Tulsa, Oklahoma”
      Ted Berrigan – “After Breakfast”
      Ted Berrigan – “American Express”
      Robert Desnos – “Take Off Your Clothes” (translated by Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett)
      Max Earnst – “Poem” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
      Guillaume Apollinaire – “Epigram” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
      Ted Berrigan – “Selflessness”
      Thomas Clark – “Telephone Poem”
      Thomas Clark – “Afternoons”
      Thomas Clark – “Poem” (“You dream things…”)
      Thomas Clark – “The Last Poem”
      Hart Crane – “Chaplinesque”
      Thomas Clark – “Michelin Poem”

6. VICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 27 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.

  • Contents:
    1. Ed Sanders – “The Fugs”
      Gregory Corso – “But Surely Yahweh’s Not Dead?”
      Gregory Corso – “O Mighty Tug”
      Gregory Corso – “In Honor of Those the Negroes are Revolting Against”
      Gregory Corso – “Not This”
      Larry Eigner – [untitled] “Entering and going out…”
      Andres Segovia – [untitled] “True it is…”
      Ron Padgett – “Joe Brainard’s Painting ‘Bingo’”
      Joe Brainard, Ron and Patricia Padgett – “An Interview with Joe Brainard”
      Blaise Cendrars – “Ten Poems” (translated by Ron Padgett)
      Fielding Dawson – “Two Reviews” (reviews of recent Kyger and O’Hara books)
      Ron Padgett – “Reading Reverdy”
      David Shapiro – “From a May Night”
      Ted Berrigan – “from Clearing the Range, Charter 25”
      Thomas Clark – “from Cluttering the Ranch, Chapter 90”
      Thomas Clark – “Clavier”
      Joe Pinelli – “from Striations, The Season’s Change”
      Michel Couturier – “Maison-Dieu” (translated by Lee Harwood)
      Lee Harwood – “The Tractors are Waiting (for Larry Fagin)”
      Aram Saroyan – [untitled] “Gradually money…”
      James Brodey – “Vice, 1966”
      Thomas Clark – “from Cluttering the Ranch, Chapter 2”
      George Tysh – “Plus”
      Joe Perreault – “Vice”

7. ICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 20 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Ted Berrigan – “Blueprint for a Poem to be Written…”
      E.A. McGregor-Plarr – “Two Serious Ladies”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Amsterdam Avenue Bar”
      Joanne Kyger – “May 29”
      Bernadette Mayer – “Earthworks”
      Harlan Dangerfield – “Der Geisterseher”
      Joe Pinelli – “from Striations:The Season’s Change”
      Robert Howell – “Poem” [“Such deep failure…]
      Robert Howell – [untitled] “Recently I was struck…”
      Ted Berrigan and Bernadette Mayer – “I am Davis”
      Tom Clark – “Martha’s Millions”
      Tom Clark – “What I’m Trying to Say”
      Tom Clark – “To Himself”
      Fielding Dawson – “Some History”
      Diane di Prima – “Song for the Spring Equinox”
      Robert Howell – “I Dream I Suppose Indefinitely of Yourself”
      David Shapiro – “For Chagy”
      Richard Kolmar – “Part of an Elegy”
      Richard Kolmar – “Love Letter I Forgot to Mail”
      Richard Kolmar – “The Intoxicating Thing”
      Doreen – “Humans”
      Jack Kerouac – “from Visions of Cody”
      Aram Saroyan – “Guarantee”
      Edward Kissam – “Shards, Pottery”
      Ted Berrigan – “A Cranny of Life”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Contemporary Lights”
      Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett – “Uncas”
      Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, Tom Veitch, and Dick Gallup – “In the Foundry”

8. NICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 20 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.

  • Contents:
    1. Joe Brainard – “Life”
      Charles Goldman – “Smoke Dance”
      John Perreault – “Memorandum”
      John Perreault – “Elbow”
      Aram Saroyan – “Quote”
      Aram Saroyan – “from Songs & Buttons”
      Richard Brautigan – “The Armored Car”
      Tom Clark – “Hitching”
      Tom Clark – “from The Riot at the Garrick Theatre”
      Lee Harwood – “His July Return”
      Clark Coolidge – “Soda Gong”
      Clark Coolidge – “Cellary”
      Harry Fainlight – “Exercise 1”
      Harry Fainlight – “Spider Eclipse”
      Harry Fainlight – “Laws”
      Harry Fainlight – “H”
      Frank O’Hara – “Ode to Willem de Kooning”
      David Shapiro – “For Chagy”
      Harry Fainlight – “The Gates of Albion”
      Dick Gallup – “An Idea that Reaches the Moon”
      Peter Schjeldahl and Ted Berrigan – “Juking”
      Peter Schjeldahl and Ted Berrigan – “Pictures from Breughel”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Soft Letter”
      Ted Berrigan – [untitled] “Before the orgasmic platform…”

9. SLICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 26 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.

  • Contents:
    1. Dick Gallup – “Death and the Maiden”
      Dick Gallup – “The Georgics”
      Dick Gallup – “The Bingo: Act III”
      Bruce Maddox – “The Engagement Ring Cycle”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Surface”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Leaped at the Caribou”
      Joe Ceravolo – “In the Grass”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Stars of the Trees and Ponds”
      Lewis MacAdams – “The Dazzling Day”
      Lewis MacAdams – “The Witch”
      Joe Ceravolo – “Stillness”
      Jack Collom – “Count K. in the Wind”
      Steve Carey – “Something of Nothing”
      Steve Carey – “Silhouette”
      James Brodey – “Someplace/Utah”
      Thomas Clark – “Spectacles”
      Thomas Clark – “The Fire-Dance”
      Thomas Clark – “Mudball Gathering”
      Thomas Clark – “The Trial”
      Thomas Clark – “Baseball”
      Thomas Clark – “Pancakes”
      David Shapiro – “Poem” [Light became audible…”
      David Shapiro – “Any Plant that Turns Toward the Sun”
      David Shapiro – “For Son II”
      Ted Berrigan – “Corporal Pellegrini”
      Max Jacob – “Genre Biographique” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
      Max Jacob – “The War” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
      Max Jacob – “The Enemy of the Citadel” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
      Max Jacob – “Symbolic Egyptienne” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
      Guillaume Apollinaire – “A Poem” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
      Ron Padgett and Ted Berrigan – “from A Little Anthology of Modern Verse”
      Ed Dorn – “2nd Quarter”
      Sotere Torregian – “Lionine, An Elegy”
      Sotere Torregian – “In the Year of Reredos”
      Sotere Torregian – “The Museum of Famous People”
      Aram Saroyan – “Two Poems”
      Sotere Torregian – “from The Uncollected Poems of John Wesley Hardin”
      LeRoi Jones – “Labor and Management”
      Tom Raworth – “The Circle”
      Sotere Torregian – “Fire on Leon Blum”
      Peter Schjeldahl – “Gauge”

10. SLICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1967

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 7 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.

