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: Gary Snyder
Yugen
Edited by Beat poet LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen, Yugen was devoted to “A New Consciousness in the Arts and Letters”. Bringing together the Beats, Black Mountain poets, and the New York School poets of the late 1950s, Yugen took its name from the Japanese aesthetic term meaning “a profound mysterious sense of the beauty of universe … and the sad beauty of human suffering.”
Yugen
Edited by Beat poet LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen, Yugen was devoted to “A New Consciousness in the Arts and Letters”. Bringing together the Beats, Black Mountain poets, and the New York School poets of the late 1950s, Yugen took its name from the Japanese aesthetic term meaning “a profound mysterious sense of the beauty of universe … and the sad beauty of human suffering.” Cohen, later Hettie Jones, had worked at the Partisan Review and brought with her a background in little-magazine design that gave Yugen an air of respectability and professionalism. The contents represented a new and untraditional approach to poetry. Jones and Cohen also founded Totem Press, which published important early books by Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Diane di Prima, Jack Kerouac, and many others. Like Yugen, Totem Press books typically feature calligraphic covers that mix American abstract expressionism and Japanese Zen painting.
1. YUGEN, No. 1, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages. Printed in New York by Troubador Press. Cover art by Peter Schwartzburg with calligraphy by Rachel Spitzer. Illustrations by Hector Stewart, Peter Schwartzburg, Tomi Ungerer, and Allen Ginsberg. Titles and composition by Rachel Spitzer and Michael Aleshire
- Contents:
- Philip Whalen – “Further Notice”
Philip Whalen – “Takeout, 4:II:58”
Philip Whalen – “Takeout, 15:IV:57”
Ed James – [untitled] “Mother, be soft and unremembered…”
Ed James – [untitled] “Hawks will cry…”
Judson Crews – “Potaphor in a Wretched Wind”
Judson Crews – “When We Were Young”
Tom Postell – “Gertrude Stein Rides The Town Down El to New York City”
Tom Postell – “I Want a Solid Piece of Sunlight and a Yardstick to Measure it with”
Allen Polite – “Beg Him to Help”
Allen Polite – “Touching Air”
Stephen Tropp – “Early Poem for 2 People”
Bobb Hamilton- “Judgement Day”
LeRoi Jones – “Slice of Life”
LeRoi Jones – “Lines to Garcia Lorca”
Diane Di Prima – “Poem”
Diane Di Prima – “For Pound, Cocteau & Picasso”
Ernest Kean – “The Glass is Shattered”
Jack Micheline – “Steps”
Allen Ginsberg – [untitled] “We rode on a lonely bus…”
Allen Ginsberg – “Hitch-Hiking Key West”
Allen Ginsberg – “In a Red Bar”
Allen Ginsberg – “On Burroughs’ Work”
- Philip Whalen – “Further Notice”
2. YUGEN, No. 2, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages. Printed in New York by Troubador Press. Cover art and titles by Tomi Ungerer. Illustrations by Peter Schwarzburg.
- Contents:
- Gregory Corso – “A Spontaneous Requiem for the American Indian”
Tuli Kupferberg – “4 Haiku”
Thomas Postell – “Harmony”
LeRoi Jones – “Suppose Sorrow was a Time Machine”
Barbara Ellen Moraff – “Poem for Theo”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Colossus of Havana”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Trucks”
Diane Di Prima – “The Lovers”
Oliver Pitcher – “Tango”
James Boyer May – “The Back of Mind”
Harold Briggs – “Being”
Bobb Hamilton – “A Sentence”
Gary Snyder – “Chion-in”
Ben Spellman – “Fool”
George Stade – “To a Candidate for the Ph.D in Seventeenth Century Literature”
- Gregory Corso – “A Spontaneous Requiem for the American Indian”
3. YUGEN, No. 3, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages. Cover art by Peter Schwartzburg. Illustrations by Stanley Fisher.
- Contents:
- Gary Snyder – “Praise for Sick Women”
Gary Snyder – “Another for the Same”
William S. Burroughs – “Have You Seen Pantapon Rose?”
Charles Farber – “Morning Highway”
Barbara Moraff – “Poem for Tamara”
Barbara Moraff – “In a Hospital Room from a Halfclosed Lid”
Barbara Moraff – “Wednesday Understands That”
C. Jack Stamm – “Now When I Hear”
Philip Whalen – “Soufflé”
Gilbert Sorrentino – “The Darkness Surrounds Us”
Allen Ginsberg – “A New Cottage in Berkeley”
Mason Jordan Mason – “The Curse of Ham”
Diane Di Prima – “Lullaby”
George Stade – “To the White Goddess”
George Stade – “Advice to the Lovelorn”
Peter Orlovsky – “First Poem”
Fivos Delfis – ”A Bird” (trans. Charles Guenther)
Ray Bremser – “Part III (Poems of the City Madness)”
Robin Blaser – “Quitting a Job”
Thomas Jackrell – “Got Them”
- Gary Snyder – “Praise for Sick Women”
4. YUGEN, No. 4, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 28 pages. Cover art by Fielding Dawson.
- Contents:
- Charles Olson – “The Librarian”
Peter Orlovsky – “Second Poem”
Frank O’Hara – “To Hell with It”
Frank O’Hara – “Music”
Max Finstein – “The Deception”
Max Finstein – “Savonarola’s Tune”
Fielding Dawson – “My Old Buddy, for Leonard”
Allen Ginsberg – “A Crazy Spiritual”
Ray Bremser – “Penal Madness (Part 1)”
Edward Marshall – “Jonah at Danbury”
Edward Marshall – “At Tudor City”
Joel Oppenheimer – “In the Clutch, for M.F.”
Joel Oppenheimer – “Fugue”
Judson Crews – “White Hollyhocks”
Michael McClure – “The Chamber”
Ron Loewinsohn – “7.20.58 – for Sue”
Gary Snyder – “from Myths & Texts”
Jack Kerouac – “2 Blues and 4 Haikus”
John Wieners – “Spring 1956”
Robert Creeley – “New Year’s”
Robert Creeley – “Saturday Afternoon”
Gregory Corso – “Away One Year”
LeRoi Jones – “Parthenos”
Gilbert Sorrentino – “A Fixture”
Mason Jordan Mason – “Yes Yes Yes”
Gregory Corso – “For Black Mountain”
- Charles Olson – “The Librarian”
5. YUGEN, No. 5, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1959
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 40 pages. Cover art by Basil King. Illustration by Fielding Dawson.
- Contents:
- William Carlos Williams, – “A Formal Design”
Allen Ginsberg – “from Kaddish”
Barbara Guest – “Sunday Evening”
Barbara Guest – “The Crisis”
David Meltzer – “15th Raga / for Bela Lugosi”
David Meltzer – “from Night Before Morning / Book One”
Max Finstein – “A Blue Whale’s Heart”
Paul Blackburn – “Ramas, Divendres, Diumenga”
Paul Blackburn – “A Purity Defined”
Philip Whalen – “I Return to San Francisco”
Diane Di Prima – “Earthsong”
John Wieners – “A Poem for Virgins (excerpt)”
Walter Lowenfels – “The Nightingale, for D.H. Lawrence”
Michael McClure – “Rant Block”
Rainer Gerhardt – “Fragment” (trans. Jerome Rothenberg)
Rainer Gerhardt – “Voices” (trans. Jerome Rothenberg)
Frank O’Hara – “Ode on Causality”
César Vallejo – “Black Stone on a White Stone” (trans. Lillian Lowenfels)
Bruce Fearing – “Scenic Viewpoint”
Jack Kerouac – “Sitting Under Tree Number Two”
Barbara Moraff – [untitled] “Like a bowlegged woman…”
Gregory Corso – “Food”
Larry Eigner – [untitled] “No-one here…”
Joel Oppenheimer – “The Issue at Hand”
Gilbert Sorrentino – letter to the editor
- William Carlos Williams, – “A Formal Design”
6. YUGEN, No. 6, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1960
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 52 pages. Cover art by Basil King.
