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.”
Tag Archives: Bill Berkson
Locus Solus
“L’écriteau bref qui s’offre à l’oeil apitoyé”
– Roussel
The first generation of New York School poets took their first shot at editing their own magazine in Locus Solus, a title that marks a private space both in its meaning (solitary place) and its derivation. It alludes to a 1914 novel of the same title by Raymond Roussel, the obscure French author whose work provided a secret meeting ground for the New York School poets. The idea for the magazine originated with Harry Mathews and John Ashbery, both living in France at the time. Mathews was able to provide funding through a recent inheritance, but otherwise his interest in the magazine was principally devoted to seeing installments of his novel The Conversions published in the first three issues, though the final issue (No. 5, 1962) also contains his poem “The Ring” and his translation of a portion of Roussel’s Locus Solus. Ashbery provided editorial leadership by assembling a “Double Issue of New Poetry” (numbers 3-4, winter 1962) and recruiting James Schuyler and Kenneth Koch to edit other issues. Koch’s “Special Collaborations Issue” (No. 2, summer 1961) remains a significant reference point for the practice that has become a defining feature of New York School poetry. Schuyler’s issues, the first and last (No. 1, winter 1961; No. 5, 1962), are miscellaneous but nevertheless formed by a deliberate intention to represent a group identity as Schuyler conceived it. In soliciting a contribution from his longtime friend Chester Kallman (1921–75), whose work appeared in the final issue, Schuyler explained that “part of the unstated objective” of Locus Solus was to offer “a riposte at The New American Poetry [1960], which has so thoroughly misrepresented so many of us” (it did not represent Kallman at all).
As a correction or supplement to The New American Poetry, 1945-1960, the most important contributions of Locus Solus are the re-introduction of Edwin Denby (represented in the first issue by nine sonnets from Mediterranean Cities [1956]) and the forecasting of Ashbery’s “experimental” turn in poems later collected in The Tennis Court Oath (1962; “The New Realism,” Locus Solus, Nos. 3–4) and Rivers and Mountains (1966; “Into the Dusk-Charged Air,” Locus Solus, No. 5). The poets’ work in prose is also represented in Schuyler’s “Current Events” (Locus Solus, No. 1); an early installment of the collaborative novel by Schuyler and Ashbery, A Nest of Ninnies (Locus Solus, No. 2); and Denby’s memoir “The Thirties” (Locus Solus, No. 5). The representation of the first-generation New York School poets in Locus Solus is completed with work by Kenward Elmslie, Barbara Guest, Koch, and Frank O’hara. The second generation begins to emerge with names that were to become prominent (Bill Berkson, Ted Berrigan, Joseph Ceravolo, John Perreault) and some others who had connected with Koch and O’Hara through their workshops at the New School (Jean Boudin, Allan Kaplan, Ruth Krauss). Another workshop student, Michael Benedikt (1935-2007), though not usually associated with the New York School, made his closest connection in the context of Locus Solus, assuming the title of managing editor for the final issue.
Although handsomely printed on fine paper, Locus Solus was not illustrated. It included writing by various authors with ties to the visual arts that were so important to New York School poetry. Fairfield Porter (and his wife, Anne), Robert Dash (a painter friend of the Porters), Musa McKim (the wife of Philip Guston), Larry Rivers, and Harold Rosenberg all contributed poems. Rudolph Burckhardt published Love in Three Acts: A Swiss Play (Locus Solus, No. 1). Using the form of a play, Jane Freilicher and Koch assigned lines to various parts of “The Car” (Locus Solus, No. 2) in a demonstration of collaboration on several levels. In the final issue, poems by Gerard Malanga and Piero Heliczer (1937-1993) signal the Andy Warhol circle that would expand throughout the coming decade to take in many New York School poets.