  • Contents:
    1. Fielding Dawson – “Spring Sequence”
      Bernadette Mayer – “The Earmark”
      Michael McClure – “Dream Table”

11. SPICE, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1967

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 24 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.

  • Contents:
    1. Ted Berrigan – “Looking for Chris, Part I”
      Anne Waldman -”After the Circus”
      Ron Padgett – “A Katz”
      Ron Padgett – “Injured Nancy”
      Steve Carey – “P.M.”
      David Shapiro – “The Divine Comedy”
      John Giorno – [untitled] “A former janitor…”
      John Giorno – [untitled] “Seven Cuban army officers…”
      Robert Avid – “The Sooner the Better”
      Ed Dorn – “An Idle Visitation”
      Ed Dorn – “A Notation on the Evening of November 27, 1966”
      Lewis MacAdams – “Red River, in Memory of Frank O’Hara”
      Lewis Warsh – “All the Earmarks of a Plan”
      Larry Fagin – [untitled] “Well known is the long parade…”
      Alan Kaplan – “Through New Jersey, via the Greyhound”
      Tom Veitch – “You’ve Got a Point There, Pop”
      Lewis MacAdams – “Turn Out the Lining on your All-Time Great Men”
      Michael Brownstein – “Highway 31”
      Kathleen Fraser – “Letters: To Barbara”
      Tony Towle – “Fable”
      Tony Towle – “Poem” [“The bus stops…”]
      Ted Berrigan – “The N.Y. Jets, a movie”
      Jon Cott – “The House”
      Tom Clark – “The Ted Berrigan Story”
      Ted Berrigan – “The Tom Clark Story”

Pocket Poets Series

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This index collects the books published as part of The Pocket Poets Series


1. Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. PICTURES OF THE GONE WORLD
a. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, November 1955
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 44 pages, 500 copies, letterpress printed by David Ruff. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 1.
(Cook 1)

b. First edition, hardcover copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1955
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with printed label tipped on, 5.25″ x 6.25″, 44 pages, 25 copies, letterpress printed by David Ruff, bound by the Cardoza bindery. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 1.
(Cook 1)

Note: from the rear cover: “Pictures of the Gone World is the first volume in the Pocket Poets Series, in which it is planned to make available, in inexpensive form, work by such well known poets as e.e. cummings, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, and William Carlos Williams, as well as poetry by younger less known writers who are also doing significant work in the modern idiom, whether it be ‘in the American grain’ or against it.”

2. Rexroth, Kenneth (translator). THIRTY SPANISH POEMS OF LOVE AND EXILE
a. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 4.75″ x 6″, 40 pages, 950 copies, letterpress printed. Designed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Published as The Pocket Poets Series,  No 2.
(Cook 2)

b. First edition, hardcover copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with printed label tipped on, 5″ x 6.25″, 40 pages, 50 numbered and signed copies, letterpress printed. Designed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Published as The Pocket Poets Series,  No 2.
(Cook 2)

3. Patchen, Kenneth. POEMS OF HUMOR & PROTEST
a. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, July 1956
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 48 pages, 1000 copies, letterpress printed by Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 3
(Cook 3)

b. First edition, hardcover copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with printed label tipped on, 5.25″ x 6.25″, 48 pages, 25 copies, letterpress printed by Villiers Publications in London, bound by the Cardoza Bindery. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 3
(Cook 3)

Note: this collection gathers 32 short poems from seven of Patchen’s earlier books, published during the 1940s and early 1950s.

4. Ginsberg, Allen. HOWL AND OTHER POEMS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, October 1956
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 44 pages, 1000 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 4
(Cook 4)

Note: The first printing lists Lucien Carr’s name on the dedication page. Later printings do not list his name, removed at his request. The hand-pasted wraparound paper label is only present on the first and second printings.

Ginsberg first read part of the poem at the Six Gallery reading on October 7, 1955. The second printing of Howl and Other Poems was seized by the U.S. Customs Office and shortly afterwards Ferlinghetti and Shigeyoshi Murao, manager of City Lights Bookshop, were arrested for selling and publishing obscene literature. Defended by the ACLU, the case was highly publicized and covered by established publications such as Time and Life, adding to the attention of this small press and Howl. Judge Clayton Horn found the book to be not obscene and this landmark decision helped launch City Lights and Ginsberg’s poems into the public arena.

5. Ponsot, Marie. TRUE MINDS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, January 1957
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 32 pages, 500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 5
(Cook 5)

Note: the title of this collection of love poems was taken from Shakespeare’s 116th Sonnet. It would be 24 years later when she would publish her second volume of poems and borrow the title from the next line of the sonnet: “Avoid Impediment”.

6. Levertov, Denise. HERE AND NOW
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, January 1957
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 32 pages, 500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 6
(Cook 6)

7. Williams, William Carlos. KORA IN HELL: IMPROVISATIONS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, August 1957
Sewn and bound in printed wrappers, 5″ x 6.25″, 84 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 7
(Cook 7)

Note: from the rear cover: “William Carlos Williams, at 74, has some claim to be called Poet Laureate of America, being the author of almost forty books, and having won most of the important poetry awards in this country. He is a man known for his enthusiasms, a constant defender of poets and poetry.”

8. Corso, Gregory. GASOLINE
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, February 1958
Perfect-bound in printed wrappers, 5″ x 6.25″, 48 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed by the Pinchpenny Press in Berkeley. Introduction by Allen Ginsberg. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 8
(Cook 8)

9. Prévert, Jacques. SELECTIONS FROM PAROLES
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, July 1958
Sewn and bound in printed wrappers, 5″ x 6.5″, 72 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 9
(Cook 10)

Note: from the rear cover: “In the years immediately following World War II, Jacques Prévert spoke more directly to and for the French who had come of age under the Occupation than any other contemporary poet, if enormous success of Paroles is any indication. First published in 1946, it was almost immediately reprinted, and by 1952 there were 200,000 copies in print.”

10. Duncan, Robert. SELECTED POEMS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, January 1959
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5″ x 6.25″, 80 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 10
(Cook 14)

Note: Selected Poems gathers poems written between 1942 and 1950. From the publisher’s statement: “In making this selection from his first four books, together with certain other poems of the same period, Duncan feels he has given his work as a whole a focus that amounts to a new definition of his poetic intent.”

11. Rothenberg, Jerome (translator). NEW YOUNG GERMAN POETS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1959
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 11
(Cook 16)

Note: This collection, edited and translated by Jerome Rothenberg, introduces ten German poets who were born between the First World War and the first years of the Nazi rise to power. The collection includes the first English appearances of Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann and Gunter Grass.

12. Parra, Nicanor. ANTI-POEMS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1960
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 12

Note: These poems are taken from Parra’s Poemas y Antipoemas originally published in 1954. This is the first appearance in English, translated by painter and critic Jorge Elliott.