- Contents:
- Michael McClure – “The Column”
Charles Olson – “As of Bozeman”
Charles Olson – “The Distances”
Charles Olson – “Letter, May 2, 1959”
Ron Loewinsohn – “Trees / 6”
Ron Loewinsohn – “Etude, with Chair”
Philip Lamantia – “Blank Poem for Poe”
Paul Blackburn – “Song of the Wires”
Robin Blaser – “Out to Dinner”
Hubert Selby, Jr. – “Episode from Landsend”
David Meltzer – “4th Raga / for John Kelly Reed”
Ray Bremser – “Backyards & Deviations”
Ed Dorn – “The 6th”
Ed Dorn – “The 7th”
Rochelle Owens – “Groshl Monkeys Horses”
Paul Carroll – “By Its Familiar Accent We Recognize The Ghost”
Robert Creeley – “The Joke”
Robert Creeley – “Letter”
Robert Creeley – “What’s for Dinner”
Tristan Tzara – “Wheat” (trans. Daisy Aldan)
Gary Snyder – “A Walk”
Gary Snyder – “Wild Horses”
Gary Snyder – “After Work”
Gary Snyder – “On Vulture Peak”
Edward Marshall – [untitled] “We as scoffers undercut the sea…”
LeRoi Jones – “Node”
LeRoi Jones – “The A, B, C’s”
Jack Kerouac – “Rimbaud”
David Wang – “II. Invocation”
Kenneth Koch – “From a Book of Poetry”
Larry Eigner – [untitled] “Night. Everything falls flat…”
Edward Dahlberg – “On Passions and Asceticism”
Frank O’Hara – “Personal Poem”
- Michael McClure – “The Column”
7. YUGEN, No. 7, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen
New York: Yugen, 1961
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 65 pages. Cover art by Norman Bluhm.
- Contents:
- LeRoi Jones – “Putdown of the Whore of Babylon”
Gilbert Sorrentino – “2 Book Reviews”
Bruce Boyd – “Summer Nightmusic”
Bruce Boyd – “This is How the Wind Sings…”
Bruce Boyd – “A Quarrel of Minstrels”
Bruce Boyd – “Water”
Bruce Boyd – “Song”
Bruce Boyd – “Poem”
Robert Creeley – “The New World”
Kenneth Koch – “Guinevere, or The Death of the Kangaroo”
George Stanley – “Parallels”
George Stanley – “Winter”
George Stanley – “Shapes”
Frank O’Hara – “Personism: A Manifesto”
Gregory Corso – “On Chessman’s Crime”
Gregory Corso – “For Black Mountain-2”
B. Smith – “Empty Bed Blues”
Stuart Z Perkoff, – “To Orpheus”
Stuart Z Perkoff – “Poem”
Stuart Z Perkoff – “Pithecanthropus Erectus”
Gilbert Sorrentino – “Some Notes…”
John Ashbery – “From a Comic Book”
John Ashbery – “Leaving the Atocha Station”
Philip Whalen – “Literary Life in the Golden West”
Philip Whalen – “Sincerity Shot, 23:III:58”
Philip Whalen – “A Manuscript in Several Hands 3:III:60”
Larry Eigner – “K in the USA”
Larry Eigner – letter to the editor
Max Finstein – “For Fair Eleanor”
Joel Oppenheimer – “Morning Song”
Diane Di Prima – “The Jungle”
Charles Olson – “Theory of Society”
Edward Marshall – “Sept. 1957”
Joel Oppenheimer – letter to the editor
Allen Ginsberg – “The End”
LeRoi Jones – “Public Notice”
Norman Bluhm – untitled drawing
Frank O’Hara – “Denouement”
- LeRoi Jones – “Putdown of the Whore of Babylon”
8. YUGEN, No. 8, edited by LeRoi Jones and Hettie Cohen-Jones
New York: Totem Press, 1962
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 66 pages. Cover art by Basil King. Illustration by Aaron Roseman.
- Contents:
- George Stanley – “The Message Held up to the Speeding Train on a Willow Hoop”
George Stanley – “Punishment”
George Stanley – “The Meteor”
George Stanley – “The Implicit Acknowledgements”
George Stanley – [untitled] “The larks…”
George Stanley – “Valentine”
George Stanley – “A False Start”
Gilbert Sorrentino – book reviews of Duncan and Spicer
Steve Jonas – “No. IV Orgasms”
Steve Jonas – “Tensone with Relent”
Steve Jonas – “Discourse”
Steve Jonas – “To a Strayed Cat”
Steve Jonas – “A Long Poem for Jack Spicer”
William Burroughs – “The Cut Up Method of Brion Gysin”
Speckled Red – “Red’s Dozens”
George Stanley – book reviews of Finstein and Sorrentino
Gilbert Sorrentino – “The Meeting”
Gilbert Sorrentino – “The Memory”
Edward Dorn – “Notes about Working and Waiting Around”
Robert Creeley – “Some Notes on Olson’s Maximus”
Edward Marshall – [untitled] “One writes when…”
Edward Marshall – “Memory as Memorial in the Last”
LeRoi Jones – “The Largest Ocean in the World”
Charles Olson – “Place; & Names”
Charles Olson – “Book ii, Chapter 37”
- George Stanley – “The Message Held up to the Speeding Train on a Willow Hoop”
Online Resources:
· From a Secret Location – Yugen
· Reality Studio – Yugen
CALL IT BIG TABLE
“Big Table was launched in Spring 1959 following the suppression of the Winter 1958 issue of The Chicago Review. An exposé in the Chicago Daily News revealed editors Irving Rosenthal’s and Paul Carroll’s plans to publish work by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and other Beat writers, and the administration quashed the magazine…”
Big Table
“Big Table was launched in Spring 1959 following the suppression of the Winter 1958 issue of The Chicago Review. An exposé in the Chicago Daily News revealed editors Irving Rosenthal’s and Paul Carroll’s plans to publish work by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and other Beat writers, and the administration quashed the magazine.
Rosenthal and Carroll, along with other Chicago Review editors, resigned and with the suppressed material started Big Table. The first issue was edited by Rosenthal and Carroll, though Carroll had to withdraw his name in order to avoid being fired by Loyola University where he was employed. This issue contained work by Jack Kerouac (who named the magazine in a telegram: “CALL IT BIG TABLE”), Edward Dahlberg, and Burroughs (a section from Naked Lunch), and was summarily impounded by the US Post Office.
The lawsuit was unsuccessful and Big Table continued through 1960 and five issues. Rosenthal left the magazine after the first issue and Carroll stayed on as editor for the duration, publishing such writers and artists as Paul Bowles, Antonin Artaud, Leon Golub, John Logan, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Robert Fulton, Harry Callahan, Douglas Woolf, Aaron Siskind, Paul Blackburn, Franz Kline, Diane di Prima, and Gregory Corso.”
— from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side
1. BIG TABLE, No. 1, edited by Irving Rosenthal and Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Spring 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 158 pages, printed by The Profile Press of New York.
- Contents:
- Irving Rosenthal – “Editorial”
Jack Kerouac – “Old Angel Midnight”
Edward Dahlberg – “Further Sorrow of Priapus”
Edward Dahlberg – “The Garment of Ra”
William S. Burroughs – “Ten Episodes from Naked Lunch”
Gregory Corso – “Power, for Allen Ginsberg”
Gregory Corso – “Army”
Gregory Corso – “Police”
- Irving Rosenthal – “Editorial”
2. BIG TABLE, No. 2, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Summer 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 124 pages. Cover art by Leon Golub.
