Tag Archives: Jack Spicer

Jack Spicer Circle

COW (the magazine)

Inspired by Stan Persky’s OPEN SPACE, Luther T. Cupp edited COW, which ran for three issues from 1965-1966. Cupp was nicknamed “Link” by Jack Spicer and went by the name Link Martin.

mags_cow01

 

Contributors to this short-lived North Beach magazine include:  Lawrence (Larry) Fagin, Stan Persky, Robin Blaser, George Stanley, Harold Dull, Joanne Kyger, Jack Spicer, Ronnie Primack, and others.
(further reading…)

Cow

Inspired by Stan Persky’s OPEN SPACE, Luther T. Cupp edited COW, which ran for three issues from 1965-1966. Cupp was nicknamed “Link” by Jack Spicer and went by the name Link Martin.

1. COW, The San Francisco Magazine of Livestock, No. 1, Cow Soup Issue, edited by Luther T. Cupp
mags_cow01San Francisco: Cow, 1965
First edition, side stapled printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 11 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Doug Palmer – “Song To: Mr Tambourine Man”
      Deneen Brown – [untitled] “Perhaps it’s a…”
      Lawrence Fagin – [untitled] “So you want to go to space…”
      Stan Persky – “Detective Poem”
      Robin Blaser – “Here, 7/25/65”
      J. Mac Innis – “If Any”
      George Stanley – “Towns”
      Harold Dull – “for Jack”
      Joanne Kyger – “from The Thoughtful Apparitions”
      Jack Spicer – “Dear Sister Mary”
      Ronnie Primack – “Drowning Pool, for Alice”
      Link – “A False Poem of the Renaissance”

2. COW, The Magazine of Afro-Judeo Culture, No. 2, The Un-escalation Issue, edited by Luther T. Cupp
mags_cow02San Francisco: Cow, 1965
First edition, side stapled printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 11 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Jim Thurber – [untitled] “The moon and I…”
      Jim Thurber – [untitled] “The moon is a trick…”
      Robin Blaser – “A Gift (homage to Creeley)”
      Robin Blaser – “Image Nation 1”
      Stan Persky – “Folk Poem”
      Bill Brodecky – “Flower of Evil”
      Mike Hannon – “Thoughts on a Winter Moon”
      Larry Fagin – “Space Poems”
      Geoff Brown – “Poem to Myself”
      Michael Ratcliffe – “for L.F.”
      Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “I didn’t want to think…”
      Jamie MacInnis – “What Cruel Words Do/ a translation”
      Jamie MacInnis – “Lafayette Park”
      Luis Garcia – “The Argument”
      Luis Garcia – “With a Spoon”
      Luis Garcia – “The Couple”
      J.C. Alexander – “Dear Van Gogh”
      Gail Dusenbery – “Girl against Truck”
      Hune Voelcker – [untitled] “Yet when Rim came…”
      George Stanley – [untitled] “The knotted ropes…”
      Gail Dusenbery – “Peanuts? No. Words.”
      Gail Dusenbery – “Cold Lake Snapshot”

3. COW, No. 3, Pregnant Cow Issue, edited by Luter T. Cupp
mags_cow03San Francisco: Cow, 1966
First edition, side stapled printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 11 pages, mimeograph printed.

  • Contents:
    1. Bill Deemer and Andrew Hoyem – “The Auto-Biography of L__ A__ L__”
      Stephen Mindel – [untitled] “Lost in the jungle…”
      Stephen Mindel – “Thursday Evening, for Bob White”
      Stephen Mindel – [untitled] “the deer crossed the stream…”
      Marga NewComb – “The Fallen Angel”
      Robin Blaser – “The Black Point”
      Michael Ratcliffe – “Tomorrow’s Another Day”
      H.M. Wickenheiser – [untitled] “Tomb-still repose is split…”
      Jim Semark – “Godzilla”
      Helen Adam – “A Tale of Dew Drops Falling”
      Gordon Gatom – “Trans”
      Mike Hannon – [untitled] “I feel sympathy…”
      Mike Hannon – [untitled] “A man will question…”
      Mike Hannon – [untitled] “Take up your words…”
      Mike Hannon – [untitled] “Just when I think…”
      Mike Hannon – [untitled] “A flash of metal…”
      Mike Hannon – [untitled] “adrift awake…”
      SMN – [untitled] “celled you are in postpale…”
      SMN – [untitled] “The poem walks…”
      SMN – “Mordant Manners”
      SMN – [untitled] “Still into us comes…”
      Robin Blaser – “El Desdichado”
      Michael Ratcliffe – “The Happy Ending”

J

Jack Spicer’s J ran for eight issues: Nos. 1–5 were edited by Spicer in North Beach where contributions were left in a box marked “J” in The Place, a bar on Grant Avenue in San Francisco; Nos. 6 and 7 (an Apparition of the late J) were edited by George Stanley in San Francisco and New York City respectively while no. 8 was edited by Harold Dull in Rome. Spicer believed that poetry was for poets and the magazine had a small circulation but cast a long shadow. Contributors included: Robin Blaser, Richard Brautigan, Bruce Boyd, Kay Johnson, Robert Duncan, Joe Dunn, Ron Loewinsohn, Joanne Kyger, Helen Adam, and others. Covers (sometimes hand-embellished) were by Fran Herndon (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5), Russell FitzGerald (No. 3), and George Stanley (Nos. 6, 7).

