Stan Persky began Open Space in 1964, printing 50 copies of each issue on a multilith machine (whereas J was mimeographed). Like J, and M, Open Space was a very local (North Beach) magazine whose contents seemed primarily intended for those who contributed, including: Helen Adam, Robin Blaser, Ebbe Borregaard, Richard Duerden, Harold Dull, Larry Fagin, Jess Collins, Jack Spicer and George Stanley. The magazine was also “quite spicy and a little gossipy, for instance, labeling the famed 1955 reading at the Six Gallery as ‘creamed cottage cheese.’”

1. OPEN SPACE, No. 0, A PROSPECTUS, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space,  January 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 34 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Translations by Max Knight.

• Contents:
  1. Stan Persky – “A Proposition”
     Christian Morgenstern – “The Moonsheep”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “This ocean, humiliating in its disguises…”
     George Stanley – “Choir”
     anonymous – “The Constant Preaching to the Mob”
     Allen Ginsberg – “Owl”
     Richard Duerden – “A Card for the Tarot”
     anonymous – “Okeanos”

2. OPEN SPACE, No. 1, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Collage by Graham Mackintosh.

• Contents:
  1. Stan Persky – “Come-On”
     Robin Blaser – “Psyche”
     Hartford Mutual – “No Possum, No Sop, No Taters”
     Jess – “Critical Dreams – I (eye)”
     Janet Thormann – “The Knight of Cups”
     Jack Spicer – “Sporting Life”
     Link – [untitled] “the insane lady…”
     Link – [untitled] “Like frozen water…”
     Lewis Ellingham – [untitled] “Rock, salt and spray, the angels…”
     James Alexander – “Amoralesay”
     George Stanley – [untitled] “You listen to the leaves, or watch the leaves…”
     Helen Adam – “Two Songs for Lewis Ellingham”
     Gregory Corso – “Mortal Infliction”
     anonymous – “Orders”

3. OPEN SPACE, Valentine Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 60 pages, lithography printed printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Photography by Lartigue.

• Contents:
  1. Stan Persky – “Alibi”
     C. – “In Despair”
     C. – “The Marriage”
     Bill Roberts – “Recess”
     anonymous – “What Happened : Prelude”
     Robert Duncan – “Postscript for Open Space, January 1964”
     Robin Blaser – “The Prints”
     Robin Blaser – “Translation”
     Stan Persky – “Gourmet Cooking”
     JA – “‘The Island’ by Robert Creeley”

4. OPEN SPACE, No. 2, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 62 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Illustration by Fran Herndon, collage by Graham Mackintosh..

• Contents:
  1. Cassius Clay – “I’m the King”
     Stan Persky – “Second Base”
     Jess – “Critical Dreams – II (marginal)”
     Jack Spicer – “This is Submitted to Your Valentine Contest”
     James Herndon – [untitled] “He went outside…”
     Gene Fowler – “The Time Travelers”
     Robin Blaser – [untitled] “It is essentially reluctance…”
     George Stanley – “Orion”
     Link – “Citys Would Make a Masque for Hearts”
     Link – “A Poem for Ulysses”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “I hear a banging on the door…”
     Robert Duncan – [untitled] “And to Her-Without-Bounds I send…”
     Richard Duerden – “Hunger”
     Jack Kerouac – “Blindness”
     Stan Persky – “A Kingdom”
     Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”

5. OPEN SPACE, No. 3, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, March 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 52 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Cover art and illustration by Fran Herndon.