- Contents:
- John D. Keefauver – “The Daring Old Maid on the Flying Trapeze”
Serge Essenin – “The Tramp’s Confession”
Lawrence Alloway – “Heroes & Monsters & Mothers”
Leon Golub – “Plate: Horseman”
Leon Golub – “Plate: Burnt Man”
Allen Ginsberg – “Kaddish”
John Logan – “Fire”
Antonin Artaud – Three Exhortations”
Alan Ansen – “Anyone Who Can Pick Up a Frying Pan Owns Death”
Paul Bowles – “Burroughs in Tangier”
William S. Burroughs – “In Quest of Yage”
Gael Turnbull – “The Priests of Paris”
Brother Antoninus – “Zone of Death”
Andre Breton – “Despair”
Leon Golub – “Plate: Birth VII”
Leon Golub – “Plate: Orestes”
Edward Dahlberg – “Because I Was Flesh”
Paul Blackburn – “The Signals”
Margarita Liberaki – “Wedding”
Leon Golub – “Plate: Abraham Lincoln”
Leon Golub – “Plate: Columnar Head”
Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “The Great Chinese Dragon”
- John D. Keefauver – “The Daring Old Maid on the Flying Trapeze”
3. BIG TABLE, Vol. 1, No. 3, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 120 pages. Cover photograph by Aaron Siskind.
- Contents:
- Allen Ginsberg – “Kaddish”
John Rechy – “The Fabulous Wedding of Miss Destiny”
Robert Duncan – “Evocation”
John Ashbery – “How much longer will I be able to inhabit the Divine Sepulcher”
John Ashbery – “April Fool’s Day”
Aaron Siskin – “Terrors & Pleasures of Levitation: four plates”
Edward Dahlberg – “Because I was Flesh”
Robert Creeley – “The Way”
James Wright – “A Whisper to the Ghost who woke Me”
Paul Carroll – “Father”
Norman Mailer – “Quick & Expensive Comment on the Talent in the Room”
Paul Blackburn – “Banyalbufar”
Edward Dorn – “The Air of June Sings”
Renee Riese Hubert – “Sizes”
Peter Orlovsky – “First Poem”
Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “Her”
Jean Genet – “The Beggars of Barcelona”
- Allen Ginsberg – “Kaddish”
4. BIG TABLE, Vol. 1, No. 4, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Spring 1960
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 144 pages. Cover art by Robert Fulton.
- Contents:
- William S. Burroughs – “But is all Back Seat of Dreaming”
Richard G. Stern – “Two Talking”
John Ashbery – “Europe”
Douglas Woolf – “Wall to Wall”
Franz Kline – “Plate: Mister”
John Logan – “from Monologues of The Son of Saul”
Robert Creeley – “The Awakening, for Charles Olson”
Robert Creeley – “The Wife”
Robert Creeley – “The Memory” - Robert Creeley – “The Snow”
Harold Norse – “I Am in the Hub of the Fiery Force”
Harold Norse – “The Fire Sermon”
James Wright – “Snow Storm in the Mid-West”
James Wright – “A Young One in a Garden”
Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “New York – Albany”
Paul Blackburn – “The Idiot”
Paul Blackburn – “Homage to the Spirit”
Frank O’Hara – “Les Luths”
Frank O’Hara – “Joe’s Jacket”
Robert Duncan – “Four Pictures of the Real Universe”
Denise Levertov – “The Rainwalkers”
Gregory Corso – “Rembrandt – Self Portrait”
Gregory Corso – “Emily Dickenson”
Gregory Corso – “Walk”
Kenneth Koch – “Lunch”
Allen Ginsberg – “Message”
William Hunt – Song from the End of the Earth”
Michael McClure – “Two Poems from a Small Secret Book”
Bill Berkson – “Poem”
Paul Carroll – “34′-23′-35′”
Diane Di Prima – [untitled] “I am a woman and my poems…”
Philip Lamantia – “Still Poem 8”
Philip Lamantia – “Cool Apocalypse”
David Meltzer – “from Notes for a History”
Gary Snyder – “The Manichaeans”
Leroi Jones – “For Hettie in her Fifth Month”
Charles Olson – “Maximus, to Gloucester, Sunday, July 19”
Robert Creeley – “Olson & Others”
Allen Ginsberg – “Notes on Young Poets”
Paul Blackburn – “Writing for the Ear”
Paul Carroll – “Five Poets in their Skins”
- William S. Burroughs – “But is all Back Seat of Dreaming”
5. BIG TABLE, Vol. 2, No. 5, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, 1960
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 128 pages. Cover art by Harry Callahan.
- Contents:
- Douglas Woolf – “Stand Still”
Frank O’Hara – “Naptha”
Edward Dahlberg – “Because I was Flesh”
Frederick Tristan – “The Bread Tree”
Frederick Tristan – “The Whole Sea is yet to Come”
Robert Duncan – “Apprehensions”
Paul Bowles – “He of the Assembly”
Kenneth Koch – “Farms’ Thoughts”
John Rechy – “Between two Lions”
Bill Berkson – “Poem for Frank O’Hara”
Pablo Neruda – “Lone Gentleman” (trans. Clayton Eshleman)
Pablo Neruda – “Death” (trans. Clayton Eshleman)
John Updike – “Archangel”
John Ashbery – “Night” - John Ashbery – “A Last Word”
Harold Rosenberg – “from Arshile Gorky”
David Meltzer – “Rain Poem”
David Meltzer – “Heroes: Zap, the Zen Monk”
Alain Robbe-Grillet – “Scene”
John Schultz – “Witness”
- Douglas Woolf – “Stand Still”
Online Resources:
From a Secret Location – Big Table
Reality Studio – Big Table
References Consulted:
Maynard, Joe and Barry Miles. William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography, 1953-73
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978
Cleft, Edinburgh University
Bill McArthur studied drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art, then took a degree in Fine Art at Edinburgh University. At Edinburgh he became known as an illustrator and cartoonist in the student press, and editor of the student magazines Gambit and Cleft.
Cleft
Bill McArthur studied drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art, then took a degree in Fine Art at Edinburgh University. At Edinburgh he became known as an illustrator and cartoonist in the student press, and editor of the student magazines Gambit and Cleft.
Following his involvement in Gambit, McArthur went on to edit Cleft magazine from 1963 to 1964. With an irreverent sweep he downplayed the very function of small magazine in the first issue’s editorial:
” The field of the small literary magazine is, generally speaking, one of sequestered obscurity. It emanates a wilful negation of commercial contact; an opting out of the monetary contract. Drabness of intention and presentation characterize the production. Little attempt is made at communication and they tend to reflect, to a crippling extent, the particular predilections of the current editor. This opting out of the commercial aspect of magazine production has a useful side-kick in that it ensures the brevity of their existence. As a medium of communication they are of doubtful value.”
While McArthur’s prophecy may have been fatefully correct in certain respects, as the magazine itself was only to survive two issues, the publication was certainly anything but drab. The first issue contained contributions from a range of international writers including Norman Mailer, Eugene Ionesco, William Burroughs, Andrei Voznesensky, Anselm Hollo, and Louis Zukofsky. The second issue once again contained work by Burroughs and Mailer, as well as the first two paragraphs from the Noigandres Group’s Pilot Plan for Concrete Poetry.
1. CLEFT, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Bill McArthur
Edinburgh: Cleft, June 1963
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 7” x 9.5”, 36 pages.
- Contents:
- Kenneth White – “The Real Climate”
Norman Mailer – “Four Poems”
Eugene Ionesco – “The Motor Show”
William Burroughs – “Martin’s Folly”
Giles Gordon – “The Milkman”
Andrei Vosnesensky (trans by Edwin Morgan) – “Three Poems”
Hugh MacDiarmid – “The Poet We Hope For”
Astrid Gillis – “Same Rain”
Anselm Hollo – “The Seventh Lady”
Iain Inglis – “The Sook”
Alex Neish – “Leaving for Buenos Aires”
L. Zukofsky – “Poem 29 (1938), from Anew”
- Kenneth White – “The Real Climate”
2. CLEFT, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Bill McArthur
Edinburgh: Cleft, May 1964
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 7” x 9.5”, 32 pages.
