Tag Archives: Piero Heliczer

Locus Solus

“L’écriteau bref qui s’offre à l’oeil apitoyé”
– Roussel

The first generation of New York School poets took their first shot at editing their own magazine in Locus Solus, a title that marks a private space both in its meaning (solitary place) and its derivation. It alludes to a 1914 novel of the same title by Raymond Roussel, the obscure French author whose work provided a secret meeting ground for the New York School poets. The idea for the magazine originated with Harry Mathews and John Ashbery, both living in France at the time. Mathews was able to provide funding through a recent inheritance, but otherwise his interest in the magazine was principally devoted to seeing installments of his novel The Conversions published in the first three issues, though the final issue (No. 5, 1962) also contains his poem “The Ring” and his translation of a portion of Roussel’s Locus Solus. Ashbery provided editorial leadership by assembling a “Double Issue of New Poetry” (numbers 3-4, winter 1962) and recruiting James Schuyler and Kenneth Koch to edit other issues. Koch’s “Special Collaborations Issue” (No. 2, summer 1961) remains a significant reference point for the practice that has become a defining feature of New York School poetry. Schuyler’s issues, the first and last (No. 1, winter 1961; No. 5, 1962), are miscellaneous but nevertheless formed by a deliberate intention to represent a group identity as Schuyler conceived it. In soliciting a contribution from his longtime friend Chester Kallman (1921–75), whose work appeared in the final issue, Schuyler explained that “part of the unstated objective” of Locus Solus was to offer “a riposte at The New American Poetry [1960], which has so thoroughly misrepresented so many of us” (it did not represent Kallman at all).

As a correction or supplement to The New American Poetry, 1945-1960, the most important contributions of Locus Solus are the re-introduction of Edwin Denby (represented in the first issue by nine sonnets from Mediterranean Cities [1956]) and the forecasting of Ashbery’s “experimental” turn in poems later collected in The Tennis Court Oath (1962; “The New Realism,” Locus Solus, Nos. 3–4) and Rivers and Mountains (1966; “Into the Dusk-Charged Air,” Locus Solus, No. 5). The poets’ work in prose is also represented in Schuyler’s “Current Events” (Locus Solus, No. 1); an early installment of the collaborative novel by Schuyler and Ashbery, A Nest of Ninnies (Locus Solus, No. 2); and Denby’s memoir “The Thirties” (Locus Solus, No. 5). The representation of the first-generation New York School poets in Locus Solus is completed with work by Kenward Elmslie, Barbara Guest, Koch, and Frank O’hara. The second generation begins to emerge with names that were to become prominent (Bill Berkson, Ted Berrigan, Joseph Ceravolo, John Perreault) and some others who had connected with Koch and O’Hara through their workshops at the New School (Jean Boudin, Allan Kaplan, Ruth Krauss). Another workshop student, Michael Benedikt (1935-2007), though not usually associated with the New York School, made his closest connection in the context of Locus Solus, assuming the title of managing editor for the final issue.

Although handsomely printed on fine paper, Locus Solus was not illustrated. It included writing by various authors with ties to the visual arts that were so important to New York School poetry. Fairfield Porter (and his wife, Anne), Robert Dash (a painter friend of the Porters), Musa McKim (the wife of Philip Guston), Larry Rivers, and Harold Rosenberg all contributed poems. Rudolph Burckhardt published Love in Three Acts: A Swiss Play (Locus Solus, No. 1). Using the form of a play, Jane Freilicher and Koch assigned lines to various parts of “The Car” (Locus Solus, No. 2) in a demonstration of collaboration on several levels. In the final issue, poems by Gerard Malanga and Piero Heliczer (1937-1993) signal the Andy Warhol circle that would expand throughout the coming decade to take in many New York School poets.

