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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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Online Resources:

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