- Contents:
- Henry Miller – “O Lake of Light”
William Burroughs – “A Distant Hand Lifted”
Norman Mailer – “Greasing the Radar”
Norman Mailer – “A Study of Cancer”
Robert Garioch – “At Robert Fergusson’s Grave”
Mike McClure – “Ghost Tantra 50”
Anselm Hollo – “Mucho Malo”
Anselm Hollo – “The Bees”
Keith Howell – “Washington Square”
Gary Snyder – “The Old Dutch Woman”
Edwin Morgan – “Breath of Corruption”
Edwin Morgan – “Chinese Cat”
Edwin Morgan – “Siesta of a Hungarian Snake”
Ian Hamilton Finlay – “The Practice”
Jonathan Williams – “The Wreck on the A222…”
Jonathan Williams – “Besides Buttercups”
Andrei Vosnesensky (trans. by Edwin Morgan) – “Earth”
Kenneth White – “Ten Thousand Yellow Buds”
Alex Neish – “The Loneliness of it All”
- Henry Miller – “O Lake of Light”
Online Resources:
Reality Studio – Cleft
References Consulted:
Clements, Marshall. A Catalog Of Works By Michael Mcclure, 1956-1965
New York: The Phoenix Book Shop, 1965
Maynard, Joe and Barry Miles. William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography, 1953-73
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978
Loujon Press
In the Fall of 1961, Jon and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb published the first issue of their avant-garde poetry and prose magazine, The Outsider. Handset and letterpress printed, the journal straddled the line between traditional books and modern works of art, and the journal made an outsized impact on the literary world, shining a light on the talents of Beat Generation, Black Mountain and other avant-garde and counterculture poets, writers, and artists of the era.
In all, Loujon Press published three issues of The Outsider (one a double issue), and two books each by poet Charles Bukowski and novelist Henry Miller. These publications received at least as much praise for their quality as physical artifacts as they did for the poems and prose that made up their editorial matter. It seems like a small catalogue, but the remarkable artistry, craftsmanship, and pioneering spirit have earned the press a much larger place in history.
As art writer Nathan Martin commented, “Loujon operated during a particular moment in the history of artistic publishing in America … and remains a distinctive and compelling entity at the intersection of fine-press publishing, counterculture literature, and the French Quarter from which it emerged.”
Loujon Press Checklist:
1. The Outsider, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Jon Edgar Webb
New Orleans: Loujon Press, Fall 1961
First edition, side-stapled and bound into printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 6” x 9”, 101 pages, 3100 copies, letterpress printed with handset type on a C&P handpress by Jon and Louise Webb. Associate Editor: Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb; Advisory Editors: Marvin Bell, Margaret Randall, Jory Sherman, Edwin Morgan, Melville Hardiment, Sinclair Beiles; Consultant: Walter Lowenfels; illustrations: F. Salantrie.
- Ephemera:
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- Prospectus. 5.75” x 17.75” sheet folded once to make four pages, lists contributors and includes order form.
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- Offprints:
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- Corso, Gregory. “The American Way” [offprint of page 9] [1]
- Bukowski, Charles. “A Charles Bukowski Album” [offprint of pages 47-54] (Krumhansl 6)
- Miller, Henry. Letters To Lowenfels. [offprint of pages 63-66] [2] (Shifreen & Jackson A140)
- Burroughs, William S. Operation Soft Machine. [offprint of pages 73-77] [3]
- McClure, Michael. Spontaneous Hymn To Kundalini [offprint of page 46] [4]
-
- Contents:
- Edson, Russell. “Editorial” – 1:1, 3
- Webb, Jon Edgar. “The Editor’s Bit: Public Square” – 1:1, 4
- Beiles, Sinclair. “Metabolic C Movies” – 1:1, 5
- Gordon, Stuart. “Metabolic C Movies” – 1:1, 5
- Corso, Gregory. “The American Way” – 1:1, 9
- Webb, Jr., Jon Edgar. “A Peek Over The Wall” – 1:1, 15
- Giudici, Ann. untitled [“Be careful when you step…”] – 1:1, 17
- Giudici, Ann. untitled [“I was a child…”] – 1:1, 17
- Giudici, Ann. untitled [“Can you pause and stay…”] – 1:1, 18
- Di Prima, Diane. “Lord Jim” – 1:1, 19
- Grant, John. “On The Dot” – 1:1, 20
- Haines, Paul. “…Had Spent Laughing” – 1:1, 23
- Snyder, Gary. “Xrist” – 1:1, 24
- Turnbull, Gael. “A Hill” – 1:1, 25
- Olson, Charles. untitled [“Borne down by…”] – 1:1, 26
- Dorn, Edward. “Like A Message On Sunday” – 1:1, 27
- Ginsberg, Allen. “The End (to Kaddish)” – 1:1, 28
- Orlovsky, Peter. “Snale Poem” – 1:1, 29
- Hughes, Langston. “Doorknobs” – 1:1, 30
- Martinez, Juan. “Work Song” – 1:1, 31
- Sorrentino, Gilbert. “Ave Atque Vale” – 1:1, 35
- Lowenfels, Walter. “Good-Bye Jargon, Elegy for a Small Press” – 1:1, 36
- Lowenfels, Walter. “Welcome Home to Cubby” – 1:1, 37
- Corman, Cid. “Post Mortem” – 1:1, 38
- Corman, Cid. “Sempre D’amore” – 1:1, 38
- Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. “Underwear” – 1:1, 39
- Bremser, Ray. “On Prevalence” – 1:1, 42
- Randall, Margaret. “Series of Seven” – 1:1, 43
- Brand, Millen. “Swinging Off Swamp Creek” – 1:1, 44
- Creeley, Robert. “The End of the Day” – 1:1, 45
- Creeley, Robert. “Mind’s Heart” – 1:1, 45
- Creeley, Robert. “The Bird” – 1:1, 45
- McClure, Mike. “Spontaneous Hymn to Kundalini” – 1:1, 46
- Bukowski, Charles. “Hooray Say The Roses” – 1:1, 48
- Bukowski, Charles. “Pay Your Rent or Get Out” – 1:1, 48
- Bukowski, Charles. “Shoes” – 1:1, 49
- Bukowski, Charles. “I Am With the Roots of Flowers” – 1:1, 50
- Bukowski, Charles. “Go With the Rockets & the Blondes” – 1:1, 51
- Bukowski, Charles. “A Real Thing, a Good Woman” – 1:1, 51
- Bukowski, Charles. “To a High Class Whore I Refused” – 1:1, 52
- Bukowski, Charles. “Old Man, Dead in a Room” – 1:1, 52
- Bukowski, Charles. “Love in a Back Room on the Row” – 1:1, 53
- Bukowski, Charles. “Nothing Subtle” – 1:1, 53
- Bukowski, Charles. “And Then: Age” – 1:1, 53
- Sward, Robert. “Momma–, Mountain” – 1:1, 55
- Ristau, Harland. “M’sippi Town” – 1:1, 56
- Wilson, Colin. “Some Comments On The Beats & Angries” – 1:1, 57
- Sherman, Jory. “Dear Liz” – 1:1, 60
- Hedley, Leslie Woolf. “Naked In My Century” – 1:1, 62
- Miller, Henry. “Letters To Lowenfels” – 1:1, 62
- Jones, LeRoi. “The Southpaw” – 1:1, 67
- Jones, LeRoi. “Bo Peep” – 1:1, 67
- Jones, LeRoi. “X” – 1:1, 67
- Jones, LeRoi. “Boswell” – 1:1, 68
- Jones, LeRoi. “Dr. Jive” – 1:1, 68
- Bell, Marvin. “Portrait of a Skeleton” – 1:1, 69
- Bell, Marvin. “Winter Poem” – 1:1, 69
- Epstein, Lester. “Demonstrate Your Culture…” – 1:1, 70
- Epstein, Lester. “Moment” – 1:1, 71
- Epstein, Lester. “Cold Coffee” – 1:1, 71
- Zahn, Curtis. “Reprimand For A Compromised Love-Object” – 1:1, 72
- Burroughs, William S. “Operation Soft Machine” – 1:1, 74
- Kaja. “from: The Emerald City, For Gregory Corso” – 1:1, 78
- Crews, Judson. “Rel Bore Speng Lule” – 1:1, 79
- Crews, Judson. “Pastoral” – 1:1, 79
- Thompson, Tracy. “Stranger” – 1:1, 79
- Carroll, Paul. “What Did Your Face Look Like…” – 1:1, 80
- Oden, G. C. “Lay Your Head Here” – 1:1, 81
- May, James Boyer. “The Salutary Snare, for Colin Wilson” – 1:1, 82
- Schleifer, Marc D. “Here & There, for Marian’s Show” – 1:1, 82
- Pfisterer III, Frederick. “Dolorous Somewhere Behind” – 1:1, 83
- Frumkin, Gene. “The Fat Pigeon” – 1:1, 84
- Williams, Jonathan. “The Big House, For Sherwood Anderson” – 1:1, 84
- Corrington, William. “Hard Man” – 1:1, 85
- Boyle, Kay. “Print from a Lucite Block” – 1:1, 85
- Blackburn, Paul. “Death Watch: Veille D’hiver” – 1:1, 86
- Eshleman, Clayton. “Red Shoes (from Songs For Exile)” – 1:1, 86
- Kupferberg, Tuli. “Great” – 1:1,87
- Moraff, Barbara. “A Little Spur” – 1:1, 88
- Abrams, Sam. “Bodies Only” – 1:1, 88
- McGuire, Terence. “Mid-Morning” – 1:1, 88
2. The Outsider, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Jon Edgar Webb
New Orleans: Loujon Press, Summer 1962
First edition, side-stapled and bound into printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 6” x 9”, 112 pages, 3100 copies, letterpress printed on a 8″ x 12″ C&P new series motorized press by Jon and Louise Webb. Associate Editor: Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb; illustrations: Ben Tibbs, Frank Salantrie, Malcolm Paul Newman.