–Diggory, Terence. “Locus Solus” Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets. 2009


1. LOCUS SOLUS, No. 1, edited by James Schuyler
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, Winter 1960-1961

First edition, sewn-signatures bound into printed wrappers, 5” x 7”, 168 pages. There were 100 special copies printed in a limited numbered issue. Printed by Imprenta Graficas Miramar, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

  • Contents:
    1. Kenneth Koch – “On the Go”
      Kenneth Koch – “The Circus”
      Kenneth Koch – “The Railway Stationery”
      Barbara Guest – “Afternoons I: The Location of Things”
      Barbara Guest – “Afternoons II: Windy Afternoon”
      Barbara Guest – “Afternoons III: Russians at the Beach”
      Barbara Guest – “Melisande”
      Barbara Guest – “River Side”
      Barbara Guest – “Palm Trees”
      Barbara Guest – “All Grey-Haired My Sisters”
      James Schuyler – “Current Events”
      Anne Porter – “The First of May”
      Ebbe Borregaard – “Other stories of the beauty wapiti”
      Ebbe Borregaard – “wapiti 3”
      Ebbe Borregaard – “from Sprach””
      John Ashbery – “Idaho”
      John Ashbery – “Spring Twilight”
      John Ashbery – “Thoughts of a Young Girl”
      John Ashbery – “The Passive Preacher”
      John Ashbery – “Winter”
      John Ashbery – “A White Paper”
      Harry Mathews – “The Conversions (I)”
      Frank O’Hara – “Poem” [“To be idiomatic in a vacuum…”]
      Frank O’Hara – “Overlooking the River”
      Frank O’Hara – “East River”
      Frank O’Hara – “Ducal Days”
      Frank O’Hara – “Locarno, to James Schuyler”
      Frank O’Hara – “The Opera”
      Frank O’Hara – “House”
      Frank O’Hara – “Failures of Spring”
      Frank O’Hara – “Adieu to Norman, Bonjour to Joan and Jean-Paul”
      Frank O’Hara – “Far from the Porte des Lilas and the Rue Pergolese, to Joan Mitchell”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Trastevere A Dedication”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Venice”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Villa D’este”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Olévano Romano”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Sant’ Angelo D’ischia”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Positano”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Delos”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Mykonos”
      Edwin Denby – “from Mediterranean Cities: Ciampino Envoi”
      Robin Blaser – “Cups”
      George Montgomery – “The Painters”
      George Montgomery – “The Poet”
      George Montgomery – “Rocks under me are hard”
      George Montgomery – “D.W.”
      Rudy Burckhardt – “Love in Three Acts: a Swiss Play”
      Fairfield Porter – “The Mountain”
      Fairfield Porter – “To Laurence”
      Fairfield Porter – “At the End of Summer”
      Fairfield Porter – “When the morning train…”

2. LOCUS SOLUS, No. 2, A SPECIAL ISSUE OF COLLABORATIONS, edited by Kenneth Koch
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, Summer 1961

First edition, sewn-signatures bound into printed wrappers, 5” x 7.25”, 208 pages. There were 50 special copies printed in a limited numbered issue. Printed by Atar S.A., Geneva.