–Diggory, Terence. “Locus Solus” Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets. 2009
1. LOCUS SOLUS, No. 1, edited by James Schuyler
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, Winter 1960-1961
First edition, sewn-signatures bound into printed wrappers, 5” x 7”, 168 pages. There were 100 special copies printed in a limited numbered issue. Printed by Imprenta Graficas Miramar, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
- Contents:
- Kenneth Koch – “On the Go”
Kenneth Koch – “The Circus”
Kenneth Koch – “The Railway Stationery”
Barbara Guest – “Afternoons I: The Location of Things”
Barbara Guest – “Afternoons II: Windy Afternoon”
Barbara Guest – “Afternoons III: Russians at the Beach”
Barbara Guest – “Melisande”
Barbara Guest – “River Side”
Barbara Guest – “Palm Trees”
Barbara Guest – “All Grey-Haired My Sisters”
James Schuyler – “Current Events”
Anne Porter – “The First of May”
Ebbe Borregaard – “Other stories of the beauty wapiti”
Ebbe Borregaard – “wapiti 3”
Ebbe Borregaard – “from Sprach””
John Ashbery – “Idaho”
John Ashbery – “Spring Twilight”
John Ashbery – “Thoughts of a Young Girl”
John Ashbery – “The Passive Preacher”
John Ashbery – “Winter”
John Ashbery – “A White Paper”
Harry Mathews – “The Conversions (I)”
Frank O’Hara – “Poem” [“To be idiomatic in a vacuum…”]
Frank O’Hara – “Overlooking the River”
Frank O’Hara – “East River”
Frank O’Hara – “Ducal Days”
Frank O’Hara – “Locarno, to James Schuyler”
Frank O’Hara – “The Opera”
Frank O’Hara – “House”
Frank O’Hara – “Failures of Spring”
Frank O’Hara – “Adieu to Norman, Bonjour to Joan and Jean-Paul”
Frank O’Hara – “Far from the Porte des Lilas and the Rue Pergolese, to Joan Mitchell”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Trastevere A Dedication”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Venice”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Villa D’este”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Olévano Romano”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Sant’ Angelo D’ischia”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Positano”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Delos”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Mykonos”
Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Ciampino Envoi”
Robin Blaser – “Cups”
George Montgomery – “The Painters”
George Montgomery – “The Poet”
George Montgomery – “Rocks under me are hard”
George Montgomery – “D.W.”
Rudy Burckhardt – “Love in Three Acts: a Swiss Play”
Fairfield Porter – “The Mountain”
Fairfield Porter – “To Laurence”
Fairfield Porter – “At the End of Summer”
Fairfield Porter – “When the morning train…”
- Kenneth Koch – “On the Go”
2. LOCUS SOLUS, No. 2, A SPECIAL ISSUE OF COLLABORATIONS, edited by Kenneth Koch
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, Summer 1961
First edition, sewn-signatures bound into printed wrappers, 5” x 7.25”, 208 pages. There were 50 special copies printed in a limited numbered issue. Printed by Atar S.A., Geneva.