- Offprints:
-
- Burroughs, William S. Wilt Caught In Time. [offprint of pages 3-4] [4]
- Miller, Henry. The Henry Miller To Lowenfels Letters. [offprint of pages 73-80] 2 (Shifreen & Jackson A140)
-
- Contents:
- Burroughs, William S. “Wilt Caught In Time” – 1:2, 3
- Masters, R. E. L. “Editorial” – 1:2, 5
- Webb, Jon Edgar. “The Editor’s Bit” – 1:2, 6
- Bukowski, Charles. “Sick Leave” – 1:2, 7
- Johnson, Kay. “from: The Fourth Hour” – 1:2, 8
- Oppenheimer, Joel. “A Long Way” – 1:2, 10
- Oppenheimer, Joel. “The Present” – 1:2, 11
- Nemerov, Howard. “The Iron Characters” – 1:2, 13
- Edson, Russell. “There Was” – 1:2, 14
- Eigner, Larry. untitled [“the sky cross the desert…”] – 1:2, 15
- Eigner, Larry. untitled [“visiting yesterday…”] – 1:2, 16
- Eigner, Larry. untitled [“An easy death…”] – 1:2, 17
- Eigner, Larry. untitled [“all these cripples…”] – 1:2, 18
- Eigner, Larry. untitled [“that’s odd…”] – 1:2, 19
- Dorn, Edward. “The Argument Is” – 1:2, 20
- Corso, Gregory. “Poems From Berlin, First Week’s
- Impression” – 1:2, 21
- Bremser, Ray. “On The Nature” – 1:2, 24
- Mayes, Richard. “Lament” – 1:2, 28
- Johnson, Kay. “Poems From Paris” – 1:2, 29
- Frumkin, Gene. “The Poet On His Lunch Hour” – 1:2, 34
- Morgan, Edwin. “Jean Genet: A Legend, To Be Legible” – 1:2, 35
- Hollo, Anselm. “They Fatted The Calf” – 1:2, 40
- Stoloff, Carolyn. “Something Diseased” – 1:2, 42
- Jacobson, David B. “Lecture” – 1:2, 42
- Bukowski, Charles. “To A Lady Who Believes Me Dead” – 1:2, 43
- Johnson, Kay. “Quick, Someone’s Coming” – 1:2, 44
- Webb, Jon Edgar. “Suddenly Over” – 1:2, 45
- Major, Clarence. “Dream In Ruins” – 1:2, 45
- Field, Edward. “Ah, Linger A While, Thou Art So Fair” – 1:2, 46
- Mason, Mason Jordan. “Mysterious As Any Woman Be” – 1:2, 47
- Hazard, Geoffrey. “The Dubliner” – 1:2, 47
- Moraff, Barbara. “Dear Solomon” – 1:2, 48
- Musial, Frank. “Room” – 1:2, 48
- Giudici, Ann. “Remember?” – 1:2, 49
- Oden, G. C. “Low Calvary” – 1:2, 49
- Bell, Marvin. “Pipecleaner, For Thin Dorothy” – 1:2, 50
- Kaja. “from: The Emerald City, For Gregory Corso” – 1:2, 50
- Genet, Jean. “from: Le Pecheur Du Suquet” – 1:2, 52
- Purdy, A. W. “Love Poem” – 1:2, 53
- Madaio, Louise. “The Wine Is Red (from Black Olives)” – 1:2, 55
- McGrath, Thomas. “from: Letter To An Imaginary Friend” – 1:2, 59
- Corrington, William. “Surreal For Lorca” – 1:2, 61
- Williams, Jonathan. “The Anchorite” – 1:2, 62
- Lowenfels, Walter. “Editorial” – 1:2, 64
- Lamantia, [Philip]. “Last Days Of San Francisco” – 1:2, 66
- Kerouac, Jack. “Sept. 19, 1961 Poem” – 1:2, 68
- Margoshes, Dave. “Denise Levertov” – 1:2, 71
- Margolis, William J. “from: The Mendicant Notebook, Vi (For Maxine)” – 1:2, 72
- Miller, Henry. “The Henry Miller To Lowenfels Letters” – 1:2, 73
- Finlay, Ian Hamilton. “Art Student” – 1:2, 81
- Tagliabue, John. “Now And Then In The Fluorescence A Slight Jerking Motion” – 1:2, 82
- Tagliabue, John. “’I Got Important Contacts’ Willy Loman Says” – 1:2, 82
- Tagliabue, John. “Side Show / U.S.A.” – 1:2, 83
- Tagliabue, John. “Those Mysterious Events That Stir Us” – 1:2, 83
- Tagliabue, John. “Tall Blonde Girl And Ballet Dancer – 1:2, 83
- Patchen, Kenneth. “letter to the editor and untitled paintings” – 1:2, 84
- Micheline, Jack. “Street Call New Orleans” – 1:2, 94
- Allen, Richard B. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 97
- Borenstein, Larry. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 103
- Jaffee, Allan & Sandra. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 103
- Russell, Bill. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 104
- Hentoff, Nat. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 104
- Wilson, John S. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 107
- Sperling, Jr., Godfrey. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 107
- Hobson, Wilder. “Oldest of the Living Old” – 1:2, 107
- Giudici, Ann. “Didn’t He Ramble, For Steve Angrum” – 1:2, 111
3. The Outsider, Volume 1, Number 3, edited by Jon Edgar Webb
New Orleans: Loujon Press, Spring 1963
First edition, side-stapled and bound into printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 6” x 9”, 138 pages, 2100 copies, letterpress printed by Jon and Louise Webb. . Associate Editor: Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb; illustrations: Jackson Hensley, Ben Tibbs, Frank Salantrie.