  • Contents:
    1. John Ashbery – “To a Waterfowl”
      Five Chinese Poets – “A Garland of Roses” (translated by Donald Keene)
      Sei Shonagon and The Empress Sadako – “Poem about Saisho” (translated by Arthur Waley)
      Basho, Bonsho, Fumikuni and Kyorai – “The Kite’s Feathers” (translated by The Nippon Gkujutsu Shinkokai)
      Kakei, Basho – “November” (translated by Donald Keene)
      Basho, Ichiei, Sora and Sensui – “Gather Seawards” (translated by Donald Keene)
      Sogi, Shohaku and Socno – “Three Poets at Minase” (translated by Donald Keene)
      Blacatz and Vidal – “Tenso” (translated by Paul Blackburn)
      Vidal and Lanza – “Tenso” (translated by Paul Blackburn)
      Aragon, Salvatge, Foix and Auriac – “Coblas” (translated by Paul Blackburn)
      John Fletcher and William Shakespeare – “Song”
      John Donne and Henry Goodyere – “A Letter”
      Abraham Cowley and Richard Crashaw – “On Hope”
      John Suckling and Edmund Waller – “In Answer of Sir John Suckling’s Verses”
      Thomas Chatterton – “Onn Oure Ladies Chyrche”
      Thomas Chatterton – “The Account of W. Canynges Feast”
      Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey – “Two Passages from ‘Joan of Arc'”
      Marinetti, Cangiullo – “Public Garden: A Play” (translated by Kenneth Koch)
      André Breton and Paul Eluard – “from The Immaculate Conception” (translated by John Ashbery)
      Paul Eluard and Benjamin Peret – “Surrealist Proverbs” (translated by Kenneth Koch)
      André Breton and Yves Tanguy – “Question and Answer Game” (translated by Kenneth Koch)
      Paul Eluard and Others – “Cadavres Exquis” (translated by Kenneth Koch)
      René Char and Paul Eluard – “New” (translated by John Ashbery)
      René Char and Paul Eluard – “Landings” (translated by John Ashbery)
      James McAuley and Harold Stewart – “Boult to Marina”
      James McAuley and Harold Stewart – “Sybilline”
      John Ashbery and James Schuyler – “A Nest of Ninnies”
      Frank O’Hara – “Choses Passageres”
      Joseph Ceravolo and John Perreault – “Milk”
      Daniel Krakauer – “The Jack Who Yawned”
      Michael Benedikt and Milton Gilman – “Under the Stones, Where it is Shy”
      Jane Freilicher and Kenneth Koch – “The Car”
      Bill Berkson and Kenward Elmslie – “Armagnac or The Visitor”
      William Burroughs and Gregory Corso – “Everywhere March Your Head”
      William Burroughs and Gregory Corso – “Sons of Your In”
      Gregory Corso – “Cut Up”
      Ruth Krauss – “News”
      Ruth Krauss – [untitled] “compare thee…”
      John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “The Young Collectors”
      John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “Crone Rhapsody”
      John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “The Inferno”
      John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “Gottlieb’s Rainbow”
      John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “New Year’s Eve”
      John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch – “A Servant to Servants”
      Harry Mathews – “The Conversions (II)”
      Kenneth Koch – “A Note on this Issue”