- Contents:
- John Ashbery – “To a Waterfowl”
Five Chinese Poets – “A Garland of Roses” (translated by Donald Keene)
Sei Shonagon and The Empress Sadako – “Poem about Saisho” (translated by Arthur Waley)
Basho, Bonsho, Fumikuni and Kyorai – “The Kite’s Feathers” (translated by The Nippon Gkujutsu Shinkokai)
Kakei, Basho – “November” (translated by Donald Keene)
Basho, Ichiei, Sora and Sensui – “Gather Seawards” (translated by Donald Keene)
Sogi, Shohaku and Socno – “Three Poets at Minase” (translated by Donald Keene)
Blacatz and Vidal – “Tenso” (translated by Paul Blackburn)
Vidal and Lanza – “Tenso” (translated by Paul Blackburn)
Aragon, Salvatge, Foix and Auriac – “Coblas” (translated by Paul Blackburn)
John Fletcher and William Shakespeare – “Song”
John Donne and Henry Goodyere – “A Letter”
Abraham Cowley and Richard Crashaw – “On Hope”
John Suckling and Edmund Waller – “In Answer of Sir John Suckling’s Verses”
Thomas Chatterton – “Onn Oure Ladies Chyrche”
Thomas Chatterton – “The Account of W. Canynges Feast”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey – “Two Passages from ‘Joan of Arc'”
Marinetti, Cangiullo – “Public Garden: A Play” (translated by Kenneth Koch)
André Breton and Paul Eluard – “from The Immaculate Conception” (translated by John Ashbery)
Paul Eluard and Benjamin Peret – “Surrealist Proverbs” (translated by Kenneth Koch)
André Breton and Yves Tanguy – “Question and Answer Game” (translated by Kenneth Koch)
Paul Eluard and Others – “Cadavres Exquis” (translated by Kenneth Koch)
René Char and Paul Eluard – “New” (translated by John Ashbery)
René Char and Paul Eluard – “Landings” (translated by John Ashbery)
James McAuley and Harold Stewart – “Boult to Marina”
James McAuley and Harold Stewart – “Sybilline”
John Ashbery and James Schuyler – “A Nest of Ninnies”
Frank O’Hara – “Choses Passageres”
Joseph Ceravolo and John Perreault – “Milk”
Daniel Krakauer – “The Jack Who Yawned”
Michael Benedikt and Milton Gilman – “Under the Stones, Where it is Shy”
Jane Freilicher and Kenneth Koch – “The Car”
Bill Berkson and Kenward Elmslie – “Armagnac or The Visitor”
William Burroughs and Gregory Corso – “Everywhere March Your Head”
William Burroughs and Gregory Corso – “Sons of Your In”
Gregory Corso – “Cut Up”
Ruth Krauss – “News”
Ruth Krauss – [untitled] “compare thee…”
John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “The Young Collectors”
John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “Crone Rhapsody”
John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “The Inferno”
John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “Gottlieb’s Rainbow”
John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “New Year’s Eve”
John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “A Servant to Servants”
Harry Mathews – “The Conversions (II)”
Kenneth Koch – “A Note on this Issue”
- John Ashbery – “To a Waterfowl”
3. LOCUS SOLUS, Nos. 3-4, NEW POETRY, edited by John Ashbery
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, Winter 1961-1962
First edition, sewn-signatures bound into printed wrappers, 5” x 7.25”, 296 pages. Printed by Atar S.A., Geneva.
- Contents:
- Michael Benedikt – “Victoria Falls”
Michael Benedikt – “The Estate”
Michael Benedikt – “In the Park”
Michael Benedikt – “Traditions of Farming”
Leroi Jones – “A Long Poem for Myself”
Leroi Jones – “Style”
Leroi Jones – “The End of Man is His Beauty”
Leroi Jones – “A Poem for Myself, the Fool”
Daniel Krakauer – “Selestina”
Daniel Krakauer – “Prince Valiant’s Childhood”
Bill Berkson – “Four Great Songs”
Bill Berkson – “Warnings”
Bill Berkson – “A Hot Day”
Bill Berkson – “Poem, to Joe Lesueur”
Bill Berkson – “Breath”
Bill Berkson – “All You Want”