1. J, No. 1, edited by Jack Spicer
mags_j01San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.

  • Contents:
    1. James Alexander – “The Jack Rabbit Poem”
      Ebbe Borregaard – “Ballad for S A D”
      Ebbe Borregaard – “Ballad of Billy Swan”
      Robin Blaser – “Two Astronomers with Notebooks”
      Jack Spicer – “Hokkus”
      Joe Dunn – “Love”
      Richard Brautigan – “The Fever Monument”
      Sam the Tenor Man – “The Radio said Giants Cinch Loop Flag”
      Bois Burk – “Ode to Pierre”
      Bruce Boyd – “After Midnight”
      Roland March – [untitled] “Mister Brustein…”
      Damon Beard – [untitled] “Adverse repercussionless…”
      Kay Johnson – [untitled] “My soul is the absurdity…”
      Kay Johnson – [untitled] “The door in the dream…”
      Robert Duncan – “Dream Data”
      Sagen – “Dear Sprach” [pseuds. Borregaard and Spicer]
      Harvey Harmon – “A Soldier and His Shadow”
      Tony Richards – “Summer”

2. J, No. 2, edited by Jack Spicer 
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 36 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.

  • Contents:
    1. George Stanley – “Tete Rouge”
      Fran Herndon – untitled illustration
      Jess Collins – “I Ups to My Self And”
      Harvey Harmon – [untitled] “More paths…”
      Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Down to new beaches…”
      Robert Duncan – “Dear Carpenter”
      Harvey Harmon – “A New Estate”
      William Morris – “Dear Senior Poet”
      Stan Persky – [untitled] “but it was a moment…”
      Mary Murphy – “In-”
      Will Holther – ” Lament for Otto de Fey”
      Jack Spicer – “Epilog for Jim”
      J.P. Shark – [untitled] “On account of changing tidal conditions…”

3. J, No. 3, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Russell FitzGerald.

  • Contents:
    1. Bruce Boyd – “Introduction”
      Bruce Boyd – “Toward Morning”
      Bruce Boyd – “War”
      R.H. Blyth – “Letters to the Editor”
      Rueban – “Q”
      Mary Murphy – [untitled] “The skull is not the bones…”
      Leo Krikorian – [untitled] “1. No drinking on duty…”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “Entangling Alliances”
      George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
      Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The slobby sea where you float…”
      Damon Beard – [untitled] “Even —…”
      Jack Spicer – “Last Hokku”
      JBH [James Herndon?] – [untitled] “I don’t know how many…”

4. J, No. 4, edited by Jack Spicer
mags_j04San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 36 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.

  • Contents:
    1. Robert Duncan – “A Sequence of Poems…”
      Richard Brautigan – “The Pumpkin Tide”
      Richard Brautigan – “The Sidney Greenstreet Blues”
      Richard Brautigan – “Surprise”
      Garln – “Garln to His Friend”
      Joanne Kyger – “Tapestry #3”
      Josef Elias – “Joetry”
      Donald Allen – “for Barbara”
      John Ryan – “Pecadillo”
      Jack Spicer – “Jacob”
      George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
      Wallace Allen Healey – “Politics”

5. J, No. 5, edited by Jack Spicer
mags_j05San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 34 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.

  • Contents:
    1. L. Frank Baum – “from Sky Island”
      Larry Eigner – “Front”
      Jess Collins – “The Poets Corner” [comic strip]
      Richard Brautigan – “1942”
      Mary Murphy – [untitled] “Lack of oxygen…”
      D.D. – “Fishing on Saturday”
      Kay Johnson – “The Space is Too Wide”
      Ron Loewinsohn – “WIBC Poems”
      George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
      Robert Duncan – “The Song of the River to its Shores”
      Richard Duerden – “Right Now”
      Sheila Roche Harmon – [untitled] “A young devil sat…”
      Jack Spicer – “Fifth Elegy”
      William Berryman – “On the Composition of Bones”
      William R. Allen – “Letter”

6. J, No. 6, edited by George Stanley
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by George Stanley.

  • Contents:
    1. Helen Adam – “Scenes from San Francisco’s Burning”
      Paul Goodman – “I Love You, Necessary–”
      Joanne Kyger – “Pan as the Son of Penelope”
      Lucio Manisco – “Un Misto di Boheme Mistica e Letteraria”
      William A. Berryman – [untitled] “in the after hours…”

7. J, No. 7, edited by George Stanley
New York: J, 1960
Corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 32 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by George Stanley.

All contents are anonymous.

8. J, No. 8, 1961, edited by Harold Dull *
Rome: J, 1961
Contributors: Harold Dull, Stan Persky.

—

[*not in archive]

online excerpt from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side (Granary Books, 1998):

“In many ways the most beautiful of all the mimeo magazines, J had an eight-issue run. The first five issues were edited from North Beach bars by Jack Spicer with Fran Herndon as art editor. Spicer, who embodied the spirit of poetry in the Bay area, collected pieces for his magazine from a box marked “J” in The Place, a bar at 1546 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. A refugee from Los Angeles with two degrees from Berkeley, he had been a student of Josephine Miles there in the mid-1940s. They became close friends, and Spicer participated in the Friday afternoon poetry readings in Wheeler Hall during the late 1940s as well as the readings organized with Rockefeller money by Ruth Witt-Diamant at the new Poetry Center at San Francisco State. Into the cauldron of poetic politics surrounding Miles, Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and others, Spicer introduced his freest of spirits, sometimes more Caliban than Ariel. Spicer lived for words (even making his living as a research assistant on a lexicographical project at Berkeley). He could be found most evenings in one of the North Beach bars or coffeehouses leading the discussion on poetry, poetics, myth, linguistics, and other mysteries. Like Blake and Yeats (with the help of Mrs. Yeats), Spicer attempted to clear his mind and open himself to “dictation” from other sources, which he devotedly pursued. Spicer also believed wholeheartedly in the necessity of human beings’ helping each other through communication, which he confronted in the editorship of J, a little newsletter of the poetic spirit. Donald Allen acted as J’s distributor in New York (“New York Contributions are not forbidden. But quotaed”), selling copies for Spicer to the Wilentz brothers of the Eighth Street Book Shop. In an early letter to Spicer, Allen eagerly wondered “what your editorial policy may be. Seduction by print.””