3. LOCUS SOLUS, Nos. 3-4, NEW POETRY, edited by John Ashbery
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, Winter 1961-1962

First edition, sewn-signatures bound into printed wrappers, 5” x 7.25”, 296 pages. Printed by Atar S.A., Geneva.

  • Contents:
    1. Michael Benedikt – “Victoria Falls”
      Michael Benedikt – “The Estate”
      Michael Benedikt – “In the Park”
      Michael Benedikt – “Traditions of Farming”
      Leroi Jones – “A Long Poem for Myself”
      Leroi Jones – “Style”
      Leroi Jones – “The End of Man is His Beauty”
      Leroi Jones – “A Poem for Myself, the Fool”
      Daniel Krakauer – “Selestina”
      Daniel Krakauer – “Prince Valiant’s Childhood”
      Bill Berkson – “Four Great Songs”
      Bill Berkson – “Warnings”
      Bill Berkson – “A Hot Day”
      Bill Berkson – “Poem, to Joe Lesueur”
      Bill Berkson – “Breath”
      Bill Berkson – “All You Want”
      Bill Berkson – “Pollyanna”
      Welton Smith – “If I Could Hold You for Light”
      Welton Smith – “This Sojourn in the Middle of Summer”
      Larry Rivers – “The Song of Polish Night”
      Larry Rivers – “1953”
      Larry Rivers – “The Month”
      Larry Rivers – “An Ape is in the Bedroom”
      Larry Rivers – “Only God Can Make a Tree”
      Larry Rivers – “Benjamin F”
      Robin Blaser – “The Park”
      Diane Di Prima – “Moon Mattress”
      Dennis Quinn – “from Life Shapes, Clock and Vein”
      Dennis Quinn – “from Life Shapes, Candles”
      Dennis Quinn – “from Life Shapes, You”
      Dennis Quinn – “from Life Shapes, Wish”
      Dennis Quinn – “Question”
      Dennis Quinn – “Off Guam”
      Dennis Quinn – “High”
      Dennis Quinn – “In Tangier”
      Alan Ansen – “Moonling”
      Alan Ansen – “Prohibition”
      Alan Ansen – “On and On and On”
      Robert Lax – [untitled] “the port…”
      Robert Lax – [untitled] “shadows…”
      Robert Lax – [untitled] “mystery of water…”
      Robert Lax – [untitled] “to the center…”
      Jean Boudin – “Second Story Brownstone”
      Jean Boudin – “Of the Nile”
      Frank O’Hara – “How to Get There”
      Frank O’Hara – “Favorite Painting in the Metropolitan”
      Frank O’Hara – “Wind”
      Frank O’Hara and Bill Berkson – “from The Memorandums of Angelicus Fobb”
      Frank O’Hara and Bill Berkson – “FYI 6/26/61 (The Picnic Hour)”
      George Stanley – “The Death of Orpheus”
      George Stanley – “Moonlight”
      Paul Carroll – “Postcard for Joseph Cornell”
      Denis Roche – [untitled] “As a matter of fact…” (translate by John Ashbery)
      Marcelin Pleynet – “of coal” (translated by John Ashbery)
      Marcelin Pleynet – “the new republic” (translated by John Ashbery)
      Marcelin Pleynet – “Black” (translated by John Ashbery)
      Pierre Martory – “Evenings in Rochefort” (translated by John Ashbery)
      Pierre Martory – “Tchat”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “A Great Sadness”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “The Climb”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “The Forest”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “Different Fragments of 2 Different Negro Poems”
      Joseph Ceravolo – “Water: How Weather Feels the Cotton Hotels”
      Musa McKim – “The News from Here”
      Musa McKim – “A Theory”
      Musa McKim – “The Train”
      Allan Kaplan – “Memory in France”
      Allan Kaplan – “Soliloquy of a Boat”
      Allan Kaplan – “Traffic Signals…”
      Hugh Amory – “from The Federalists”
      Daisy Aldan – “Zina”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Shirley Temple Surrounded by Lions”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Solar Rebus”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Ghandi”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Experts at Veneers”
      James Schuyler – “December”
      Gerard Malanga – “Psyche”
      James Koller – [untitled] “crouched in mothers musk…”
      James Merrill – “Letter from Egypt”
      David Ball – “A Recent Conversation”
      John Ashbery – “The New Realism”
      Furman Stout – “Prose Poem for Clara”
      Landis Everson – “from The Little Ghosts I Played With”
      John Perreault – “Circles”
      John Perreault – “O Whatta Beautiful Polish City So Shiny Aluminum”
      John Perreault – “Paris”
      Barbara Guest – “Dardanella”
      Barbara Guest – “His Jungle”
      Barbara Guest and Sa’Di Koylan – “Turkish”
      Anselm Hollo – “Text 9.iii. 1961”
      Kenneth Koch – “Ma Provence”
      Kenneth Koch – “Rialto”
      Kenneth Koch – “The Steam Bath”
      Kenneth Koch – “The Coat License”
      Kenneth Koch – “How Fair”
      Kenneth Koch – “Bon Dieu”
      Kenneth Koch – “The Echo”
      Jack Foss – “The Categorical Avoidance”
      Robert Magowan – “Summer of 1958”
      Robert Magowan – “Myra”
      Thomas Jackrell – “Grandma”
      Thomas Jackrell – “A Plan”
      Thomas Jackrell – “Art Finally Safe”
      Thomas Jackrell – “The River”
      Thomas Jackrell – “from Green Book: Cactuscope”
      Thomas Jackrell – “from Green Book”
      Thomas Jackrell – “The South Central States of America”
      Harry Mathews – “The Conversions (III)”