13. Patchen, Kenneth. THE LOVE POEMS OF KENNETH PATCHEN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1961
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 13





14. Ginsberg, Allen. KADDISH AND OTHER POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1961
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 14

Note: This is the long anticipated volume of poems following the highly successful Howl and Other Poems. It presents the long title poem on the death of his mother and fifteen other poems. Kaddish is the name of the Hebrew prayer for the dead.

15. Nichols, Robert. SLOW NEWSREEL OF MAN RIDING TRAIN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1962
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 15

16. Hollo, Anselm (translator). RED CATS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1962
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 16

Note: In his introduction Hollo writes, “In the middle 50’s a number of Soviet writers started what became known as ‘The Thaw’: a movement towards freedom and personal literary and critical expression…” Yevgeni Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky were in their twenties at the time Red Cats was published.

17. Lowry, Malcolm. SELECTED POEMS OF MALCOLM LOWRY
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1962
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 17

Note: from the back cover: “This is the first comprehensive collection of Lowry’s poetry, including most of those strange Mexican verses closely related to his novel, Under the Volcano.
Edited by Lowry’s good friend, Earle Birney, with the assistance of the author’s widow, this book brings into perspective the many poems from various periods which have appeared in magazines, as well as others never before published.”

18. Ginsberg, Allen. REALITY SANDWICHES, 1953-1960
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1963
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 18

Note: Reality Sandwiches collects poems written by Ginsberg between 1953 and 1960, thus presenting his early work prior to his groundbreaking poem Howl in 1956

19. O’Hara, Frank. LUNCH POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1964
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 19

20. Lamantia, Philip. SELECTED POEMS, 1943-1966
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1967
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 20

Note: this volume collects poems of his youth, travels and time in San Francisco: Revelations of a Surreal Youth (1943-1945), Trance Ports (1948-1961), and Secret Freedom (1963-1966).

21. Kaufman, Bob. GOLDEN SARDINE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1967
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 21

22. Pommy-Vega, Janine. POEMS TO FERNANDO
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1968
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 22

23. Ginsberg, Allen. PLANET NEWS, 1961-1967
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1968
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 23

24. Upton, Charles. PANIC GRASS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1968
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 24

25. Picasso, Pablo. HUNK OF SKIN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1968
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 25

26. Bly, Robert. THE TEETH-MOTHER NAKED AT LAST
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1970
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 26

27. di Prima, Diane. REVOLUTIONARY LETTERS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1971
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 27

Note: Revolutionary Letters was published in a number of earlier versions by underground presses. The first City Lights edition collects letters 1-43 and other poems. Later printings include additional letters.

28. Kerouac, Jack. SCATTERED POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1971
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 28

Note: Scattered Poems is a collection of poems published posthumously and compiled by Ann Charters, one of Kerouac’s earliest biographers. The poems included were written as early as 1945. The cover is a reproduction of a photograph of Kerouac
taken by William S. Burroughs in Tangier in 1957.

29. Voznesensky, Andri. DOGALYPSE: SAN FRANCISCO POETRY READING
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1972
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 29

30. Ginsberg, Allen. THE FALL OF AMERICA: POEMS OF THESE STATES, 1965-1971
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1972
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 30

Note: this collection continues Ginsberg’s chronicle of travels across America. He dedicates the volume to Whitman and includes on the dedication page a long quote from Whitman’s Democratic Vistas,
1871. Barry Miles, Ginsberg’s biographer, relates that Ginsberg was living near Kenneth Patchen on Telegraph Hill. Patchen introduced Ginsberg to the Dos Passos translation of Blaise Cendrars’ Trans-Siberian Voyage, which served as a model for Ginsberg’s travelogue-style work, The Fall of America.

31. Winslow, Pete. A DAISY IN THE MEMORY OF A SHARK
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1973
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 31

32. Norse, Harold. HOTEL NIRVANA
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1974
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 32

33. Waldman, Anne. FAST SPEAKING WOMAN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1975
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 33

34. Hirschman, Jack. LYRIPOL
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1976
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 34

35. Ginsberg, Allen. MIND BREATHS: POEMS 1972-1977
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1977
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 35

Note: This collection presents poems written by Ginsberg from 1972 to 1977. Ginsberg dedicated this volume to Chögyum Trungpa, the poet and philosopher who named Ginsberg the “Lion of Dharma” in 1972.

36. Brecht, Stefan. POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1978
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 36

Note: A collection of poems by the son of German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht . It was privately published two years earlier by the poet. The cover photograph is by Arthur Tress.

37. Orlovsky, Peter. CLEAN ASSHOLE POEMS & SMILING VEGETABLE SONGS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1978
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 37

38. Antler [Brad Burdick]. FACTORY
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1980
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 38

39. Lamantia, Philip. BECOMING VISIBLE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1981
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 39

40. Ginsberg, Allen. PLUTONIAN ODE: POEMS 1977-1980
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1982
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 40

41. Pasolini, Pier Paolo. ROMAN POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1986
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 41

42. NINE DUTCH POETS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1982
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 42

43. Cardenal, Ernesto. FROM NICARAGUA WITH LOVE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1986
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 43

44. Porta, Antonio. KISSES FROM ANOTHER DREAM
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1987
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 44

45. Cornford, Adam. ANIMATIONS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1988
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 45

46. LaLoca [Pamala Karol]. ADVENTURES ON THE ISLE OF ADOLESCENCE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1989
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 46

47. Mayakovsky, Vladimir. LISTEN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 47

48. Kerouac, Jack. POEMS ALL SIZES
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1992
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 48

49. Zamora, Daisy. RIVERBED OF MEMORY
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1992
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 49

50. Murillo, Rosario. ANGEL IN THE DELUGE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1993
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 50

51. Kerouac, Jack. SCRIPTURES OF THE GOLDEN ETERNITY
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1994
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 51

52. Blanco, Alberto. DAWN OF THE SENSES
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1995
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 52

53. Cortázar, Julio. SAVE TWILIGHT
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 53

54. Campana, Dino. ORPHIC SONGS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1998
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 54

55. Hirschman, Jack. FRONT LINES
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 55

56. Mehmedinovic, Semezdin. NINE ALEXANDRIAS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2003
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 56

The Floating Bear

The subtitle “A Newsletter” is the key to The Floating Bear’s chief contribution to literature of the 1960’s; it was a newsletter, a speedy line of communication between experimental poets. Diane di Prima, in the introduction to the reprint edition of The Floating Bear, recalls Charles Olson’s tribute to the magazine: “The last time I saw Charles Olson in Gloucester, one of the things he talked about was how valuable the Bear had been to him in its early years because of the fact that he could get new work out that fast. He was very involved in speed, in communication. We got manuscripts from him pretty regularly in the early days of the Bear, and we’d usually get them into the very next issue. That meant that his work, his thoughts, would be in the hands of a few hundred writers within two or three weeks. It was like writing a letter to a bunch of friends.”