• Contents:
  1. Stan Persky – “Whan That Aprill With His Shoures Soote”
     James Alexander – “Love was Here, for Simon”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Just because baseball is not poetry…”
     Philip Whalen – “Technicalities for Jack Spicer”
     Ron Loewinsohn – “The Fifth Circle of Hell that is not Los Angeles”
     Jack Spicer – “Predictions”
     Jaimie MacInnes – [untitled] “Lime decayed their mouths…”
     Jaimie MacInnes – [untitled] “If running stockings…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The log in the fire…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Finally the messages penetrate…”
     George Stanley – [untitled] “Dear Stan…”
     Robin Blaser – “2 of Image Nations”
     Anselm Hollo – “Air to Dream in”
     Marianne Moore – “W.S. Landor”
     Stan Persky – “The Wish”
     Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “The persimmons are falling…”
     Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
     Jack Spicer – “Dear Ferlinghetti”

6. OPEN SPACE, No. 4, Taurus Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, April 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 66 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer and Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Illustrations by Bill Brodecky and Tom Field

• Contents:
  1. Stan Persky – “Horns”
     Robin Blaser – “Sophia Nichols”
     Jess – “Critical Dream – III (trial)”
     James Dickey – “The Being”
     Harold Dull – “The Fire”
     David Bromige – “The Accident”
     E.B. [Ebbe Borregaard] – “Sketches for 13 Sonnets”
     Deneen Brown – [untitled] “Gathered years…”
     Deneen Brown – [untitled] “The rectangle of heat…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Heroes eat soup like anyone else…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Smoke signals…”
     Harold Dull – “The Wild Geese”
     George [Stanley] – “From Seas Mainly”
     Thomas M. Hannon – [untitled] “The angle iron…”
     Thomas M. Hannon – “For a Friend Who is Married”
     Thomas M. Hannon – [untitled] “Last night…”
     Gary Snyder – “Out West”
     Stan [Persky] – “Adventurer”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “A redwood forest is not invisible…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The whorship of beauty…”
     Jess – [untitled] “Dear Jerry Reilly…”
     Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”

7. OPEN SPACE, No. 4, White Hope Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, May 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 66 pages, lithography printed. Illustration by Fran Herndon.

• Contents:
  1. Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “Where ever you go I am with you…”
     E.B. [Ebbe Borregaard] – “Sketches for 13 Sonnets”
     Fran Herndon – untitled illustration
     Harold Dull – “Venus and the Moon Poem”
     Deneen Brown – “for Bill Brodecky”
     E. Poe – “Ulalume”
     Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “I admit…”
     George [Stanley] – “The Lyre in the East Rising”
     George [Stanley] – “The Shepherds Verse”
     Jess – “Critical Dreams – IV (haven)”

8. OPEN SPACE, No. 5, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, May 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer and Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Illustrations by Fran Herndon, Nemi Frost, Tom Field, Bill Wheeler, and Graham Mackintosh.

• Contents:
  1. Richard Duerden – “Border: The Sun Imprisoned”
     John Ashbury – “A Blessing in Disguise”
     Lewis Ellingham – [untitled] “A new log had been put on the fire…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Pull down the shade of ruin, rain verse…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “If your mother’s mother had not riven, mother…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “What in sight do I have…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “It comes May and the summers renew themselves…”
     Graham Mackintosh – [untitled] “Like Odysseus under the ram…”
     Robert Duncan – “A New Poem, for Jack Spicer”
     Helen Adam – “Farewell Stranger”
     Jamie MacInnis – [untitled] “These are your nights…”
     Ronnie Primack – “From a line by Spicer”
     Lewis Brown – “Bartok, for Pen Lace”
     anonymous – “Book of the Boss”
     George [Stanley] – “Two Parts of a Poem”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Thanatos, the death-plant in the skull…”
     Stan [Persky] – [untitled] “a man drawing the sword…”
     Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
     Gene Fowler – “Credo”
     C.A. Swin – [untitled] “Fourth, ballad, and take roses…”
     Stan Persky – “Gemini”

9. OPEN SPACE, No. 6, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, June 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art by Helen Adam, illustrations by Armando
Navarro and Robert Berg.