Further Reading:

Mimeo Mimeo on J

Measure

wieners

“The three simple, almost starkly working-class issues of Measure followed glorious and overlooked “underground” poet John Wieners from Black Mountain College home to Boston, across country to San Francisco, and back to Boston again. In his years in San Francisco, from 1958 to 1960, Wieners attended (sometimes serving as host at his Scott Street apartment) the legendary Sunday afternoon poetry workshops of the charismatic poets Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer. Also present at the workshops were George Stanley, Harold Dull, Robin Blaser (The Pacific Nation), and many others…”
— from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side (Granary Books, 1998)

1. MEASURE, No. 1, edited by John Wieners
mags_measure01Boston: Measure, Summer 1957
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 48 pages, letterpress printed at the Press of Villiers Publications.

“Measure is edited by John Wieners. It will be issued with the four seasons only through your support… Please understand that the opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the city.”

  • Contents:
    1. Tom Balas – “Le Fou”
      Charles Olson – “Le Bonheur!”
      Charles Olson – “The Charge”
      Charles Olson – “Spring”
      Edward Marshall – “One:”
      Edward Marshall – “Two:”
      Robin Blaser – “Poem”
      Robin Blaser – “Letters to Freud”
      Robin Blaser – “Poem by the Charles River”
      Edward Dorn – “The Rick of Green Wood”
      Larry Eigner – “Millionem”
      Larry Eigner – “Brink”
      Frank O’Hara – “Section 9 from Second Avenue”
      Fielding Dawson – “Two Drawings”
      Stephen Jonas – “Word on Measure”
      Stephen Jonas – “Expanded Word on Measure”
      Michael Rumaker – “Father”
      Gavin Douglas – “The Blanket”
      Jack Spicer – “Song for Bird and Myself”
      Jonathan Williams – “Two Poems for Whitman, the Husbandman”
      Robert Duncan – “The Propositions”

2. MEASURE, No. 2, edited by John Wieners
mags_measure2San Francisco: Measure, Winter 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 64 pages, letterpress printed at the Press of Villiers Publications.

“Magick is for the ones who ball, i.e. throw across”

  • Contents:
    1. Michael Rumaker – “The Use of the Unconscious”
      Robin Blaser – “The Hunger of Sound”
      Robert Creeley – “Juggler’s Thot”
      Michael Rumaker – “8 Dreams”
      Jack Kerouac – “4 Choruses”
      Charles Olson – “Descensus Spiritus No. 1”
      Robert Duncan – “The Maiden”
      Robert Creeley – “They Say”
      Robert Creeley – “She Went to Say”
      Jack Kerouac – “235th Chorus”
      Edward Dorn – “Notes from the Fields”
      Robert Duncan – “The Dance”
      Stuart Z. Perkoff – “Feats of Death, Feasts of Love”
      V. R. Lang – “The Recidivists”
      Gregory Corso – “Yaaaah”
      James Broughton – “Feathers or Lead”
      Michael McClure – “The Magazine Cover”
      Michael McClure – “One & Two”
      Robert Creeley – “The Tunnel”
      Robert Creeley – “Just Friends”
      Richard Duerden – “Musica No. 3”
      Stephen Jonas – “Books 3 & 4 from a Long Poem”

3. MEASURE, No. 3, edited by John Wieners
mags_measure03Milton: Measure, Winter 1962
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 36 pages, letterpress printed at the Press of Villiers Publications.

“THE CITY / 1 AM – Unreasonable fear, of the shadows of Harry Lime, of the dead reappearing”

  • Contents:
    1. James Schuyler – “Shed Market”
      James Schuyler – “Joint”
      Gerrit Lansing – “Explorers”
      Barbara Guest – “Safe Flights”
      Barbara Guest – [untitled] “Once when he was a small boy…”
      Barbara Guest – “Abruptly, as if a Forest Might Say”
      Helen Adam – “Anaid si Taerg (Great is Diana)”
      Madeline Gleason – “Wind Said, Marry”
      Robert Duncan – “What do I Know of the Old Lore?”
      Jack Spicer – “Central Park West”
      Larry Eigner – “Poem”
      Tom Field – [untitled] “Form is never more than the extension…”
      Edward Marshall – “Times Square”
      Edward Marshall – “2”
      Edward Marshall – “3”
      John Wieners – “The Imperatrice”
      Philip Lamantia – “Opus Magnum”
      Sheri Martinelli – “Ruth Gildenberg”
      Michael Rumaker – “The River at Night”
      Charles Olson – “The Year is a Great Circle…”
      Charles Olson – “The Post Virginal”
      Charles Olson – [untitled] “Descartes, age 34…”
      John Haines – “Poem”
      John Haines – “Pawnee Dust”

Berkeley Miscellany

Berkeley Miscellany, No. 1, edited by Robert Duncan
mags_miscellany01Berkeley: Berkeley Miscellany, 1948
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 6″ x 9.5″, 24 pages, letterpress printed at the Libertarian Press.