One is apt to think of a literary newsletter as a device for talking about poetry but not as a means for transmitting the poem itself; in Floating Bear most of the space was given over to primary work. The first twenty-five issues (up to the point when LeRoi Jones resigned as co-editor) were published over a two year period and comprised 284 pages of poetry, creative prose, and comment. Among the more frequent contributors to Floating Bear during those first two years were Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Frank O’Hara, Joel Oppenheimer, William Burroughs, Ed Dorn, A.B. Spellman, and George Stanley, as well as editors Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones.

After 1963, Floating Bear’s function as a swift communicator among poets seems to have diminished (Nos. 29 to 37 appeared over a period of five years). Size and frequency varied widely: No. 27 had 36 pages and included a 19-page section of poems by Philip Whalen; the following numbers had 16 pages and included work by eight authors. The range of contributors widened somewhat during this time, perhaps because a number of guest editors assumed partial responsibility for the magazine’s contents. Billy Linich, Alan Marlowe, Kirby Doyle, John Wieners, and Bill Berkson each appeared on the masthead as guest editor for one of the magazine’s last dozen issues. One last issue (No. 38) appeared in 1971 as a joint issue with Intrepid (its No. 20), and was edited entirely by Diane di Prima.

Floating Bear was supported solely by contributors; it was never offered for sale. Circulation ranged from 117 to 1250 copies over its eight-year span.

– Peter Martin, “An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Little Magazines”, Tri Quarterly 43, Fall 1976.


1. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 1, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York City: The Floating Bear, February 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 8 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Michael McClure – “The Smile Shall Not Be More Mutable than the Final Extinction of Meat. The Smile with Teeth Sunk in Lower Lip”
      Charles Olson – “All My Life I’ve Heard about Many”
      Charles Olson – “A Note on the Above”
      Max Finstein – “Regional Piece”
      Robin Blaser – “Ode for Museums, All of Them!”
      Robin Blaser – “The Flame”
      Robin Blaser – “A Story after Blake”

2. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 2, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York City: The Floating Bear, February 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 8 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Frank O’Hara – “Now That I Am in Madrid and Can Think”
      Frank O’Hara – “Song”
      Frank O’Hara – “Cohasset”
      Frank O’Hara – “Beer for Breakfast”
      Steve Jonas – “No Saints in Three Acts”
      Steve Jonas – “Quest”
      Robert Creeley – “A Quick Graph”
      LeRoi Jones – “Revue”
      The Editors – “Notice”

3. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 3, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York City: The Floating Bear, March 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Ed Dorn – “The Landscape Below”

4. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 4, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York City: The Floating Bear, March 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 8 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Fielding Dawson – “Oblivion Calling: Daily News”
      Fielding Dawson – “Oblivion Calling: The Dog People”
      Fielding Dawson – “Oblivion Calling: King of Crystal”
      Tony Weinberger – “For Sylvia”
      Tony Weinberger – “A Wildflower”
      Tony Weinberger – “My Beloved/ The Bee Tree/ The Whore”
      Joel Oppenheimer – “A Grace for Painters”
      Joel Oppenheimer – “Statement for Patterson Society”
      Barbara Guest – “What Am I Going to Do after the King and Queen of Nepal”
      William Mcnaughton – “Footnote to Creeley’s Graph”
      The Editors – “Notice”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “Fielding Dawson went to Black Mountain College as a painter, but after he studied with Kline a few months he decided to give up painting, although he still drew a lot. He drew the original emblem for LeRoi’s Totem Press, and he became a prose writer.”

5. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 5, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York City: The Floating Bear, April 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 8 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. John Thomas – “Nine Stages of a Journey from Caledonia to Harpers Ferry”
      John Thomas – “My Bird”
      LeRoi Jones – [Letter to Diane di Prima]
      William Burroughs – “Out Show Window and We’re Proud of It”
      William Burroughs – [Letter to Allen Ginsberg]
      Aquarian [Joel Oppenheimer] – “New Flick in Town”
      The Editors – “Notice”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “‘Aquarian; is always Joel Oppenheimer.”

6. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 6, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York City: The Floating Bear, April 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. George Stanley – “1” (“One bird called White…”)
      George Stanley – “2” (“I thought you were savage…”)
      George Stanley – “3” (“At dawn the mosquitoes…”)
      George Stanley – “4” (“What graceless guy…”)
      George Stanley – “5” (“The old train goes…”)
      George Stanley – “6” (“When he asked me…”)
      George Stanley – “7” (“A ball hurted…)
      George Stanley – “8” (“Flit in, little fairy…”)
      George Stanley – “9” (“That sense of indefinite longing…”)
      George Stanley – “10” (“I’m not satisfied with them…”)
      George Stanley – “White Matches”
      George Stanley – “12” (“Simple Simon…”)
      LeRoi Jones – “A Note on the 12 Poems”
      Stan Persky – “Larry Davis Cowboy Poem”
      Stan Persky – “Siege Poem”
      Koenig [LeRoi Jones] – “Note”
      Robert Creeley – “Edward Dorn in the News”
      [Diane] di Prima – [untitled] “arthur machen, what he has hold of…”
      Koenig [LeRoi Jones] – “Note”
      Robert Creeley – “’Statement’ for Patterson Society”
      The Editors – “Notice”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “George Stanley was in New York for a while in 1961. He was a part of Jack Spicer’s very tight circle. Jack had printed a lot of books and a magazine called J, and no copies of his things were allowed to go East. Jack felt the East Coast was Babylon. When George returned to San Francisco he went through a very bad period because Jack and the whole circle ostracized him for having gone to New York and having been published there. They said it was prostitution.”

7. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 7, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York City: The Floating Bear, May 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Bill Berkson – “’……’ Times”
      Bill Berkson – “How It Goes”
      Bill Berkson – “Hinterland”
      Bill Berkson – “Never”
      Bill Berkson – “You and Me”
      Bill Berkson – “Saturday Afternoon”
      Charles Olson – “Grammar – ‘A Book’”
      The Editors – “Notices”

8. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 8, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York City: The Floating Bear, May 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. A.B. Spellman – “Zapata and The Landlord, for Allen Dulles”
      A.B. Spellman – “The Joel Blues, After and For Him”
      anonymous – “Last Will and Testament of an Urban Herbalist and Agrostologist”
      Joel Oppenheimer – “17-18 April, 1961”
      Ed Dorn – “New York, New York”
      The Editors – “Notice”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “April 17-18, 1961 was the Bay of Pigs fiasco.”

9. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 9, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, June 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. LeRoi Jones – “from The System of Dante’s Hell”
      William Burroughs – “Routine: Roosevelt after Inauguration”
      Philip Whalen – “Itchy”
      unattributed – “Slave Song, 18th Cent.”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “This slave song and the prayer [in issue No. 15] both came from a book on the history of American Negro music that LeRoi was reading then.”

10. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 10, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, June 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 16 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. John Wieners – “On January 20th the Snows Began to Melt”
      John Wieners – “You Can’t Kill These Machines”
      John Wieners – “Long Nook”
      John Wieners – [untitled] “And it would be good to stop…”
      John Wieners – “Ode to the Instrument” [Black Mountain, Spring 1955]
      John Wieners – “Ode to the Instrument”
      John Wieners – “Exchange of the Lady’s Handmaids”
      John Wieners – “Objects from Route 70”
      John Wieners – “Message”
      John Wieners – “Play Land’s Aftermath”
      John Wieners – “Second Flight Across Country”
      John Wieners – “After Meditations, for F O’H”
      John Wieners – “That Old Gang of Mine”

11. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 11, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, July 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 10 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Charles Olson – “A Plausible Entry for, like, Man”
      Gil [Sorrentino] – [Letter to LeRoi Jones]
      Peter Hartman – “The Masai ***”
      James VI [King of England] – “from Reulis and Cautelis to be Observit and Eschewit in Scottis Poesie”
      Robert Kelly – “Letter to the Bear. Re: Rome”
      Denise Levertov – “An Argument. (In response to Trobar #2 and Kelly’s ‘Notes on the Poetry of the Deep Image’)”
      Larry Eigner – “Blabbermouth”
      Fred Herko – [Theater Reviews]
      The Editors – “Notices”

12. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 12, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, August 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. John Ashbery – “The Lozenges”
      John Ashbery – “The Suspended Life”
      John Ashbery – “To the Same Degree”
      John Ashbery – “The Ascetic Sensualists”
      A.B. Spellman – “Nocturne for Eric”
      Carl Solomon – “The Bughouse”
      Carl Solomon – “I Was a Communist Youth”
      Carl Solomon – “The Entrance of the Grand Gladiola”
      The Editors – “Notices”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “Allen Ginsberg dedicated ‘Howl’ to Carl Solomon.”

13. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 13, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, September 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. A.B. Spellman – “The Beautiful Day”
      A.B. Spellman – “The Second Beautiful Day”
      A.B. Spellman – “The Beautiful Day, III”
      A.B. Spellman – “The Beautiful Day, IV”
      A.B. Spellman – “The Beautiful Day, V”
      A.B. Spellman – “The Beautiful Day VI”
      A.B. Spellman – “The Beautiful Day VII”
      Joe Early – “Les Enfants du Paradis”
      David Ossman – “Comments on Montage”
      Steve Jonas – “Altar”
      John Thomas – “Alba”
      John Thomas – “Memo for Coffeehouse Psychologists”
      Fielding Dawson – “The Turn of the Wheel”
      The Editors – “Notices”

14. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 14, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, October 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 14 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Michael McClure – “!The Feast!, for Ornette Coleman”
      Philip Whalen – “Goodbye & Hello, Again 6:II:60”

Note: an announcement concerning the arrest of the editors was sent out separately and with some copies of No. 14.

15. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 15, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, November 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Bruce Boyd – “Canticles for the Hours: Prime”
      Bruce Boyd – “Thread”
      Bruce Boyd – “1.” (“because it wasn’t sugar…”)
      Bruce Boyd – “2.” (“well, old honey, back to the hard sound…”)
      Bruce Boyd – “3.” (“or say that it is not love…”)
      Allen Ginsberg – “History of the Jewish Socialist Party in America”
      author unknown – “Early South Carolina Gullah Prayer”
      Frank O’Hara – “For the Chinese New Year & for Bill Berkson”
      Joseph Lesueur – [Theater Reviews]
      The Editors – “Notices”

16. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 16, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, December 1961
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. George Stanley – [untitled] “They would force scrunched…”
      George Stanley – [untitled] “The sailors in their ship…”
      George Stanley – [untitled] “Myriads now fly down…”
      Dave Ossman and Martin Green – “A Film Form: Outline for a Filmscript”
      Charles Olson – “To Empty the Mind”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “The World of the Lie”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “The Mendacity of Windows”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “The Mendacity of Radio”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “The Mendacity of Sculpture”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “Coda: As Far as the Pass”
      Ron Loewinsohn – [untitled] “On the way back from Chicago (September, ’56)…”
      Marian Zazeela – “The Guggenheim Exhibition of Abstract Expressionists and Imagists (to Dec. 31)”
      Alan Marlowe – “Review”
      G. Sorrentino – “Rollins’ Return”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “Marian Zazeela’s review of the Guggenheim exhibit caused a lot of commotion. After that point a lot of the New York painters who had been helping us with the Bear wouldn’t give us any more money because she suggested that Robert Motherwell was copying from his wife Helen Frankenthaler. Motherwell got very mad at us and wrote me a very nasty postcard.”

17. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 17, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, January 1962
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Joel Oppenheimer – “A Treatise”
      Hubert Selby, Jr. – “September 24, 1961, A Floating Bear Special”
      Charles Olson – “The Americans”
      Paul Metcalf – “Darlington, South Carolina”
      Max Finstein – “Song”
      Max Finstein – “The Trial”
      Max Finstein – “The Merger”
      Jerry Benjamin – [Theatre Review]
      Fred Herko – “Paul Taylor–A History”
      The Editors – “Notices”

18. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 18, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, February 1962
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. David Meltzer – “Poem to H.P. Lovecraft”
      David Meltzer – “The Struggle / Poems for the Muse”
      David Meltzer – “Heroes: 7 / The Comics”
      Mike Strong – “After”
      Mike Strong – “Overture”
      Mike Strong – “Mornings”
      LeRoi Jones – “Footnote to a Pretentious Book”
      Charles Olson – “In the Face of the Chinese View of the City”
      Joseph Lesueur – “Random Thoughts about Recent Plays, On and Off Broadway”
      George Brecht – “Statement for James Goldsworthy”
      John King [LeRoi Jones] – “Rejoinder: Concerning the Reviews by Miss Zazeela and Mr. Marlowe in FB 16”
      Frank Buck [pseud.; not Identified] – “Consumer’s Guide”

19. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 19, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, March 1962
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Robert Duncan – “Night Scenes”
      Jonathan Williams – “We Take the Golden Road, to Samar, Kansas…”
      Stuart Perkoff – [untitled] “the Christian philo…”
      Stuart Perkoff – “2.” (“we step & and do not step…”)
      Stuart Perkoff – “3.” (“the river was warm, but not warm enough…”)
      Stuart Perkoff – “Three Prayers”
      Stuart Perkoff – “The Swing”
      Gertrude “Ma” Rainey – “Sissy Blues”
      Diane di Prima – “December, 1961”
      LeRoi Jones – “James Waring and Dance Company”
      Edwin Denby – [Letter to the Editors]
      The Editors – “Notices”

20. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 20, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, May 1962
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. The Editors [LeRoi Jones] – “Hello, Ma I Glad I Win!”
      Bertolt Brecht – “A Letter to His Fascist Friend Arnolt Bronnen in the Summer of 1923”
      Paul Blackburn – “The Cronopios in America–1.”
      J. Williams – “Best Reading List”
      Ed Dorn – “A Wild Blue, Yonder”
      Ed Dorn – “Time Blonde”
      Ed Dorn – “In My Youth I Was a Tireless Dancer”
      Ed Dorn – “The Song Is Ended”
      Ed Dorn – “The Poet Lectures Famous Potatoes”
      Ed Dorn – “Nose from Newswhere”
      Diane di Prima – “from Whale Honey”

21. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 21, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, August 1962
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Frank O’Hara – “Mary Desti’s Ass”
      Frank O’Hara – “St. Paul and All That”
      Charles Olson – “A Work”
      Norman Solomon – “A Passion Play. 1.”
      Norman Solomon – “962”
      Peter Orlovsky and Allen Ginsberg – “Our Dear Friend Charles”
      Aquarian [Joel Oppenheimer] – “Best Reading List”
      Diane di Prima – “A Concert of Dance–Judson Memorial Church, Friday, 6 July 1962”
      The Editors – “Notices”

22. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 22, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, August 1962
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. David Shapiro – “Lament”
      David Shapiro – “The Bluebird”
      David Shapiro – “The Storm”
      David Shapiro – “Canticle as Grieving”
      David Shapiro – “Poem”
      Yu Suwa – “A Poem, 1961-1962”
      LeRoi Jones – “The Politics of Rich Painters”
      Gary Snyder – “The Curse”
      Joseph Lesueur – “Rotten Apple”
      Steve Jonas – “Green”
      Steve Jonas – “Sub Voce”
      George Stanley – “The Italian”
      Abe Harvard [Peter Hartman] – “In Quest of Ugendun”
      Diane Wakoski – [Letter to the Editors]
      The Editors – “Notices”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “David Shapiro was 16 years old. For his age his stuff was brilliant, and people in Frank O’Hara’s crowd were interested in him. He was a very funny person when I met him because all his 16-year-old, adolescent, New Jersey personality was there on the surface, in spite of the fact that he could make these very far-out images. He kept calling me Miss di Prima and Frank Mr. O’Hara, and Frank finally got very embarrassed about it.”

23. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 23, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, September 1962
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Kirby Doyle – “from The Happiness Bastard”
      Diane di Prima – “Careers: A Naturalistic Tragedy”
      Frank Lima – “Pudgy”
      James Waring – [Letter to The Floating Bear]
      Anton Webern [Peter Hartman?] – [Letter to the Editors]
      Miles Campion [LeRoi Jones?] – [Letter to the Editors]
      The Editors – “Notices”

24. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 24, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
New York: The Floating Bear, September-October 1962
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 12 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. William S. Burroughs – “Spain & 42 St.”
      William S. Burroughs – “Dead Whistle Stop Already End”
      William S. Burroughs – “Where Flesh Circulates”
      Paul C. Metcalf – “In This Corner: Charles Olson”
      Soren Agenoux – “A Movie Review”
      Johannes Koenig [LeRoi Jones] – “Names & Bodies (Notes)”
      Soren Agenoux – “12 Leçons de Ténèbres”
      George Montgomery – [untitled] “Lemons on barber poles…”
      The Editors – “Notices”

25. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 25, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones
Topanga: The Floating Bear, November 1962-March 1963
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 8 pages plus Auerhahn advertisement flyer, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Lew Welch – “Voice from Rat Flat!”
      Richard Baker – “Struggle”
      Richard Baker – “Beer”
      Dale Landers – “III Of a Growth Of”
      Robert Creeley – “The Skeleton”
      A.B. Spellman – “Baltimore Oriole, for M.R.”
      A.B. Spellman – “A Home Brew”
      The Editors – “Thank Yous”
      [Advertisement for Auerhahn Press]

26. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 26, guest-edited by Billy Linich
New York: The Floating Bear, October 1963
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 10 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. [George Herms] – [untitled] “Wet floor feet faster than wine…”
      [George Herms] – “Tap City Easter Circus Report”
      Michael Katz – “4 Short Stories for Passover”
      John [Wieners] – [untitled] “Mary Butts, inhabit her Ashe family of Rings…”
      Mary Butts – [untitled] “Until they came to the world’s end…”
      John [Daley?] – [Letter to Billy Linich]
      George Brecht – [Note to Billy Linich]
      Kirby Doyle – “Moon Poem, for Jarry Heiserman”
      Ray Johnson – [Letters to Various Persons]
      Ray Johnson – “Where Is the Palace? Iodine.”
      Duke Mantee [LeRoi Jones] – “Voices from the Art World (or, Bright Sayings)”
      The Editors – “Notices”
      [Diane di Prima] – “This Is a Very Strong Appeal for Funds”

27. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 27, edited by Diane di Prima
New York: The Floating Bear, November 1963
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 34 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Philip Whalen – “The Art of Literature”
      Philip Whalen – “The Saturday Visitations”
      Philip Whalen – “Sunday Afternoon Dinner Fung Loy Restaurant San Francisco”
      Philip Whalen – “Hello to All the Folks Back Home”
      Philip Whalen – “The Art of Literature, 2nd Part”
      Philip Whalen – “Heigho, Nobody’s at Home”
      Philip Whalen – “Ignorantaccio”
      Philip Whalen – “The Art of Literature, #3, A Total Explanation, for Dr. A.”
      Philip Whalen – [untitled] “without gills or lungs or brain…”
      Philip Whalen – “Saturday 15:IX:62”
      Philip Whalen – “Fillmore Hob Nob Carburetor”
      Philip Whalen – “The Art of Literature, Part 4th”
      Philip Whalen – “The Gallery, Mill Valley”
      Philip Whalen – “Applegravy”
      Philip Whalen – “The Professor Comes to Call”
      Philip Whalen – “The Art of Literature, Concluded”
      Philip Whalen – “How We Live the More Abundant Life in America”
      Aquarian [Joel Oppenheimer] – “R I P”
      Ray Johnson – “Review by Ray Johnson (in the Style of Floating Bear)”
      Alan Marlowe – [Theatre Review]
      [Michael Rumaker?] – “Wieners & Stein at Judson”
      Michael Rumaker – “The Island, by Robert Creeley” [book review]
      John Wieners – “The Reporters, A Review by John Wieners”
      John Daley – “Billy Linich’s Party”
      [Author Unknown] – “Mss. Found in the Debris at the Living Theatre: The Journal of an IRS Agent”
      Alan Marlowe and Diane di Prima – [Announcement for the New Choreographers Company]
      The Editors – [Notices]
      Ray Johnson – [Letter to the Floating Bear]

28. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 28, edited by Diane di Prima
New York: The Floating Bear, December 1963
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 16 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Al Leslie.

  • Contents:
    1. Mary Caroline Richards – “Christmas Sonnet”
      Mary Caroline Richards – “To My New Goat”
      Gregory Corso – “I Dream in Daytime”
      Jack Smith – “Normal Love”
      LeRoi Jones – “In Wyoming Territory (a Title)”
      LeRoi Jones – “In Wyoming Territory (a Veil)”
      LeRoi Jones – “In Wyoming Territory (a Story.”
      LeRoi Jones – “In Wyoming Territory (Music of”
      LeRoi Jones – “In Wyoming Territory (Dance/Like/”
      Edward Field – “Chopin”
      John Wieners – “Journal of the First Night”
      Frank O’Hara – “Pistachio Tree at Château Noir”

29. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 29, edited by Diane di Prima
New York: The Floating Bear, March 1964
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 20 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by George Herms.