- Offprints:
-
- Miller, Henry. The Henry Miller To Lowenfels Letters. [offprint of pages 79-85] [5]
-
- Contents:
- Webb, Jon Edgar. “Editorial: The Editor’s Bit” – 1:3, 0
Patchen, Miriam. “Letters to the editors” – 1:3, 2
Patchen, Kenneth. “Editorial” – 1:3, 3
Johnson, Kay. “The White Room” – 1:3, 7
Snyder, Gary. “Some Square Comes” – 1:3, 15
Snyder, Gary. “Madly Whirling Downhill” – 1:3, 15
Kearns, Lionel. “Stress-Axis Poems” – 1:3, 16
Creeley, Robert. “More On Kearns” – 1:3, 20
Woolf, Douglas. “Visitation” – 1:3, 22
McClure, Michael. ” -Three Mad Sonnets (from 13 Mad Sonnets)” – 1:3, 29
Sward, Robert. “Donna Is Her Name” – 1:3, 31
Sward, Robert. “Museum” – 1:3, 32
Sward, Robert. “Mr Attis & Lady C” – 1:3, 31
Burroughs, William. “Take It To Cut City – U.S.A.” – 1:3, 35
Boyd, Sue Abbott. “Journey” – 1:3, 40
Boyd, Sue Abbott. “The Following Morning” – 1:3, 40
Weeks, Robert Lewis. “Grand Opening” – 1:3, 41
Layton, Irving. “On Re-Reading The Beats” – 1:3, 42
Genet, Jean. “A Colloquy (from Le Pecheur Du Suquet)” – 1:3, 44
Fisher, Roy. “Chirico” – 1:3, 46
Fisher, Roy. “Something Unmade” – 1:3, 47
Webb, Jon Edgar. “The Girl There” – 1:3, 49
Wakowski, Diane. “The First Day” – 1:3, 54
Norse, Harold. “The Pine Cone” 1:3, 55
Solomon, Carl. “The Madman In The Looking Glass” – 1:3, 56
Cuscaden, R. R. “Charles Bukowski: Poet In A Ruined Landscape” – 1:3, 62
Corrington, William. “Charles Bukowski: Three Poems” – 1:3, 66
Bukowski, Charles. “The Tragedy Of The Leaves” – 1:3, 67
Bukowski, Charles. “The Priest And The Matador” – 1:3, 68
Bukowski, Charles. “Old Man, Dead In A Room” – 1:3, 71
Bukowski, Charles. “The House” – 1:3, 72
Bukowski, Charles. “Event” – 1:3, 73
Bukowski, Charles. “Dinner, Rain & Transport” – 1:3, 74
Bukowski, Charles. “Letters to the editors” – 1:3, 77
Miller, Henry. “The Henry Miller Lowenfels Letters” – 1:3, 79
Eigner, Larry. “Then:” – 1:3, 86
Corrington, William. “Communion (from Prayers For Mass In The Vernacular)” – 1:3, 87
Jouffroy, Alain. “Fatherland” – 1:3, 88
Hollo, Anselm. “Thalidomide” – 1:3, 90
Moraff, Barbara. “Two For Syd” – 1:3, 97
Motley, Willard. “The Burial” – 1:3, 98
Miller, Raeburn. “The Drowned Boy” – 1:3, 101
Rubin, Larry. “Etiquette For Americans” – 1:3, 102
Neish, Alex. “Review: Naked Lunch” – 1:3, 104
Charters, Samuel B. “Jazz In New Orleans: 1899 To 1957” – 1:3, 109
Borenstein, E. L. “Jazz In New Orleans: 1957 To 1963” – 1:3, 117
- Webb, Jon Edgar. “Editorial: The Editor’s Bit” – 1:3, 0
4. Bukowski, Charles. It Catches My Heart In Its Hands / New & Selected Poems 1955-1963
New Orleans: Loujon Press, October 1963
First edition, sewn signatures in printed wraparound jacket, designed and printed by Jon Edgar Webb and Louise Webb, introduction by William Corrington, illustration by Frank Salantrie, dedicated to “Gypsy Lou” Webb, 7.5” x 10”, 102 pages, 777 copies, letterpress printed, published as Gypsy Lou Series #1.
(Dorbin A5)
- Ephemera:
-
- Publication announcement: 5” x 10.25”, with Miller quote (Shifreen & Jackson B145)
-
- Contents:
- “The Tragedy Of The Leaves”, “I Cannot Stand Tears”, “Shoes”, “A Real Thing, A Good Woman”, “To The Whore Who Took My Poems”, “Worm”, “The State Of World Affairs From A 3rd Floor Window”, “The Japanese Wife”, “For Marilyn M.”, “The Life Of Borodin”, “Winter Comes In A Lot Of Places In August”, “No Charge”, “Truth’s A Hell Of A Word”, “The Sun Wields Mercy”, “A Literary Romance”, “Reprieve And Admixture”, “Conversation In A Cheap Room”, “Letter From The North”, “Okay, But Later”, “A Minor Impulse To Complain”, “The Dog”, “Nothing Subtle”, “The Twins”, “The Day It Rained At The Los Angeles County Museum”, “2 P.M. Beer”, “Hooray Say The Roses”, “The Sunday Artist”, “Old Poet”, “To A High Class Whore I Refused”, “Dinner, Rain And Transport”, “Poem For These 4”, “Regard Me”, “I Am With The Roots Of Flowers”, “The Race”, “Vegas”, “Pay Your Rent Or Get Out”, “Love Is A Piece Of Paper Torn To Bits”, “The House”, “I Wait In The White Rain”, “The Kings Are Gone”, “It Is Not Much”, “Side Of The Sun”, “The Talkers”, “A Pleasant Afternoon In Bed”, “9 Rings”, “Blasted”, “A Song For Sadists With A Place To Sit Down”, “The Priest And The Matador”, “Love And Fame And Death”, “My Father”, “People Come Thru…”, “The Gift”, “The Bird”, “The Singular Self”, “Counsel”, “The Ox”, “Wrong Number”, “Sundays Kill More Men Than Bombs”, “A Farewell Thing While Breathing”, “A Rat Rises”, “A 350 Dollar Horse And A Hundred Dollar Whore”, “Bull”, “I Write This Upon The Last Drink’s Hammer”, “The Virgins Of Christmas”, “I Think Of Hemingway”, “Old Man, Dead In A Room”
5. Bukowski, Charles. Crucifix In A Deathhand / New Poems 1963-65
New York: Lyle Stuart, April 1965
First edition, sewn signatures in printed wraparound jacket, designed and printed by Jon Edgar Webb and Louise Webb, etchings by Noel Rockmore, dedicated to Marina Louise Bukowski, 8.5” x 12.25”, 102 pages, 3100 copies, letterpress printed, published as Gypsy Lou Series #2.
(Dorbin A6)
- Ephemera:
-
- Publication announcement: 5.25” x 10”, with Miller quote (Shifreen & Jackson B164)
- Order form: 5” x 8.25”
-
- Contents:
- “Sound Down the Street”, “I Think of Mice Cooling It”, “Butterfly”, “Sing to Gods or Kangaroos”, “View from the Screen”, “Not with Boldness”, “Crucifix in a Deathhand”, “When the Berry Bush Dies I’ll Swim Down the Green River with My Hair on Fire”, “Mother and Son”, “Sunflower”, “Grass”, “Fuzz”, “Seahorse”, “A Report upon the Consumption of Myself”, “No Lady Godiva”, “The Workers”, “Beans with Garlic”, “Mama”, “Machineguns, Towers and Timeclocks”, “Good Morning, Brother, How Are You?”, “Something for the Touts, the Nuns, the Grocery Clerks and You”, “The Loss, The Loss, The Loss”, “Sway with Me”, “Lack of Almost Everything”, “No Argument”, “No. 6”, “This”, “Don’t Come Round but if You Do”, “Startled Into Life like Fire”, “Stew”, “Qp”, “Lilies in My Brain”, “Itch, Come and Gone”, “I Am Dead but I Know the Dead Are Not Like This”, “Swept Away in Orangepeel And Whistle Yowl”, “At the End of Feet The Blackbird Walks”, “Let Them Go”, “Like a Violet in the Snow”, “All I Ask Is a Faint Chance”, “Letter from Too Far”, “See this Flower!”, “Pansies”, “I Was Born to Hustle Roses Down the Avenues of the Dead”, “Farewell, Foolish Objects”, “Man in the Sun”, “I Kneel”, “The Swans Walk my Brain in April it Rains”, “The Girls on Sunset Blvd.”, “Woman”, “Confession for those Who Do Not Breathe at Funerals”, “Like All The Years Wasted”, “They, all of Them, Know”, “A Nice Day”.