Bill Berkson – “Pollyanna”
Welton Smith – “If I Could Hold You for Light”
Welton Smith – “This Sojourn in the Middle of Summer”
Larry Rivers – “The Song of Polish Night”
Larry Rivers – “1953”
Larry Rivers – “The Month”
Larry Rivers – “An Ape is in the Bedroom”
Larry Rivers – “Only God Can Make a Tree”
Larry Rivers – “Benjamin F”
Robin Blaser – “The Park”
Diane Di Prima – “Moon Mattress”
Dennis Quinn – “from Life Shapes, Clock and Vein”
Dennis Quinn – “from Life Shapes, Candles”
Dennis Quinn – “from Life Shapes, You”
Dennis Quinn – “from Life Shapes, Wish”
Dennis Quinn – “Question”
Dennis Quinn – “Off Guam”
Dennis Quinn – “High”
Dennis Quinn – “In Tangier”
Alan Ansen – “Moonling”
Alan Ansen – “Prohibition”
Alan Ansen – “On and On and On”
Robert Lax – [untitled] “the port…”
Robert Lax – [untitled] “shadows…”
Robert Lax – [untitled] “mystery of water…”
Robert Lax – [untitled] “to the center…”
Jean Boudin – “Second Story Brownstone”
Jean Boudin – “Of the Nile”
Frank O’Hara – “How to Get There”
Frank O’Hara – “Favorite Painting in the Metropolitan”
Frank O’Hara – “Wind”
Frank O’Hara and Bill Berkson – “from The Memorandums of Angelicus Fobb”
Frank O’Hara and Bill Berkson – “FYI 6/26/61 (The Picnic Hour)”
George Stanley – “The Death of Orpheus”
George Stanley – “Moonlight”
Paul Carroll – “Postcard for Joseph Cornell”
Denis Roche – [untitled] “As a matter of fact…” (translate by John Ashbery)
Marcelin Pleynet – “of coal” (translated by John Ashbery)
Marcelin Pleynet – “the new republic” (translated by John Ashbery)
Marcelin Pleynet – “Black” (translated by John Ashbery)
Pierre Martory – “Evenings in Rochefort” (translated by John Ashbery)
Pierre Martory – “Tchat”
Joseph Ceravolo – “A Great Sadness”
Joseph Ceravolo – “The Climb”
Joseph Ceravolo – “The Forest”
Joseph Ceravolo – “Different Fragments of 2 Different Negro Poems”
Joseph Ceravolo – “Water: How Weather Feels the Cotton Hotels”
Musa McKim – “The News from Here”
Musa McKim – “A Theory”
Musa McKim – “The Train”
Allan Kaplan – “Memory in France”
Allan Kaplan – “Soliloquy of a Boat”
Allan Kaplan – “Traffic Signals…”
Hugh Amory – “from The Federalists”
Daisy Aldan – “Zina”
Kenward Elmslie – “Shirley Temple Surrounded by Lions”
Kenward Elmslie – “Solar Rebus”
Kenward Elmslie – “Ghandi”
Kenward Elmslie – “Experts at Veneers”
James Schuyler – “December”
Gerard Malanga – “Psyche”
James Koller – [untitled] “crouched in mothers musk…”
James Merrill – “Letter from Egypt”
David Ball – “A Recent Conversation”
John Ashbery – “The New Realism”
Furman Stout – “Prose Poem for Clara”
Landis Everson – “from The Little Ghosts I Played With”
John Perreault – “Circles”
John Perreault – “O Whatta Beautiful Polish City So Shiny Aluminum”
John Perreault – “Paris”
Barbara Guest – “Dardanella”
Barbara Guest – “His Jungle”
Barbara Guest and Sa’Di Koylan – “Turkish”
Anselm Hollo – “Text 9.iii. 1961”
Kenneth Koch – “Ma Provence”
Kenneth Koch – “Rialto”
Kenneth Koch – “The Steam Bath”
Kenneth Koch – “The Coat License”
Kenneth Koch – “How Fair”
Kenneth Koch – “Bon Dieu”
Kenneth Koch – “The Echo”
Jack Foss – “The Categorical Avoidance”
Robert Magowan – “Summer of 1958”
Robert Magowan – “Myra”
Thomas Jackrell – “Grandma”
Thomas Jackrell – “A Plan”
Thomas Jackrell – “Art Finally Safe”
Thomas Jackrell – “The River”
Thomas Jackrell – “from Green Book: Cactuscope”
Thomas Jackrell – “from Green Book”
Thomas Jackrell – “The South Central States of America”
Harry Mathews – “The Conversions (III)”
- Michael Benedikt – “Victoria Falls”
5. LOCUS SOLUS, No. 5, edited by James Schuyler
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, 1962
First edition, sewn-signatures bound into printed wrappers, 5” x 7.25”, 184 pages. Printed by Atar S.A., Geneva.