5. LOCUS SOLUS, No. 5, edited by James Schuyler
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, 1962

First edition, sewn-signatures bound into printed wrappers, 5” x 7.25”, 184 pages. Printed by Atar S.A., Geneva.

  • Contents:
    1. Gerard Malanga – “Ode to Turchetti”
      Gerard Malanga – “The Girl Stands Under the Mobile at the Museum”
      Gerard Malanga – “Amour, Amour, Amour”
      Harold Rosenberg – “Ballad of Moral Beauty”
      Chester Kallman – “Wanderer”
      Chester Kallman – “Weighty Questions”
      Edwin Denby – “The Thirties”
      Frank O’Hara – “Mary Desti’s Ass”
      Frank O’Hara – “Madrid”
      Frank O’Hara – “Poem” (“Twin spheres full of fur and noise…”
      Frank O’Hara – “Blue Territory, to Helen Frankenthaler”
      Frank O’Hara – “Lebanon”
      Ted Berrigan – “Poem in the Traditional Manner”
      Carl Morse – “First Snow: Yorkville and Elsewhere”
      Carl Morse – “The Crisis: Tompkins Park and After”
      Carl Morse – “Anchor Demolition: East 82nd Street”
      Musa Guston – “On Your Birthday”
      Musa Guston – “Brooklyns”
      Piero Heliczer – “The Beautiful Ambush”
      Piero Heliczer – “The Diving Bell”
      Anselm Hollo – “A Letter, Both Intimate and Didactic”
      Thomas Anhava – “Elegy for Night” (translated by Anselm Hollo)
      Frank Lissauer – “Repercussion”
      Frank Lissauer – “Towards Silence”
      Frank Lissauer – “A Proposition”
      John Ashbery – “Into the Dusk-Charged Air”
      Harold Rosenberg – “Liberalism and Conservatism–and Literature”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Cave in”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Marbled Chuckle in the Savannahs”
      Kenward Elmslie – “Circus Nerves and Worries”
      Barbara Guest – “Candies”
      Donna Kerness – “Insomnia VI”
      John Wieners – “The Acts of Youth”
      John Wieners – “The Mermaid’s Song”
      John Wieners – “An Anniversary of Death”
      Richard Elliott – “9 Elaborations for 26 Characters”
      Harry Mathews – “The Ring”
      Jean Boudin – “Politics”
      Robert Harson – “Lacrimae”
      John N. Morris – “Reno”
      Daisy Aldan – “Facility phrases”
      Edwin Denby – “Snoring in New York: an elegy”
      Raymond Roussel – “Locus Solus (I)” (translated by Harry Mathews)
      Michael Cain – “Lovepoetry”
      Robert Dash – “Mémoires d’autres”
      Kenneth Koch – “The Islands”
      Kenneth Koch – “The Departure from Hydra”
      Tony Whedon – “Sounds”
      Charles Edward Eaton – “Chimera”
      Charles Edward Eaton – “Unlikely Legend”
      David Beckwith – “Point”
      David Beckwith – “Abendslied”
      Michael Benedikt – “Sunlight on the Terrace”
      Michael Benedikt – “With Love”
      Michael Benedikt – “Island Life”
      James Schuyler – “April and its Forsythia”
      James Schuyler – “Grand Duo”
      James Schuyler – “Looking Forward to See Jane Real Soon”
      Mary Caroline Richards – “Holy Poems: Prayers”

Online Resources:

· Reality Studio – Locus Solus
· Georgia Tech: Curating the New York School – Locus Solus

Piero Heliczer – Contributions to Books and Anthologies

>> return to PIERO HELICZER main page >>

SECTION B:
This index includes contributions to books and anthologies


1. BEST POEMS OF 1957: Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards, edited by Robert T. Moore *
Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1958

Heliczer contribution: “Rogan” [poem] [first published in Accent, Summer 1957]



2. CHILDREN OF ALBION: POETRY OF THE UNDERGROUND IN BRITAIN, edited by Michael Horovitz *
Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969

Heliczer contribution: “England” [poem]




3. P78 ANTHOLOGY (MANDALA 1112), edited by Harry Hoogstraten and Jos Knipscheer
Amsterdam: Mandala, 1979

Heliczer contribution: “L’Underground c’est moi” [prose], “The Cast of the Sainte Therese” [prose]



4. VOTE FOR PIERO HELICZER *
n.p.: privately printed, c.1990

Heliczer contribution: The first 23 pages reproduce typed copies of a selection of Piero Heliczer’s early periodical contributions: Patterns (Spring and Fall 1958); Quarterly Review of Literature (1958); Accent (Summer 1957); The Harvard Advocate (1955); New Departures #1 (Summer 1959); Audience (December 1955); The Cambridge Review (Spring 1955); and Audience (1957);  a prose piece by Heliczer, titled ‘Show Him In’

[*not in archive]

Matrix Press

>> return to PIERO HELICZER main page >>

[note: this Booktryst essay has been excerpted  for clarity of topic.]

A Checklist of Matrix Press (London 1961-4)
by Alastair Johnston

Tom Raworth started Matrix Press in 1961. His first book was a tiny edition of poems by Pete Brown. He then issued three numbers of a magazine called Outburst. One, in collaboration with the Finnish poet Anselm Hollo and the American Gregory Corso was Outburst: The Minicab War, a humorous salvo in the class war.  Outburst became part of a network of avant-garde writers and aired the trans-Atlantic voices of Creeley, Dorn, Levertov, Fee Dawson, and Olson for the first time in Britain.