  • Contents:
    1. Robert Grosseteste – “On Light or the Beginning of Forms”
      James Waring – [untitled] “Seen anywhere can art avalanche…”
      Julian Beck – “Acrostic for the Community of Poets and Joel Oppenheimer”
      John Thomas – “Some Books”
      Frank O’Hara – “Adventures in Living”
      Gerard Malanga – “Rollerskate”
      Gerard Malanga – “A Magic Realist Painting, for Alan Marlowe”
      John Herbert Mcdowell – “Special to the Floating Bear”
      Morton Feldman – [Letter to the Floating Bear]
      [Gilbert] Sorrentino – “Signal: A New Magazine”
      Fielding Dawson – “I Confess”
      James Waring – “Art Chronicle”
      The Editors – “Notices”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “Jerry Malanga wrote ‘Rollerskate’ as a tribute to Freddie Herko after Freddie’s death. I don’t know if the film it refers to was ever made.”

30. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 30, edited by Diane di Prima
New York: The Floating Bear, November 1964
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 20 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Jeanne Marlowe.

  • Contents:
    1. Ruth Krauss – “As I Passed the Andy Auto Body Works”
      Alan Marlowe – “A Play”
      author unknown [Peter Abelard?] – “Medieval Latin Song” (trans. Diane di Prima)
      Ferencz Mcnaughton [pseud.?] – “May Meeting with C. Goy”
      Carl Solomon – “Pilgrim State Hospital”
      anon., As Told To Hubert Selby, Jr. – “My Return to Pilgrim State”
      Herbert Huncke – [untitled] “I could not believe we had anything…”
      Gilbert Sorrentino – “For the Floating Bear: Prose of Our Time”
      Allan Kaprow – “from the Construction of Boston”
      James Waring – [Letter to the Floating Bear]
      Alex Katz – [Letter to the Editors]
      Howard Schulman – “Jan Muller (1922-58) at the Guggenheim thru 2/25/62”
      Anne Wilson – “October ‘26 Rauschenberg”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “The cover of Number 30 was done by my daughter Jeannie who was six and a half years old at that time.”

31. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 31, guest-edited by Alan Marlowe
New York City: The Floating Bear, June 1965
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 16 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Jess Collins.

  • Contents:
    1. author unknown – “Great Prajna Paramita Sutra” (trans. by Shenryu Suzuki)
      John Wieners – “Procrastination”
      John Wieners – “Procrastination”
      John Wieners – “Procrastination”
      John Wieners – “Night Boat to Cairo”
      John Wieners – “The Mole Proposes Solitude”
      John Wieners – “Song Lyric for ‘Shoot the President’”
      Robert Duncan – “Notes from A Reading at the Poetry Center, San Francisco, March 1, 1959”
      The Editors – “Editors Notes”

32. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 32, guest-edited by Kirby Doyle
Kerhonkson: The Floating Bear, February 1966
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 16 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Robert Branaman.

  • Contents:
    1. Michael McClure – “Cupid’s Grin”
      John Keats – “A Fragment to Fanny”
      Thomas Chatterton – “Last Verses”
      Sharon Morrill – [untitled] “Body dying of chemical injecto…”
      Thomas Traherne – “from The Centuries”
      Yvonne Rainer – “Some Thoughts on Improvisation”
      Kirby Doyle – “Some Notes Toward a Text for the Unyielding Kings of the New Undead”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Psalm IV”
      Diane di Prima – “Buddhist New Year Song”
      Sheri Martinelli – “Duties of a Lady Female”
      Clive Matson – “The Good-Bye Scene”
      The Editors – “Notes”
      The Editors – [Advertisement for the Poets Press]

33. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 33, guest-edited by John Wieners
Brooklyn: The Floating Bear, February 1967
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 36 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Paolo Lionni.

  • Contents:
    1. [John Wieners] – “Our Unborn Child”
      John Broderick – “My Flowers…” [illustration]
      Jack Spicer – “The Bridge Game”
      Jack Spicer – “Lives of the Philosophers: Diogenes”
      Deedee Doyle [Sharon Morill] – [untitled illustration]
      B. O’Driscoll [Bobby Driscoll] – “Sunday”
      John Wieners – “The Drug Addict’s Dilemma: An Answer to America”
      Sanders Russell – “Two Poems”
      Philip Lamantia – “For Real”
      John Reed – “Three Poems”
      Kirby Doyle – “A Valo Poem”
      David Rattray – [untitled] “If only I could…”
      Edward Freeman – “Prints and Prisons”
      David Posner – “In Memory of a Friend”
      Allen De Loach – “The A Train”
      Bob Hartman – “This is the Flip Side of the Record”
      Robert Grenier – “A Race”
      Charles Doria – “from Christine’s Version”
      Stephen Jonas – “Subway Haiku”
      Alan Marlowe – [untitled] “Lady cat is missing…”
      Irving Rosenthal – “The Mouse King”
      Lewis Lipschitz – [untitled] “When I See the small fish…”
      Howard Schulman – [untitled] “When you breathe on me…”
      Elizabeth Sutherland – “B’s Blues”
      Joan Gilbert – [untitled] “this is the beginning of our end…”
      Jeanne Phillips – [untitled] “today we have the good witch…”
      Jeanne Phillips – “Observations”
      Jan Balas – [untitled] “I know its Thursday…”
      Jan Balas – “Meth Madness after Many Days”
      Diane di Prima – “Song for My Spooks”
      Diane di Prima – “First Snow, Kerhonkson, for Alan”
      Shreela Ray – [untitled] “I saw myself in abyss-green…”
      Shiela Plant – “Term Paper for 8 Year Old”
      Shiela Plant – “Autobiography”
      Shiela Plant – “Adamancy”
      Madeline Davis – “To Ronny”
      Janine Pommey – “On Train to Holland, 12-29-65”
      Janine Pommey – “October, 65, Ibiza Spain”
      Janine Pommey – “Paris 9-64, to Alex:”
      Janine Pommey – “Spring, Paris 65, to Fernando:”
      Janine Pommey – “Two Line Poems Written in Paris ‘65”
      The Editors – “Notices”

34. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 34, edited by Diane di Prima
Brooklyn: The Floating Bear, October 1967
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 28 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Michael Bowen.