  • Contents:
    1. Robert Duncan – “A Description of Venice”
      Jack Spicer – “A Night in Four Parts”
      Mary Fabilli – “The Lost Love of Aurora Bligh”

Berkeley Miscellany, No. 2, edited by Robert Duncan
Berkeley: Berkeley Miscellany, 1949
First edition, hand-sewn in printed wrappers, 6″ x 9.5″, 32 pages, letterpress printed at the Libertarian Press.

  • Contents:
    1. Mary Fabilli – “An Hour or Two or Quiet Talk”
      Mary Fabilli – “The Garden”
      Robert Duncan – 3 Poems in Homage to the Brothers Grimm: “The Robber Moon”, “The Strawberries Under the Snow”, “The Dinner Table of Harlequin”
      Gerald Ackerman – “At the Beach”
      Jack Spicer – “The Scroll-Work on the Casket”

M

The Spicer Circle magazine M appeared in 1962 in the period after J and before Open Space. Edited by poets Lew Ellingham and Stan Persky, the magazine published John Allen Ryan, George Stanley, Heinrich von Kleist (translated by Jim Herndon), Robin Blaser, William McNeill, Jack Moore, Gail Chugg, Bob Conner, David Melville and the editors. Ellingham spent years researching a biography of Spicer, which was eventually co-authored with poet Kevin Killian as Poet Be Like God (Wesleyan, 1998).

M, No. 1, edited by Lew Ellingham and Stan Persky
mags_m01San Francisco: M, Spring 1962
First edition, side-stapled illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 64 pages, mimeograph printed.

“Contributions may be sent to 4 Harwood Alley of c/o ‘M’ at Gino & Carlo’s Bar, 548 Green Street, San Francisco 11. There is a box in the bar to receive contributions, and the bartender will hold any too large to be placed in the box.”

  • Contents:
    1. George Stanley – [untitled] “Not speaking in human speech…”
      Lewis Ellingham – “Essays on Six Subjects”
      Gail Chugg – “The Avenging Angel”
      anonymous – “The River Bed”
      Stan Persky – “Orpheus Under the Golden Gate Bridge”
      George Stanley – “The Death of Orpheus”
      Gail Chugg – “A Romantical Poem for Leigh Hunt”
      Stan Persky – “Lake”
      Gail Chugg – “The Spell Binders”
      George Stanley – “The Great Wall of Canada”
      anonymous – “The Eagle & The Sperm Whale”
      anonymous – “Alaska, The Beautiful”
      anonymous – “Change”
      Stan Persky – “Twenty Years After”
      Bob Conner – “To an Archaic Apollo”
      anonymous – “The Commendatory”
      anonymous – “The Guardians”
      anonymous – “The Stone Statue”
      Gail Chugg – “A Poem of Granite for Lew”
      Stan Persky – “The Western Buildings”
      Robin Blaser – “The Faerie Queene”
      George Stanley – “The Crazy Bartender”
      John Allen Ryan – “Fresco IV”
      Jack Moore – [untitled] “I try at times…”
      Wm McNeill – “Unyielding Demands”
      Wm McNeill – “Kyoto: A Dream on the Banks of Two Rivers”
      Bill McNeil – “By Heian’s Gate”
      John Allen Ryan – “Convict Creek”
      John Allen Ryan – “Second Annie Poem”
      Heinrich von Kleist, trans. Jim Herndon – “On The Marionette Theatre”
      David Melville – “Dop Dop Dop”

M, No. 2, edited by Lew Ellingham
mags_m02San Francisco: M, 1962
First edition, side-stapled illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 48 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover illustration by Paul Alexander.

“This is the second issue, published on a summer holiday.”

  • Contents:
    1. Bill Roberts – “The Dwarf’s Handshake”
      Jim Alexander – [untitled] “Promytheus wd hav askd…”
      Larry Fagin – [untitled] “Though we come back…”
      Helen Adam – “Memory”
      Jack Flynn – “Jed”
      Ruben Dario, trans. John Allen Ryan – “Cleopompa and Heliodemus”
      Stan Persky – “The Astronomer”
      Larry Fagin – “For Bill”
      Ebbe Borregaard – “October Seventh Poem”
      Jim Alexander – “Melody of Triumverates”
      Bill Roberts – “The Tower and the Cross”
      John Allen Ryan – “The Gleaners”
      Tony Sherrod – [untitled] “Beneath one thigh…”
      Parker Hodges – “Irresistably, the Birds”
      Lewis Ellingham – “Poem for S.”
      Larry Fagin – [untitled] “No don’t dead hide my dying giving…”

Jess Collins

Jess Collins (August 6, 1923 – January 2, 2004) was born Burgess Franklin Collins in Long Beach, California. He was initially educated as a chemisjess1956t, having received his B.S. at the California Institute of Technology in 1948, and in his career worked on the production of plutonium for the Manhattan Project.  In 1949 he abandoned his scientific career and moved to San Francisco where he enrolled in the California School of Fine Arts  (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and began referring to himself simply as “Jess”. He met Robert Duncan in 1951, a relationship  that lasted until the poet’s death in 1988.

jess002
Alternative cover for O!, 1959

In 1952 Jess, Duncan, and Harry Jacobus opened the King Ubu Gallery, which became an important venue for alternative art in San Francisco. And it remained so when it was  reopened as the Six Gallery in 1954 by Wally Hedrick, Deborah Remington, John Ryan, Jack Spicer, Hayward King, and David Simpson.

A celebrated painter and collage artist, Jess was a leading light of the San Francisco art scene from the 1950s until his death in 2004, and one of the most original artists of the second half of the 20th century.