In an interview with Andy Spragg, Raworth explained his reason for starting his own press:

TR: I was following threads of people I liked in the Allen anthology [The New American Poetry, edited by Don Allen, Grove Press, 1960]… Dorn, O’Hara, Creeley, Ginsberg and so on… hard to do then in London (though Better Books and Zwemmers in Charing Cross Road were occasional sources) and I got used to having to write to the US for books. It crossed my mind that if I liked this stuff there might be a few others who would too. Around then, late 1959 early 1960, my father-in-law gave us a delayed wedding present of £100. I can’t remember how I’d got interested in letterpress printing: it might be genetic… years later I discovered my father had wanted to be a printer, and that an ancestor, Ruth Raworth, had printed one of Milton’s early books in the 17th C. Anyway, I got a small Adana press ?rst and then a larger treadle press. Offset printing was slowly taking over and letterpress equipment and type was not too expensive then. By late 1960/early 1961 I was in correspondence with Dorn, Creeley and others in the US and had met Anselm Hollo, Michael Horovitz, Pete Brown and others here. I printed the ?rst small booklet (a couple of tiny poems by Pete Brown) on the Adana. I was working then in the Euston Road, at Burroughs Wellcome, the manufacturing pharmacists, and a photographer friend there, Steve Fletcher, had a brother who was an engraver and shared a workshop just off Oxford Street with a letterpress printer. They let me move the treadle press there so they could use it for small jobs and in return I could have access whenever I wanted. I’d met, and become good friends with, David Ball and Piero Heliczer (also a letterpress printer with his Dead Language in Paris). So I did small books of Dorn, Ball and Heliczer. And two and a half issues of the magazine Outburst. I had to set two pages at a time (only enough type for that) on the ?oor at night after work, carry it into town the next day, print the pages on the press with whatever colour ink was in use, go home, sort the type back into the case and start again.

PUBLICATIONS

1. Brown, Pete. SAMPLE PACK
London: Matrix Press, 1961

According to Raworth, about 6 copies were printed. The poems were collected in Let Em Roll Kafka, Brown’s book from Fulcrum Press (London, 1969). Best-known today as the lyricist for the rock band Cream, Pete Brown was Britain’s first performance poet who earned his living giving readings. He was the first reader at the Morden Tower in Newcastle, one of the most important poetry venues in England in the 60s.

“When John Lennon was still in art college Pete was turning on Liverpool with his synthesis of Beat poetry, Bop jazz, and British humour.” — Stuart Montgomery

2. OUTBURST, No. 1, edited by Tom Raworth
London: Matrix Press, 1961

Handset by Raworth in Gill Sans, Perpetua, Times Bold, Ultra Bodoni. Printed by Richard Moore and Sons. Cover photo (& 2 more inside) by Steve Fletcher.

Contributors include Anselm Hollo, Tram Combs, Robert Creeley, Fielding Dawson, Denise Levertov, Ed Dorn, Christopher Logue, Gary Snyder, Charles Olson, Michael Horovitz, Piero Heliczer, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Pete Brown, Gregory Corso, and others.

The advertisements for other little magazines, like Migrant, Yugen and New Departures, show how closely networked the avant-garde was in the 1960s. Gael Turnbull (1928-2004) was a key figure in the literary small press movement. A Scottish doctor he started Migrant Press in 1957 and continued operating it (with a mimeograph machine) after he moved to Ventura, California. He published many of the same poets as Raworth, including Dorn, Hollo and Ian Hamilton Finlay, whose The Dancers Inherit the Party is reviewed in this issue of Outburst.

3. OUTBURST: THE MINICAB WAR
London: Matrix Press, 1961

White or blue wrappers, each page in a different color of ink. Cover photo by Steve Fletcher.

According to Raworth: “This issue was done with the hope that it might give a benevolent lift to the satirists of the Establishment, who want very much to destroy a possibly REAL revolution by making entertainment of it, and England’s future darker — The Minicab War is the Synthesis of Class War.”

Note: In June 1961 Michael Gotla of Welbeck launched a fleet of 400 minicabs on the streets of London, that carried advertising and undercut the well-established black cabs. Soon things turned nasty with hundreds of bogus phone calls to the minicab companies ordering cabs, black taxis hemming in the smaller vehicles, even vandalism as the situation escalated. In an editorial in August, under the headline “What the Public Wants,” The Times wrote: “It is fairly obvious that for many people in London finding a taxi has become too chancy and paying for it too stiff.” Minicab War contains spurious interviews with T. S. Eliot, John Betjeman, (Prime Minister) Harold MacMillan, George Barker, Bertrand Russell, Martin Bormann, & various cabbies. The perpetrators were Tom Raworth (O’Moore), Gregory Corso (De la Rue) & Anselm Hollo (Sykes). Martin Bormann was Hitler’s personal secretary. It was believed he had escaped Germany after the War and fled to South America so he remained alive in British popular culture, resurfacing on the beach in Brazil with Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs in the Sex Pistols’ movie The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (dir: Julian Temple, 1980).