• Contents:
  1. Stan Persky – “Orphic Space”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “1st SF home rainout since. Bounce…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The country is not very well defined…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “I squint my eyes to cry…”
     Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The metallurgical analysis of the stone that…”
     George Stanley – “The Gifts of Death, after Virgil, for Louis Zukofsky”
     Robin Blaser – “Image-Nations 3”
     Robin Blaser – [untitled] “O-friend…”
     Lewis Ellingham – “A Cold Dawn”
     Deneen Brown – [untitled] “It lit up…”
     Wystan – “One Circumlocution”
     Lewis Ellingham – “The Perfect Correspondent”
     Lewis Ellingham – “The Sleepers”
     Lewis Ellingham – “Underweir”
     Robert Duncan – “Passages 5”
     Robert Duncan – “Passages 6”
     Robert Duncan – “Passages 7”
     Robert Duncan – “Passages 8”
     Robert Duncan – “Passages 9”
     Jess – “Critical Dreams – V (ivy)”
     Gael Turnbull – “A Voice, Voices, Speaking”
     Gael Turnbull – “To be Shaken”
     Stan Persky – “A Poem of Light and Dark, for C.S. Lewis”
     Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”

10. OPEN SPACE, No. 7, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, July 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 82 pages, lithography printed by Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Cover art by Jess. Illustrations by William McNeill, Ken Botto, Fran Herndon, and Nemi Frost.

• Contents:
  1. L. Kearney – [untitled] “A rock…”
     L. Kearney – [untitled] “A certain kind of dusk…”
     L. Kearney – [untitled] “I could be wrong except for…”
     Hart – “Chaplinesque”
     Robert Duncan – “A Note for Open Space 7”
     Robert Duncan – “The Structure of Rime XXIII”
     Robert Duncan – “Shadows”
     Jack Spicer – “Love Poems”
     George Stanley – “Songs from Arcadia”
     Joanne Elizabeth Kyger – “In July”
     Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “there is no meeting…”
     Helen Adam – “Sing Song”
     Jess – “Critical Dreams – VI (quicksilver)”
     Jim Alexander – “Alexander”
     Jim Alexander – “Jacob’s Larder”
     Jim Alexander – “Poem Toward a Rondel”
     D.R. Drake – “3”
     Harold Dull – “First Lesson”
     Harold Dull – “Second Lesson”
     Harold Dull – “Third Lesson”
     Harold Dull – “Fourth Lesson”
     Lewis Ellingham – “11, 12”
     Stan Persky – “Report to the Stockholders”

11. OPEN SPACE, No. 8, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space,  August 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 76 pages. Cover art by Robert Berg.

• Contents:
  1. Michael McClure – “The Mystery of the Hunt”
     L. Kearney – [untitled] “In the children’s forest…”
     Robert Duncan – “A Note for Open Space 8”
     Robert Duncan – “Structure of Rime XXIV”
     Robert Duncan – “Chords”
     Robert Duncan – “Spelling”
     Robert Duncan – “At Lammas Tide”
     Robert Duncan – “Saint Graal (after Verlaine)”
     Charles Dodgson – [untitled] “I have a fairy by my side…”
     Charles Olson – “Against Wisdom as Such”
     Jamie MacInnis – “Every Little Star”
     Jess – “Tricky Cad, Case IV”
     Jack Spicer “Intermission I-III”
     Jack Spicer – “Transformations I-III”
     Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
     Edna Barnes – [untitled] “If beyond passion our love…”
     Harold Dull – [untitled] “I’ve listened before…”
     Ron Loewinsohn – “The Burden of Loveliness, 1”
     Ron Loewinsohn – “The Burden of Loveliness, 2”
     Ron Loewinsohn – “The Great Sand Dunes (for Joey)”
     Stan Persky – “Muse News”

12. OPEN SPACE, No. 9, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, September 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5? x 11?, 92 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art by Harry Jacobus. Illustration by Jess.