Jess was a quietly independent artist who in his paintings, collages, and sculptures developed a complex synthesis of art and literary history. Jess’ unique imagery, evolved from mythology and fables both playful and profound, has long been admired by critics, curators and writers. Using paper collage or his eccentric painting techniques, Jess’ pictures referenced ancient stories and invented symbols. Jess constructed a private world of delicate beauty and gentle absurdity. 

A. Books and Broadsides

1. Artists View #8
Tiburon: Artist’s View, 1954
Poems and paste-ups, folded broadside, entire issue devoted to the work of Jess.

2. O!
New York: Hawks Well Press, 1960
Paste-ups and poems, stapled wrappers, with a preface by Robert Duncan.




3. The Dios Kuroi
Off-print from The Northwest Review, 1963
Paste-up sequence.

B. Contributions to Books and Other Publications

1. Jess Collins and Robert Duncan. Boob #1
jess_boob01San Francisco: [privately printed], 1952
Broadside. Paste-up.




2. Jess Collins and Robert Duncan. Boob #2
jess_boob02San Francisco: [privately printed], 1952
Broadside. Paste-up.




3. Duncan, Robert. Caesar’s Gate
Mallorca: Divers Press, 1955.
Cover and 16 paste-ups.





4. Jonas, Steve. The Poem, The Sea & Other Pieces Examined.
jonas_loveSan Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1957.
Cover illustration and titling. (Johnston A1)





5. Spicer, Jack. AFTER LORCA
spicer_lorcaSan Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1957
Cover illustration. (Johnston A2)





6. Levertov, Denise. FIVE POEMS
levertov_fiveSan Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1958
Cover illustration. (Johnston A3)





7. Adam, Helen. The Queen O’ Crow Castle
adam_queenSan Francisco: White Rabbit, 1958
Cover illustration, titling, and six drawings. (Johnston A9)




8. Olson, Charles. O’Ryan 2 4 6 8 10
olson_oryanSan Francisco: White Rabbit, 1958
Cover illustration. (Johnston A10)





9. Spicer, Jack. Billy The Kid
spicer_billyStinson Beach: Enkidu Surrogate Press, 1959
Cover illustration and seven drawings.





10. Duncan, Robert. The Opening of The Field
New York: Grove Press, 1960
Frontispiece drawing.

11. Adam, Helen and Pat. San Francisco’s Burning
Berkeley: Oannes Press, 1963
Cover illustration and six drawings.

12. Duncan, Robert. Unkingd by Affection 
San Francisco: San Francisco Arts Festival, 1963
Illustrated broadside.

13. Adam, Helen. Ballads
New York: Acadia Press, 1964
Cover illustration, titling, title page, and 15 drawings. Two additional drawings included in limited edition with hand-tinted cover.

14. Borregaard, Ebbe. When Did Morning Wind Rip Callow Flowers in May… 
San Francisco, San Francisco Arts Festival, 1964
Illustrated broadside.

15. Duncan, Robert. A Book of Resemblances
New Haven: Henry Wenning, 1966
Illustrations in two colors.

16. Duncan, Robert. The Cat and The Blackbird
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1967
Cover illustration, titling, and drawings.





17. Duncan, Robert. Names of People
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968
Illustrations.

18. Dunn, Joe. Better Dream House
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1968
Cover and 11 paste-ups.





19. Morgenstern, Christian. Gallowsongs 
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press 1970
Illustrations.

C. Contributions to Periodicals

1. Artists View #0. Tiburon, 1952. Paste-up poem

2. Artists View #5. Tiburon, 1953. Cover illustration.

3. Poems & Pictures #1. 1954. Poem

4. Black Mountain Review #4. 1956. Paste-up poem.

5. Black Mountain Review #6. 1956. Paste-ups

6. Ark II, Moby I. 1956. Translations.

7. J #2. 1959. Notes on painting.

8. J #5. 1959. Cover illustration and comic strip.

9. J #6. 1959. Comic strip.

10. Chelsea #7. 1960. Translations.

11. An Apparition of The Late J. 1960. Poem.

12. Folio 3. Bloomington, Summer 1960. Paste-up.

13. Foot #1. 1960. Poem.

14. Foot #2. 1962. Poem.

15. The Northwest Review 4. Eugene, Winter 1963. Paste-up sequence.

16. Semina 8. Los Angeles, 1963. Paste-up.

17. The Rivoli Review #1. 1964. Cover illustration.

18. The Rivoli Review #2. 1964. Poem.

19. Writing 3. 1964. Cover illustration and five drawings.

20. Open Space #1. 1964. Dream record.

21. Open Space #2. 1964. Dream record and letter.

22. Open Space #Twin 4. 1964. Dream record.

23. Open Space #6. 1964. Dream record and drawing.

24. Open Space #7. 1964. Cover illustration and dream record.

25. Open Space #8. 1964. Paste-up.

26. Open Space #9. 1964. Drawing.

27. Open Space #10. 1964. Cover illustration and paste-up.

28. Open Space #12. 1964. Drawing.

29. Floating Bear #31. 1965. Cover illustration.

30. Insect Trust Gazette #2. 1965. Paste-up.

31. Some / Thing #8. 1966. Paste-up.

32. The Tenth Muse #14. 1967. Cover illustration.

33. The Tenth Muse #15. 1967. Cover illustration.

34. The Tenth Muse #21. 1968. Cover illustration.

35. The Tenth Muse #26. 1969. Cover paste-up.

Further Reading

Hyperallergic
The Paris Review
Siglio Press

Jack Spicer

Poet as Crystal Radio Set

Although known primarily among a coterie of poets in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time of his death in 1965, Jack Spicer has slowly become a towering figure in American poetry. He was born in Los Angeles in 1925 to midwestern parents and raised in a Calvinist jack-spicerhome. While attending college at the University of California-Berkeley, Spicer met fellow poets Robin Blaser and Robert Duncan. The friendship among these three poets would develop into what they referred to as “The Berkeley Renaissance,” which would in turn become the San Francisco Renaissance after Spicer, Blaser and Duncan moved to San Francisco in the 1950s.