6. Miller, Henry. Order And Chaos Chez Hans Reichel
Tucson: Loujon Press, December 1966
First edition, perfect bound in printed wraparound jacket in printed slipcase, leather editions bound by the Schuberth Bookbindery of San Francisco, introductory statement by Karl Shapiro, introduction by Lawrence Durrell, photograph of Miller by Ina Paulandre tipped in, 9” x 9.75”, 87 pages, 1425 copies, letterpress printed, published as Gypsy Lou Series #3.
(Shifreen & Jackson A157a-g)
- Variant Issues:
-
- Crimson Oasis limited issue: 26 lettered copies signed, quarter leather binding (Shifreen & Jackson A157a)
- Blue Oasis limited issue: 99 copies signed, quarter leather binding (Shifreen & Jackson A157b)
- Cork issue: 1399 copies (Shifreen & Jackson A157c)
- Orange Oasis limited issue: 3 copies (Shifreen & Jackson A157d)
- Black Oasis limited issue: 11 copies lettered using letters to spell HENRY MILLER, quarter leather binding, bound in postcard from Miller to Jon Webb (Shifreen & Jackson A157e)
- Green Oasis limited issue: 11 copies lettered using letters to spell HENRY MILLER, quarter leather binding (Shifreen & Jackson A157f)
- Cork issue: 26 lettered copies (Shifreen & Jackson A157g)
-
- Ephemera:
-
- Publication announcement: 20” x 26” featuring a photograph of Miller and his bicycle (Shifreen & Jackson B181)
- Award announcement: 8.5” x 10”, printed in brown ink, TDC [Type Director’s Club] awards for typography, type direction, and design (see Shifreen & Jackson A157c)
- Award announcement: 8.5” x 9”, same as above but printed in blue ink and with slightly different text
-
7. The Outsider, Vol. 2, No. 4/5, edited by Jon Edgar Webb
New Orleans: Loujon Press, Winter 1968-69
First edition, issued in both wrappers and hardcover in printed dust-wrapper and photo-illustrated paper wrappers, 7.25” x 10.25”, 200 pages, 500 copies. Associate Editor: Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb, illustrations: Ben Tibbs, Frank Salantrie, Kelsie Harder. Laid into this edition is “a sprig of flora from within a mile of Geronimo’s grave”, picked by Gypsy Lou and sealed in wax paper with letterpress printed partial wrap-around band.
- Ephemera:
-
- Order form: 5” x 8.25”
-
- Contents:
- Kaprow, Allan. “Moving, A Happening” – 2:4/5, 0
Goodger-Hill, Trevor. “Editorial” – 2:4/5, 1
Plymell, Charles. “In Kansas” – 2:4/5, 2
Taylor, David. “Panda” – 2:4/5, 3
Edson, Russell. “The Toy Maker” – 2:4/5, 19
Edson, Russell. “The Cult” – 2:4/5, 19
Perchik, Simon. untitled [“He Wants To Know…”] – 2:4/5, 20
Perchik, Simon. untitled [“The Kids Were First…”] – 2:4/5, 20
Major, Clarence. “Weak Dynamite” – 2:4/5, 22
Wantling, William. “That Night” – 2:4/5, 24
Bartlett, Elizabeth. “The Walnut Tree” – 2:4/5, 26
Greenberg, Alvin. “Taking A Stand” – 2:4/5, 27
Severy, Bruce. “How We Do Things” – 2:4/5, 28
Severy, Bruce. “Mud” – 2:4/5, 28
Severy, Bruce. “From 400 Yards” – 2:4/5, 28
Goodger-Hill, Trevor. “A Personal History” – 2:4/5, 30
Creighton, John. “Green Hides, Lines To A Pale Lady” – 2:4/5, 32
Eigner, Larry. untitled [“March The Route…”] – 2:4/5, 35
Eigner, Larry. untitled [“The Great American Ballot-Box…”] – 2:4/5, 36
Bukowski, Charles. “Kaakaa & Other Imolations” – 2:4/5, 37
Bukowski, Charles. “Beef Tongue, for J.T.” – 2:4/5, 39
Bukowski, Charles. “Like A Flyswatter” – 2:4/5, 41
Bukowski, Charles. “The Last Round” – 2:4/5, 42
Di Prima, Diane. “From: Spring and Autumn Annals: A Celebration for Freddie” – 2:4/5, 45
Levertov, Denise. “Late June 1968” – 2:4/5, 51
Levertov, Denise. “Not to Have” – 2:4/5, 51
Durrell, Lawrence. “?” – 2:4/5, 52
Mccord, Howard. “Descent into Birth” – 2:4/5, 53
Meltzer, David. “This is a Nation of Keepers Who Had No Time to Become Gods” – 2:4/5, 54
Cooperman, Stanley. “New York: February, 1968” – 2:4/5, 55
Cooperman, Stanley. “Cappelbaum’s Halloween” – 2:4/5, 56
Katz, Steve. “One Kind of Tune” – 2:4/5, 58
Katz, Steve. “& A More Similar Tune” – 2:4/5, 58
Randall, Margaret. “Erongaricuaro, for My Friends at the Molino” – 2:4/5, 59
Wright, Jay. “Pastel” – 2:4/5, 60
Morris, Richard. “Foreword to Keslie Artwork” – 2:4/5, 61
Harder, Kelsie. untitled [“Cartoons”] – 2:4/5, 61
Hamburger, Michael. “Travelling” – 2:4/5, 77
Stoloff, Carolyn. “Wind and the Earth” – 2:4/5, 79
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“It Came on Me…”] – 2:4/5, 80
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“An Old House…”] – 2:4/5, 80
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Oh It Wasn’t So Much…”] – 2:4/5, 81
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Too Many Years Pass…”] – 2:4/5, 82
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Leaving This Clumsy Town…”] – 2:4/5, 82
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Could I Believe…”] – 2:4/5, 83
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Heaped Between The Letters The Postcards…”] – 2:4/5, 83
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“The Madness Is Power And What…”] – 2:4/5, 83
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“I Spoke To Jenny…”] – 2:4/5, 84
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Legendary Men In The Forest…”] – 2:4/5, 84
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“And When They Killed Him…”] – 2:4/5, 84
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Finding New Bones…”] – 2:4/5, 85
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Some Jerk With Baltic-Brained…”] – 2:4/5, 86
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“This Tender Minute…”] – 2:4/5, 86
Grapes, Marcus J. untitled [“Some Of Us…”] – 2:4/5, 87
Haines, John. “Under The Barracks” – 2:4/5, 88
Haines, John. “In The Styrofoam Mountains” – 2:4/5, 88
Haines, John. “From The Rooftops” – 2:4/5, 89
Kelly, Robert. “Landing Cod (From The Common Shore)” – 2:4/5, 90
Gast, David K. “Teresa” – 2:4/5, 93
Patchen, Miriam. untitled [“Letter To The Editors”] – 2:4/5, 94
Sandberg, David. untitled [“Please Do Not Ring Or Knock…”] – 2:4/5, 96
Thomas, Norman. untitled [“If You Visit Patchen…”] – 2:4/5, 97
Antoninus, Brother. untitled [“Word Of The Outsider’s Homage…”] – 2:4/5, 98
Ginsberg, Allen. untitled [“I Met Kenneth Patchen At City Lights…”] – 2:4/5, 99
May, James Boyer. untitled [“Kenneth Patchen’s Physical Presence…”] – 2:4/5, 100
Norse, Harold. untitled [“He Is Part Of Youth…”] – 2:4/5, 105
Brand, Millen. untitled [“I Used To Know Kenneth In The Village…”] – 2:4/5, 106
Macdiarmid, Hugh. untitled [“I Have Been To The United States…”] – 2:4/5, 108
Glover, David. untitled [“I Recall The First Thing I Ever Read…”] – 2:4/5, 109
Rexroth, Kenneth. untitled [“Kenneth Patchen Is One Of…”] – 2:4/5, 112
Corrington, John William. untitled [“I Still Remember…”] – 2:4/5, 113
Porter, Bern. untitled [“Kenneth’s Monumental…”] – 2:4/5, 116
Detro, Gene. “Interview: Patchen Interviewed” – 2:4/5, 117