- Contents:
- Gerard Malanga – “Ode to Turchetti”
Gerard Malanga – “The Girl Stands Under the Mobile at the Museum”
Gerard Malanga – “Amour, Amour, Amour”
Harold Rosenberg – “Ballad of Moral Beauty”
Chester Kallman – “Wanderer”
Chester Kallman – “Weighty Questions”
Edwin Denby – “The Thirties”
Frank O’Hara – “Mary Desti’s Ass”
Frank O’Hara – “Madrid”
Frank O’Hara – “Poem” (“Twin spheres full of fur and noise…”
Frank O’Hara – “Blue Territory, to Helen Frankenthaler”
Frank O’Hara – “Lebanon”
Ted Berrigan – “Poem in the Traditional Manner”
Carl Morse – “First Snow: Yorkville and Elsewhere”
Carl Morse – “The Crisis: Tompkins Park and After”
Carl Morse – “Anchor Demolition: East 82nd Street”
Musa Guston – “On Your Birthday”
Musa Guston – “Brooklyns”
Piero Heliczer – “The Beautiful Ambush”
Piero Heliczer – “The Diving Bell”
Anselm Hollo – “A Letter, Both Intimate and Didactic”
Thomas Anhava – “Elegy for Night” (translated by Anselm Hollo)
Frank Lissauer – “Repercussion”
Frank Lissauer – “Towards Silence”
Frank Lissauer – “A Proposition”
John Ashbery – “Into the Dusk-Charged Air”
Harold Rosenberg – “Liberalism and Conservatism–and Literature”
Kenward Elmslie – “Cave in”
Kenward Elmslie – “Marbled Chuckle in the Savannahs”
Kenward Elmslie – “Circus Nerves and Worries”
Barbara Guest – “Candies”
Donna Kerness – “Insomnia VI”
John Wieners – “The Acts of Youth”
John Wieners – “The Mermaid’s Song”
John Wieners – “An Anniversary of Death”
Richard Elliott – “9 Elaborations for 26 Characters”
Harry Mathews – “The Ring”
Jean Boudin – “Politics”
Robert Harson – “Lacrimae”
John N. Morris – “Reno”
Daisy Aldan – “Facility phrases”
Edwin Denby – “Snoring in New York: an elegy”
Raymond Roussel – “Locus Solus (I)” (translated by Harry Mathews)
Michael Cain – “Lovepoetry”
Robert Dash – “Mémoires d’autres”
Kenneth Koch – “The Islands”
Kenneth Koch – “The Departure from Hydra”
Tony Whedon – “Sounds”
Charles Edward Eaton – “Chimera”
Charles Edward Eaton – “Unlikely Legend”
David Beckwith – “Point”
David Beckwith – “Abendslied”
Michael Benedikt – “Sunlight on the Terrace”
Michael Benedikt – “With Love”
Michael Benedikt – “Island Life”
James Schuyler – “April and its Forsythia”
James Schuyler – “Grand Duo”
James Schuyler – “Looking Forward to See Jane Real Soon”
Mary Caroline Richards – “Holy Poems: Prayers”
- Gerard Malanga – “Ode to Turchetti”
Online Resources:
· Reality Studio – Locus Solus
· Georgia Tech: Curating the New York School – Locus Solus
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.