In 1954, he co-founded the Six Gallery in San Francisco, which soon became famous as the scene of the October 1955 Six Gallery reading that launched the West Coast Beat movement. In 1955, Spicer moved to New York and then to Boston, where he worked for a time in the Rare Book Room of Boston Public Library. Blaser was also in Boston at this time, and the pair made contact with a number of local poets, including John Wieners, Stephen Jonas, and Joe Dunn.

Spicer returned to San Francisco in 1956 and started working on After Lorca. This book represented a major change in direction for two reasons. Firstly, he came to the conclusion that stand-alone poems (which Spicer referred to as his one-night stands) were unsatisfactory and that henceforth he would compose serial poems. In fact, he wrote to Blaser that ‘all my stuff from the past (except the Elegies and Troilus) looks foul to me.’ Secondly, in writing After Lorca, he began to practice what he called “poetry as dictation”.

In 1957, Spicer ran a workshop called Poetry as Magic at San Francisco State College, which was attended by Duncan, Helen Adam, James Broughton, Joe Dunn, Jack Gilbert, and George Stanley. He also participated in, and sometimes hosted, Blabbermouth Night at a literary bar called The Place. This was a kind of contest of improvised poetry and encouraged Spicer’s view of poetry as being dictated to the poet. (more…)

Jack Spicer

youngspicer

 

Although known primarily among a coterie of poets in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time of his death in 1965, Jack Spicer has slowly become a towering figure in American poetry. He was born in Los Angeles in 1925 to midwestern parents and raised in a Calvinist home. While attending college at the University of California-Berkeley, Spicer met fellow poets Robin Blaser and Robert Duncan. The friendship among these three poets would develop into what they referred to as “The Berkeley Renaissance,” which would in turn become the San Francisco Renaissance after Spicer, Blaser and Duncan moved to San Francisco in the 1950s.

Jack Spicer Checklist:

Section A: Books, Chapbooks, and Pamphlets
Section B: Broadsides, Posters, and Postcards
Section C: Contributions to Books and Other Publications
Section D: Contributions to Periodicals
Section E: Miscellaneous Prose

At Berkeley, Spicer studied linguistics, finishing all but his dissertation for a PhD in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse. In 1950 he lost his teaching assistantship after refusing to sign a “loyalty oath” to the United States, which the University of California required of all its employees under the Sloan-Levering Act. Spicer taught briefly at the University of Minnesota and worked for a short period of time in the rare books room at the Boston Public Library, but he lived the majority of his life in San Francisco working as a researcher in linguistics.

jack-spicer
Jack Spicer at the opening of the 6 Gallery, Halloween 1954. Photo by Robert Berg.

Spicer helped to form the 6 Gallery with five painter friends in 1954. It was at the 6 Gallery during Spicer’s sojourn east that Allen Ginsberg first read Howl. As a native Californian, Spicer tended to view the Beats as usurpers and criticized the poetry and self-promotion of poets like Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as well as the Beat ethos in general. Always weary of labels and definitions, Spicer tended to associate with small, intimate groups of poets who lived in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Spicer acted as a mentor and teacher to these young poets by running poetry workshops and providing (sometimes caustic) advice for young poets.

In a 1975 New York Times article, Richard Ellman concluded: “Jack Spicer’s poems are always poised just on the face side of language, dipping all the way over toward that sudden flip, as if an effort were being made through feeling strongly in simple words to sneak up on the event of a man ruminating about something, or celebrating something, without rhetorical formulae, in his own beautiful inept awkwardness. It’s that poised ineptitude and awkwardness of the anti-academic teacher, the scholar of linguistics who can’t say what he knows in formal language, and has chosen to be very naive and look and hear and do. Spicer was not a very happy poet. He was obsessed with possibilities he could only occasionally realize, and too aware of contemporary life to settle for anything less in his work than what he probably could not achieve. He must have been a great spirit.”

Further Reading:

Herndon, James. EVERYTHING AS EXPECTED
San Francisco, Winter 1973

Foster, Edward Halsey. JACK SPICER 
Boise: Boise State University, 1991

Killian, Kevin and Lewis Ellingham. POET BE LIKE GOD: JACK SPICER AND THE BERKELEY RENAISSANCE
Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1998

Gizzi, Peter. THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT THE COLLECTED LECTURES OF JACK SPICER
Hanover: University Press of New England, 1998

Gizzi, Peter and Kevin Killian. MY VOCABULARY DID THIS TO ME: THE COLLECTED POETRY OF JACK SPICER
Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2008

Online Resources:

Academy of American Poets
The Bancroft Library – Jack Spicer Papers 1939-1982
Book Forum
Emory University – Jack Spicer Papers
Jacket Magazine – excerpt from Vancouver Lecture 3
Penn Sound – audio recordings
Poetry Foundation
University of Buffalo 

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

Dorbin, Sanford. A CHECKLIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITING OF JACK SPICER*
Sacramento: California Librarian, October 1970
[* the first (and only?) checklist of Jack Spicer’s writing]

Johnston, Alastair. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE AUERHAHN PRESS & ITS SUCCESSOR DAVE HASELWOOD BOOKS
Berkeley: Poltroon Press, 1976

Johnston, Alastair. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WHITE RABBIT PRESS
Berkeley: Poltroon Press, 1985

Lepper, Gary M. A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION TO SEVENTY-FIVE MODERN AMERICAN AUTHORS
Berkeley: Serendipity Books, 1976

Four Seasons Foundation

Donald Merriam Allen (Iowa, 1912 – San Francisco, August 29, 2004) was an influential editor, publisher, and translator of contemporary American literature. He is perhaps best known for his project The New American Poetry 1945-1960 (Grove Press, 1960), a seminal anthology that introduced a revolutionary new generation of postwar poetry that was to change the course of American literature.