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. untitled [“Kenneth Patchen & E.E. Cummings…”] – 2:4/5, 129
Yates, Peter. untitled [“Know Him, This Man…”] – 2:4/5, 129
Meltzer, David. untitled [“Here Is A Man Speaking…”] – 2:4/5, 130
Young, Lafe. untitled [“Now, Nostalgically, I Realize…”] – 2:4/5, 131
Conroy, Jack. untitled [“Since My Friend Webb…”] – 2:4/5, 132
Eckman, Frederick. untitled [“A Decade Ago In A Review…”] – 2:4/5, 133
Miller, Henry. untitled [“The First Thing One Would Remark…”] – 2:4/5, 134
Blazek, Douglas. “A Few Small Things” – 2:4/5, 138
Enslin, Ted. untitled [“As If It Were My Eye…”] – 2:4/5, 139
Purdy, Al. “The Jackhammer Syndrome” – 2:4/5, 140
Shelton, Richard. “The Crossing” – 2:4/5, 142
Shelton, Richard. “& The Scars Will Be Covered” – 2:4/5, 143
Wild, Peter. “Engine” – 2:4/5, 144
Wild, Peter. “Snake Skin” – 2:4/5, 144
Wild, Peter. “Saturday Afternoon On Sugar Loaf Mtn” – 2:4/5, 145
Miller, Brown. “The Dark Oval” – 2:4/5, 146
Duberstein, Helen. “Joke” – 2:4/5, 147
Flaherty, Douglas. “Mrs. Godkin’s Son” – 2:4/5, 148
Wilson, Keith. “All The Vanished Faces” – 2:4/5, 149
Wilson, Keith. “The Wind Dragon in Spring” – 2:4/5, 150
Holland, Barbara A. “Dust-Devil Man” – 2:4/5, 151
Fowler, Gene. “The Natural History of Woman” – 2:4/5, 152
Frumkin, Gene. “Poem for Childhood” – 2:4/5, 157
levy, d.a. “For The Pigs, Rats & Adorable other Beasts of Saintly Cleveland, O” – 2:4/5, 157a
Merton, Thomas. “Tibud Maclay” – 2:4/5, 158
Bly, Robert. “Blown-Up German Fortifications Near Collioure” – 2:4/5, 159
Norse, Harold. “Return to Pompeii” – 2:4/5, 160
Gardien, Kent. “Poem Based on a List by Luis Bunel” – 2:4/5, 161
Higgins, Dick. “Four Degrees” – 2:4/5, 164
Antin, David. “Sociology” – 2:4/5, 166
Hollo, Anselm. “Bouzouki Music” – 2:4/5, 168
Krauss, Ruth. “Drunk Boat” – 2:4/5, 169
Kryss, T.L. “Circus” – 2:4/5, 170
Kryss, T.L. “The Withered Lemming of the River” – 2:4/5, 170
Dowden, George. “Morning Song for My Girl by the Sea” – 2:4/5, 171
Brown, Michael. “The Seventh Month” – 2:4/5, 172
Kandel, Lenore. “Muir Beach Mythology / September” – 2:4/5, 173
Perchik, Simon. “Four Photo-Poems” – 2:4/5, 174
Shustak, Larence. untitled photography – 2:4/5, 175
Knowles, Allison. “Journal of the Identical Lunch” – 2:4/5, 182
Williams, Emmett. untitled [“North is this Way…”] – 2:4/5, 184
Mac Low, Jackson. untitled [“Peace of Resembling…”] – 2:4/5, 186
Johnson, Kay. “The Emerald City, For Gregory Corso” – 2:4/5, 188
Cocteau, Jean. “Creation Before Life” – 2:4/5, 190
Johnson, Ray. “Face Collage” – 2:4/5, 192
Hansen, Al. “Gat” – 2:4/5, 193
- Kaprow, Allan. “Moving, A Happening” – 2:4/5, 0
8. Miller, Henry. INSOMNIA OR THE DEVIL AT LARGE
Albuquerque, Loujon Press, 1970
First edition, portfolio case with photo-illustrated sliding lid and housing 12 printed reproductions of Miller watercolors and a spiral bound book, 7 separate issues planned but far fewer were reportedly produced, published as Gypsy Lou Series #4.
(Shifreen & Jackson A175a-h)
- Variant Issues:
-
- Issue A: 12 copies, with 12 prints plus an original watercolor and book all signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175a)
- Issue B: 26 lettered copies, with 12 prints inscribed to the buyer and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175b)
- Issue C: 192 copies [planned but likely that no more than 10 were published], with 12 prints and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175c)
- Issue D: 192 copies [planned but likely that no more than 10 were published], with 9 of 12 prints and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175d)
- Issue E: 192 copies [planned but likely that no more than 10 were published], with 6 of 12 prints and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175e)
- Issue F: 192 copies [planned but likely that no more than 65 were published], with 3 of 12 prints and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175f)
- Issue G: 192 copies [planned but later increased to 385], with 12 prints unsigned and the book signed by Miller (Shifreen & Jackson A175g)
- Economy Issue: 199 copies, with 12 prints and the book without the box (Shifreen & Jackson A175h)
-
- Ephemera:
-
- Publication announcement: 19” x 25” (Shifreen & Jackson B213)
-
Notes:
[1] Though not present in Robert Wilson’s Corso bibliography, this offprint has been examined.
[2] According to a Ken Lopez catalog entry, his copy of the Miller offprint is seven unbound leaves printed on both sides from volumes 1 and 2 of The Outsider and published in a set of 200 in 1963. However, Shifreen & Jackson describe the sets as 13 unbound leaves printed on rectos only.
[3] Listed in Michael McClure’s own online bibliography and confirmed by Denise Enck of Empty Mirror Books, though not present in any printed bibliography to date.
[4] First reference to the Burroughs offprints appear in Jon Edgar Webb: The Editor’s Bit and Obit by Nicky Drumbolis and are further discussed in Signatures, also by Nicky Drumbolis. Subsequent research turns up no extant copies and in later correspondence with Drumbolis, he adds, “In my Signatures study, I infer that the Burroughs piece ‘Operation Soft Machine/Cut’ may have been issued, based on layout; acknowledging further, that no copy had been recorded by Maynard and Miles.”
[5] While the existence of this offprint and another containing the full set of Miller letters from the first 3 issues of The Outsider are noted in Jon Edgar Webb: The Editor’s Bit and Obit, no evidence of these offprints has been identified.
References consulted
Dorbin, Sanford. A Bibliography of Charles Bukowski
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1969
Drumbolis, Nicky. Jon Edgar Webb: The Editor’s Bit & Obit
Toronto: ECS, 1993
Drumbolis, Nicky. Signatures
Toronto: Letters, n.d.
Krumhansl, Aaron. A Descriptive Bibliography of The Primary Publications of Charles Bukowski
Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1999
Maynard, Joe and Barry Miles. William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography, 1953-73
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978
Shifreen, Lawrence J. and Roger Jackson. Henry Miller: A Bibliography of Primary Sources
Ann Arbor: Roger Jackson, 1993
Wilson, Robert. A Bibliography of Works By Gregory Corso 1954-1965
New York: The Phoenix Bookshop, 1966
The Outsider and Loujon Press
In the Fall of 1961, Jon and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb published the first issue of their avant-garde poetry and prose magazine, The Outsider. Hand-set and letterpress printed, the journal straddled the line between traditional books and modern works of art, and the journal made an outsized impact on the literary world, shining a light on the talents of Beat Generation, Black Mountain and other avant-garde and counterculture poets, writers, and artists of the era…
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