  • Contents:
    1. Jack Spicer – “The Day Five Thousand Fish Died in the Charles River”
      Jack Spicer – “Poem, by a Computer at Mit, Which Was Fed the Elements of English Grammar, and Directed to Produce Sentences”
      Keith Wilson – “Graves Registry XII, Body at Sea”
      Keith Wilson – “Graves Registry XIV, Sea Songs for Women”
      Gary Snyder – [untitled] “Could she see the whole real world…”
      Gary Snyder – “The Coyote Breath”
      Emily Bronte – “Cold in the Earth”
      Stuart Perkoff – [untitled] “what a city is…”
      Rajkamal Chowdhury – “The Cycle or the Yoni-chakra (a Tantric Song)”
      Lorenzo Thomas – “Poem in Lieu of the Marriage of Andrew Zolem”
      Arcane School, N.Y.C. – “Zodiac”
      George Stanley – [untitled] “I thought and thought…”
      George Stanley – [untitled] “the past (as if in parenthesis)…”
      Bertolt Brecht – “Of Poor B. B.” (trans. Jack Collom)
      Frank O’Hara – “Dérangé sur un Pont de l’Adour”
      Frank O’Hara – “Hôtel Particulier”
      Johannes Koenig [LeRoi Jones] – “The Structure of the Academy Is: Against, the Street, or, Versus.”
      Yukio Matsuda – “The Landing” (trans. Syunichi Niikura)
      Yu Suwa – “Jacob’s Ladder” (trans. Syunichi Niikura)
      Atsushi Sekiguci – “New Year Greeting” (trans. Syunichi Niikura)
      Philip Lamantia – “Rest in Peace”
      Jack Kerouac – “How to Meditate”
      Jack Kerouac – “Hitch Hiker”
      David W. Mckain – “Street Corner Song”
      David W. Mckain – “Special Eye”
      David W. Mckain – “Newark Black Survival Committee Press Conference”
      The Editors – “Notices”

35. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 35, edited by Diane di Prima
New York: The Floating Bear, April 1968
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 26 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by John Reed.

  • Contents:
    1. Philip Lamantia – “Inscription for the Vanishing Republic”
      Philip Lamantia – “Orphic Poem”
      Philip Lamantia – “The Call”
      Philip Lamantia – “Politics Poem”
      Philip Lamantia – “Lava”
      Philip Lamantia – “Cool Apocalypse”
      Philip Lamantia – “Visions”
      Philip Lamantia – [untitled] “That I burned by the screech owl castle…”
      Steve Jonas – “A Poem for Tony Sherrod”
      John Thomas – “The Empty Blues”
      Lenore Kandel – “Junk/Angel”
      LeRoi Jones – “Indians”
      LeRoi Jones – “A Traffic of Love”
      LeRoi Jones – “Old Men’s Feet”
      LeRoi Jones – “Nick Charles Meets the Wolf-Man”
      LeRoi Jones – “West of Dodge”
      Michael Rumaker – “The Island, by Robert Creeley” [book review]
      Michael Rumaker – “WFME Interview with Night Editor of Newark Evening News”
      The Editors – “Notices of All Kinds”

36. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 36, guest-edited by Bill Berkson
New York City: The Floating Bear, January-July 1969
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 40 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Ray Johnson.

  • Contents:
    1. Larry Fagin, Bill Berkson, and Ron Padgett – “Beautiful Music”
      Larry Fagin, Bill Berkson, and Ron Padgett – “Dog Salt”
      Larry Fagin, Bill Berkson, and Ron Padgett – “The Secret of Jane Bowles”
      Max Ernst – “From”
      Michael Brownstein – “Driving Through Belgium”
      Michael Brownstein – “The Shining Hand”
      Michael Brownstein – “Woman Walking Slowly Downstairs and Waving”
      Anne Waldman – “Be Happy O Sad World Be Happy”
      Anne Waldman – “Bright Side”
      Tom Clark – “Where I Live”
      Clark Coolidge – “Nothing at Newbegins”
      Clark Coolidge – “Noun Adder”
      Blaise Cendrars – “Dorypha” (trans. Ron Padgett)
      Bill Berkson – “Forked Dah”
      Bill Berkson – “Stanky”
      David Shapiro – “For the Princess Hello”
      Diane di Prima – “Stone Take”
      Kenneth Koch – “I Am from Argentina”
      John Thorpe – “Shaman’s Pain”
      John Thorpe – “When”
      John Thorpe – “Dust Eater”
      Ron Padgett – “Movable Basketballs”
      Lewis Warsh – “Opening the Day”
      John Ashbery – “Upper Silesia”
      The Editors – “Readables”

37. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 37, edited by Diane di Prima
New York City: The Floating Bear, March-July 1969
First edition, corner-stapled sheets, 8.5” x 11”, 24 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Wallace Berman.

  • Contents:
    1. Lenore Kandel – “Hymn to Maitreya in America”
      LeRoi Jones – “What the Arts Need Now”
      Kirby Doyle – “An Unfinished Letter, Amir id-Emaid”
      Kirby Doyle – [untitled] “The belly of the moon…”
      Kirby Doyle – [untitled] “Again the butterfly visits me…”
      Kirby Doyle – [untitled] “I came to the top of this…”
      Kirby Doyle – “Upon Jail”
      Kirby Doyle – “-1- the Alchemist”
      Kirby Doyle – “-2- the Angel”
      Kirby Doyle – “-3- the Singer”
      Kirby Doyle – “-4- the Fallen”
      Kirby Doyle – “-5- the Risen”
      Gary Snyder – “Buddhism & The Coming Revolution”
      Victor Hernandez Cruz – “Poem for the Empire”
      Victor Hernandez Cruz – “Third World”
      Diane di Prima – “Canticle of St. Joan, for Robert Duncan”
      Michael McClure – “Tear Gas”
      Janine Pommy-Vega – “Poem for David”
      Janine Pommy-Vega – “Poem to Pitt/ If That Is Your Name…..”
      Tao Te Ching – “from Tao Te Ching” (trans. Paul Carus)
      Dave Cunliffe and Tina Morris – “Invocation”
      Freewheelin’ Frank [Frank Reynolds] – “’The Hymn’ to ‘Lucifer’”

According to Diane di Prima in notes to Laurence McGilvery’s facsimile edition of The Floating Bear, “The poem by Freewheelin’ Frank [Frank Reynolds] came out of a book that was done here in San Francisco. It was issued as a portfolio and ws the last printing effort of the Free City people; they had been doing a free publishing thing. They did Brautigan’s Please Plant This Book, poems printed on packets of seeds. They also did a dittoed version of Kirby Doyle’s Angelfaint, which he wouldn’t let them release because it had too many typographical errors in it. One thousand copies of it are probably still in Irving Rosenthal’s basement, without covers. Frank’s book was beautifully printed, all on separate sheets in about four colors. Freewheelin’ Frank’s name somehow didn’t get on this poem, so we had to write it in by hand on all the copies.”


References Consulted:

Clay, Steven and Rodney Phillips. A SECRET LOCATION ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE: ADVENTURES IN WRITING, 1960-1980
New York: New York Public Library / Granary Books, 1998

di Prima, Diane and LeRoi Jones. editors. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER. Numbers 1-37, 1961-1969
La Jolla: Laurence McGilvery, 1973


Online Resources:

· Beat Visions and the Counterculture – Floating Bear
· From a Secret Location – The Floating Bear
· Reality Studio – Floating Bear Archive