In 1960, Allen moved from New York to San Francisco, where he established Grey Fox and the Four Seasons Foundation, two significant literary presses where he continued to publish work from Beat, San Francisco Renaissance, Black Mountain, and New York School writers, as well as younger new voices.  Among the authors he published were Richard Brautigan, Robert Creeley, Edward Dorn, Robert Duncan, Jack Kerouac, Joanne Kyger, Philip Lamantia, Frank O’Hara, Charles Olson, John Rechy, Aaron Shurin, Gary Snyder, Jack Spicer, Lew Welch, and Philip Whalen.

Four Seasons Foundation, A Preliminary Checklist

1. Welch, Lew. STEP OUT ONTO THE PLANET
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation 1963
First edition, broadside, 9.5″ x 12.5″, 300 signed copies, offset printed. Printed for the occasion of a reading at Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco, June 12, 1964.

2. Whalen, Philip. THREE MORNINGS
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation 1963
First edition, broadside, 9.5″ x 12.5″, 300 signed copies, offset printed. Printed for the occasion of a reading at Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco, June 12, 1964.

3. Snyder, Gary. NANAO KNOWS
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation 1964
First edition, broadside, 9.5″ x 12.5″, 300 signed copies, offset printed. Printed for the occasion of a reading at Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco, June 12, 1964.

4. Olson, Charles. A BIBLIOGRAPHY ON AMERICA FOR ED DORN
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation (1964)
First edition, saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 6″ x 8″, 16 pages. Published as Writing 1

5. Dorn, Edward; Rumaker, Michael; Tallman, Warren. PROSE 1
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1964
First edition, saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 36 pages. Published as Writing 2

6. 12 POETS & 1 PAINTER
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1964
First edition, saddle-stapled printed and illustrated wrappers, 32 pages. Contributors include: LeRoi Jones, Joanne Kyger, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Duncan, Gary Snyder, Lew Welch, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Olson, Max Finstein, Bruce Boyd. Illustrated by Jess Collins. Published as Writing 3

7. Loewinsohn, Ron. AGAINST THE SILENCES TO COME
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1965
— a. First edition, stapled wrappers, 7.75″ x 9.75″, 16 pages, 1000 copies.
— b. First edition, stapled wrappers, 7.75″ x 9.75″, 16 pages, 26 lettered and signed copies.
Published as Writing 4

8. Kyger, Joanne. THE TAPESTRY AND THE WEB
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1965
— a. First edition, paperback, 61 pages
— b. First edition, hardcover, 61 pages
Published as Writing 5

9. Olson, Charles. PROPRIOCEPTION
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1965
First edition, saddle-stapled wrappers, 18 pages. Published as Writing 6

10. Snyder, Gary. RIPRAP & COLD MOUNTAIN POEMS
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1965
First edition, stapled wrappers, 7.75″ x 9.75″, 50 pages. Published as Writing 7

11. Welch, Lew. HERMIT POEMS
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1965
— a. First edition, saddle-stapled wrappers, 16 pages, 974 copies.
— b. First edition, saddle-stapled wrappers, 16 pages, 26 numbered and signed copies.
Published as Writing 8

Snyder, Gary. SIX SECTIONS FROM MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS WITHOUT END
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1965
stapled wrappers, 42 pages, 1000 copies. Published as Writing 9

Koller, James. THE DOGS & OTHER DARK WOODS
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1966
— a. stapled wrappers, 33 pages, 1000 copies
— b. hardcover, 33 pages, 26 copies, numbered signed
Published as Writing 10

McClure, Michael. LOVE LION BOOK
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1966
— a. stapled wrappers, 24 pages, 1000 copies
— b. hardcover, 24 pages, 40 copies, numbered, signed
Published as Writing 11

Olson, Charles. STOCKING CAP: A STORY
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1966
stapled wrappers, 15 pages
Published as Writing 13

Olson, Charles. IN COLD HELL, IN THICKET
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1967
[Published as Writing 12 ?]

Brautigan, Richard. TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1967
paperback
Published as Writing 14

Hadley, Drummond. THE WEBBING
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1967
stapled wrappers, 52 pages, 500 copies
Published as Writing 15

McClure, Michael. THE SERMONS OF JEAN HARLOW & THE CURSES OF BILLY THE KID
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation with Dave Haselwood Books, 1968
— a. First edition, saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 1200 copies, letterpress printed. Printed by Dave Haselwood.
— b. First edition, hardcover, 50 numbered and signed copies, letterpress printed. Printed by Dave Haselwood.
[Published as Writing 12 ?]

Olson, Charles. CAUSAL MYTHOLOGY
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1969
— a. paperback, 40 pages
— b. hardcover, 40 pages
Published as Writing 16

Blaser, Robin. CUPS
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1968
— a. First edition, saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 24 pages, 1000 copies, letterpress printed. Printed by Graham Mackintosh.
— b. First edition, hardcover, 24 pages, 40 numbered and signed copies, letterpress printed. Printed by Graham Mackintosh.
Published as Writing 17

McClure, Michael. GHOST TANTRAS
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1969
paperback. [Published as Writing 18 ?]