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:
- 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”
- Joe Ceravolo – “Night Ocean”
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:
- 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”
- Edwin Denby – “from Scream In A Cave”
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:
- 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”
- Clark Coolidge – “Amount”
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:
- 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”
- Ted Berrigan – [untitled] “Thirty-five is gone…”
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:
- 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”
- Tony Towle – “The Insects”
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:
- 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”
- Michael Brownstein – “Something for Everybody
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:
- 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…”
- Aram Saroyan – “from The Letter Book”
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:
- 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”
- Dick Gallup – “Charged Particles”
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:
- 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…”)
- Jennifer Bartlett – “from Jennifer Losch: A Biography”
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:
- 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:
- 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)
- Anne Waldman – “Fast Speaking Woman”
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:
- 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”
- Gregory Corso – “Verse”
Online Resources:
From a Secret Location – Adventures in Poetry
—
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:
- 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”
- Michael McClure – “The Smile Shall Not Be More Mutable than the Final Extinction of Meat. The Smile with Teeth Sunk in Lower Lip”
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:
- 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”
- Frank O’Hara – “Now That I Am in Madrid and Can Think”
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:
- 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:
- 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”
- Fielding Dawson – “Oblivion Calling: Daily News”
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:
- 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”
- John Thomas – “Nine Stages of a Journey from Caledonia to Harpers Ferry”
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:
- 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”
- George Stanley – “1” (“One bird called White…”)
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:
- 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”
- Bill Berkson – “’……’ Times”
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:
- 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”
- A.B. Spellman – “Zapata and The Landlord, for Allen Dulles”
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:
- LeRoi Jones – “from The System of Dante’s Hell”
William Burroughs – “Routine: Roosevelt after Inauguration”
Philip Whalen – “Itchy”
unattributed – “Slave Song, 18th Cent.”
- LeRoi Jones – “from The System of Dante’s Hell”
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:
- 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”
- John Wieners – “On January 20th the Snows Began to Melt”
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:
- 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”
- Charles Olson – “A Plausible Entry for, like, Man”
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:
- 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”
- John Ashbery – “The Lozenges”
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:
- 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”
- A.B. Spellman – “The Beautiful Day”
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:
- Michael McClure – “!The Feast!, for Ornette Coleman”
Philip Whalen – “Goodbye & Hello, Again 6:II:60”
- Michael McClure – “!The Feast!, for Ornette Coleman”
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:
- 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”
- Bruce Boyd – “Canticles for the Hours: Prime”
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:
- 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”
- George Stanley – [untitled] “They would force scrunched…”
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:
- 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”
- Joel Oppenheimer – “A Treatise”
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:
- 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”
- David Meltzer – “Poem to H.P. Lovecraft”
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:
- 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”
- Robert Duncan – “Night Scenes”
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:
- 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”
- The Editors [LeRoi Jones] – “Hello, Ma I Glad I Win!”
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:
- 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”
- Frank O’Hara – “Mary Desti’s Ass”
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:
- 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”
- David Shapiro – “Lament”
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:
- 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”
- Kirby Doyle – “from The Happiness Bastard”
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:
- 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”
- William S. Burroughs – “Spain & 42 St.”
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:
- 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]
- Lew Welch – “Voice from Rat Flat!”
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:
- [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”
- [George Herms] – [untitled] “Wet floor feet faster than wine…”
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:
- 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]
- Philip Whalen – “The Art of Literature”
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:
- 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”
- Mary Caroline Richards – “Christmas Sonnet”
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:
- 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”
- Robert Grosseteste – “On Light or the Beginning of Forms”
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:
- 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”
- Ruth Krauss – “As I Passed the Andy Auto Body Works”
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:
- 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”
- author unknown – “Great Prajna Paramita Sutra” (trans. by Shenryu Suzuki)
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:
- 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]
- Michael McClure – “Cupid’s Grin”
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:
- [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”
- [John Wieners] – “Our Unborn Child”
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:
- 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”
- Jack Spicer – “The Day Five Thousand Fish Died in the Charles River”
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:
- 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”
- Philip Lamantia – “Inscription for the Vanishing Republic”
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:
- 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”
- Larry Fagin, Bill Berkson, and Ron Padgett – “Beautiful Music”
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:
- 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’”
- Lenore Kandel – “Hymn to Maitreya in America”
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