• Contents:
  1. Harold Dull – [untitled] “He tries…”
     Richard Duerden – “Iris, Cut for an Intended Painting”
     Ron Loewinsohn – “The Step (a collage poem)”
     Jack Spicer – “Morphemicks”
     Lewis Ellingham – “Nightmare and Dream”
     George Stanley – “Untitled”
     Lew Brown – “Lionel”
     Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
     Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “Clear face facing…”
     Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “In my dream…”
     Richard Duerden – “The Air”
     Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “I tell you…”
     Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Beyond where you…”
     George Stanley – “For Bill”
     Tom Field – “The Dentist”
     Robert Duncan – “Parsifal: The Easter Magic”
     Stan Persky – “They”
     Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”

13. OPEN SPACE, No. 10, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, October 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5? x 11?, 92 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art and collage poem by by Jess.

• Contents:
  1. George Stanley – “Elpinor”
     George Stanley – [untitled] “I thought of Achilles…”
     Ronnie Primack – “Love Poem”
     Robin Blaser – “It It It It”
     M. Hannon – “Station Crossing”
     M. Hannon – [untitled] “My hand goes dark…”
     Jamie MacInnis – “Uncourtly Love”
     Jack Spicer – “Phonemics”
     Richard Duerden – “The Host, September”
     Robert Duncan – “The Currents”
     Ron Loewinsohn – “some more from The Step”
     Harold Dull – “Day”
     Harold Dull – “Night”
     Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Now the winter burns…”
     Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Tell me nothing now…”
     Stan Persky – “The Story”
     Stan Persky – “House & Garden”

14. OPEN SPACE, No. 11, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, November 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 70 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover photograph by Margot Prattlesome Dross.

• Contents:
  1. Ronnie Primack – “V”
     Oscar Wilde – “The Harlot’s House”
     Harris Schiff – “for Lewis Warsh”
     Jack Spicer – “Graphemics”
     Richard Duerden – “In the Morning”
     Robert Duncan – “Moving the Moving Image”
     Michael S. Willis – “A History of I and Eyes”
     George Stanley – “Penelope’s Prayer”
     George Stanley – “I Thought of Achilles”
     George Stanley – [untitled] “The year’s ending…”
     M.S.W. – [untitled] “A lover’s face…”
     Lewis Ellingham – “Psyche”
     Harold Dull – [untitled] “Is he an intrusion…”
     Harold Dull – [untitled] “We fought…”
     Deneen Brown – [untitled] “Blood colored biscuits…”
     Harold H.C. – “The Broken Tower”
     Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”

15. OPEN SPACE, No. 12, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 90 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Illustrations by Jess and Robert Duncan.

• Contents:
  1. Joanne Kyger – “From Our Soundest Sleep, It Ends”
     Robert Duncan – “The Torso, Passages 18”
     Robert Duncan – “The Earth, Passages 19”
     Robert Duncan – “Structure of Rime XXVI, Passages 20”
     James Alexander – “The Greater Happiness”
     Stan Persky – [untitled] “The first thing I notice…”
     Robin Blaser – “The City”
     Robin Blaser – “Saturn, Star of Melancholy”
     Robin Blaser – “Orpheus”
     Robin Blaser – “Image Nations, 4”
     Jamie MacInnis – “Ducks for Grownups”
     Thomas Clark – “The Site”
     Harris Schiff – “(Unfinished), for Jack Spicer”
     Lewis Ellingham – “O, O”
     Harris Schiff – “Library Window-sill”
     Lew Brown – “To Break the Day’s Contentions”
     Lew Brown – “I Hear Chains”
     Lew Brown – “O to Reknit this Morning”
     Lew Brown – “Blackstone”
     Lew Brown – “Tuig”
     Harold Dull – [untitled] “When leaves like ashes fall…”
     Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
     Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “You are more constant…”
     Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “To be more tied…”
     Lawrence Kearney – “For Jamie”
     Ron Loewinsohn – “Some more from The Step”
     Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”

Online Resources:

Flying Object – scans of all issues