Upton, Charles. TIME RAID
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1969
stapled wrappers, 30 pages
Published as Writing 19

Brautigan, Richard. THE PILL VERSUS THE SPRINGHILL MINE DISASTER
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1968
— a. First edition, perfect-bound photo-illustrated wrappers, 108 pages.
— b. First edition, hardcover, 108 pages, 50 numbered and signed copies.
Published as Writing 20

Brautigan, Richard. IN WATERMELON SUGAR
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1968
— a. First edition, perfect-bound photo-illustrated wrappers, 5.25″ x 8″, 138 pages.
— b. First edition, hardcover, 138 pages, 50 numbered and signed copies.
Published as Writing 21

Creeley, Robert. A Quick Graph: Collected Notes & Essays
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1969
— a. First edition, perfect-bound photo-illustrated wrappers, 365 pages, 1000 copies
— b. hardcover, 365 pages
— c. hardcover in dust jacket, 365 pages
Published as Writing 22.

Creeley, Robert. THE CHARM: EARLY AND UNCOLLECTED POEMS
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1969
— a. First edition, perfect-bound photo-illustrated wrappers, 97 pages
— b. First edition, hardcover, 97 pages
— c. First edition, hardcover, 97 pages, 100 numbered and signed copies,
Published as Writing 23

Whalen, Philip. SEVERANCE PAY
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1970
— a. paperback, 51 pages
— b. paperback, 51 pages, 50 copies, numbered, signed
Published as Writing 24

Lamantia , Philip. THE BLOOD OF THE AIR
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1970
— a. paperback, 45 pages
— b. hardcover, 45 pages, 50 copies, numbered, signed
Published as Writing 25

Millward, Pamela. MOTHER: A NOVEL OF REVOLUTION
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1970
paperback, 57 pages
Published as Writing 26

Olson, Charles. POETRY AND TRUTH: THE BELOIT LECTURES
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1971
— a. paperback, 75 pages
— b. hardcover, 75 pages
Published as Writing 27

Schaff, David. THE MOON BY DAY
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1971
paperback, 114 pages
Published as Writing 28

Herd, Dale. EARLY MORNING WIND AND OTHER STORIES
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1972
paperback
Published as Writing 29

Snyder, Gary. MANZANITA
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1972
paperback

Creeley, Robert. CONTEXTS OF POETRY: INTERVIEWS 1961-1971
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1973
First edition, perfect-bound photo-illustrated wrappers, 214 pages.
Published as Writing 30

Conze, Edward. THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM IN EIGHT THOUSAND LINES AND ITS VERSE SUMMARY
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation 1973
Published as Wheel Series, 1

Olson, Charles. ADDITIONAL PROSE: A BIBLIOGRAPHY ON AMERICA, PROPRIOCEPTION, & OTHER NOTES & ESSAYS
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1974
— a. paperback, 109 pages
— b. hardcover, 109 pages
Published as Writing 31

Lamantia, Philip. TOUCH OF THE MARVELOUS
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1974
— a. paperback, 47 pages
— b. hardcover, 47 pages
Published as Writing 32

Whalen, Philip. THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS: POEMS 1969-1974
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1976
paperback, 57 pages
Published as Writing 33

Dorn, Edward. THE COLLECTED POEMS 1956-1974
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1975
— a. paperback, 277 pages
— b. hardcover, 277 pages
Published as Writing 34

Olson, Charles. MUTHOLOGOS; COLLECTED LETTERS & INTERVIEWS 
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1979
— a. paperback, 230 pages, 2 volumes
— b. hardcover, 230 pages, 2 volumes
Published as Writing 35

Olson, Charles. THE FIERY HUNT AND OTHER PLAYS
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1977
paperback, 125 pages
Published as Writing 36

Whalen, Philip. OFF THE WALL: INTERVIEWS WITH PHILIP WHALEN
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1978
paperback, 88 pages
Published as Writing 37

Dorn, Edward. INTERVIEWS
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1980
paperback, 117 pages
Published as Writing 38

Creeley, Robert. WAS THAT A REAL POEM & OTHER ESSAYS
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation 1979
— a. paperback, 149 pages
— b. hardcover, 149 pages
Published as Writing 39

Dorn, Edward. VIEWS
Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1980
— a. paperback, 142 pages
— b. hardcover, 142 pages
Published as Writing 40

Gluck, Robert. ELEMENTS OF A COFFEE SERVICE
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1982
paperback, 97 pages
Published as Writing 41

Whalen, Philip. HEAVY BREATHING: POEMS 1967-1980
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1983
paperback, 207 pages
Published as Writing 42

Shurin, Aaron. THE GRACES
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1983
paperback, 72 pages
Published as Writing 42

References consulted:

Bohn, Dave. OYEZ: THE AUTHORIZED CHECKLIST
Berkeley: n.p., 1997

Hawley, Bob. CHECKLISTS OF SEPARATE PUBLICATIONS OF POETS AT THE FIRST BERKELEY POETRY CONFERENCE 1965
Berkeley: Oyez/Cody’s, 1965

Johnston, Alastair. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE AUERHAHN PRESS & ITS SUCCESSOR DAVE HASELWOOD BOOKS
Berkeley: Poltroon Press, 1976

Lepper, Gary M. A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION TO SEVENTY-FIVE MODERN AMERICAN AUTHORS
Berkeley: Serendipity Books, 1976