4. OUTBURST, No. 2 , edited by Tom Raworth
London: Matrix Press, 1963

Some pages printed in colored ink.

Contributors include Douglas Woolf, Paul Blackburn, Leroi Jones, Fielding Dawson, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Eigner, Ruth Weiss, Ed Dorn, David Meltzer, Alan Sillitoe, Carol Bergé, Piero Heliczer, Paul Klee (translated by Anselm Hollo), Pentti Saarikoski (translated by Anselm Hollo), Philip Whalen, and others.

5. Heliczer, Piero. & I DREAMT I SHOT ARROWS IN MY AMAZON BRA
Brighton: Dead Language & London: Matrix Press

Cover photo by Ph Mechanicus; the image is reused from the last page of Outburst, No. 2.

According to Raworth:  “Piero was living with us; he and I printed in on my treadle press which was off Oxford Street in Richard Moore’s print-shop…”

According to Alastair Johnston: “Ambitious design using the gutter as a focal point. Each page has a black bar printed in the gutter which then continues across the fold. Large condensed Gill Sans headers make striking compositions. The text is in Perpetua with Times Bold. One leaf is printed on lavender paper.”

6. Hollo, Anselm. HISTORY
London: Matrix Press, 1963

Set in Linotype Times, printed on Brookleigh Bond wove paper; price 3 shillings.

Colophon: This book has been set in Times Roman type. The two drawings are by Ken Lansdowne. Nelson is by Gregory Corso. A photograph of the cover illustration was supplied by Steve Fletcher. All blocks were made by Barry Hall. 350 copies were printed. Designed and printed by Tom Raworth

AJ: History by Anselm seems like the transitional book from matrix to goliard, since barry made the blocks. i guess you met him at this point and decided to collaborate from then on? it looks like a really light impression, or else some of it is offset, and it says typeset and printed by you, so what press were you using?

TR:  It was done on my treadle press, the Adana, smaller than the later Goliard press one, which was stored at the print shop of Richard Moore, three floors up off Oxford Street where the deal was that he could use it for small jobs (his main press was a large Heidelberg). That came about because one of the other two craftsmen in the shop, the engraver (there was also a diestamper and process engraver) was the brother of my friend Steve Fletcher a photographer, who took the photo on the front of the second issue of Outburst.

7. Dorn, Edward. FROM GLOUCESTER OUT
London: Matrix Press, March 1964

Drawing by Barry Hall

From the Colophon: This book is set in Times Roman. There are 350 copies Designed and printed by Tom Raworth, Flat 3, Stanley House, Finchley Rd, London NW11 20.3.64

According to Johnston: Dorn visited England to teach at the University of Essex. He and Raworth became lifelong friends and collaborated later at Zephyrus Image, when both were living in San Francisco in the mid to late 70s.

8. Ball, David.TWO POEMS
London: Matrix Press, August 1964

Drawing by Gene Mahon. This book is set in Baskerville and Times Roman (cover title in Verona).

Angus MacLise – Books and Broadsides

>> return to ANGUS MACLISE main page >>

SECTION A:
This index includes books, chapbooks, booklets and broadsides


1. MacLise, Angus. STRAIGHT FARTHEST BLOOD TOWARDS (OPENING SECTION)
ph_straightFirst edition:
Paris: The Dead Language Press, 1959
Single 6.25″ x 22″ sheet folded three times to make six printed pages and a cover, 5.5″ x 6.5″, letterpress printed and with a block print  cover by Piero Heliczer. Angus MacLise’s first publication.

According to BeatBooks: It was after noticing a copy of this title in City Lights Books that La Monte Young first became aware of Angus MacLise. When the latter moved to New York in 1961 they began performing together regularly, and it was through Young that MacLise first met John Cale.

2. MacLise, Angus. YEAR, A WEDNESDAY PAPER SUPPLEMENT
ph_year
First edition:
New York: The Dead Language Press, 1961
Multiple sheets tape-bound to make a single accordion fold with 12 panels, one for each of the twelve months and an entry for each day, 4.6″ x 9″ (folded), letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Cover illustration, “The Ascension of St. Rose of Lima”, by Aubrey Beardsley.

According to BeatBooks: The publication prints MacLise’s renaming of every day of the year, some simply assigned a number, but most given poetic names, such as “day of the hearts blood”, “day of the two daughters”, “the shouts from the sea”, and “last day of the autumn feast”. La Monte Young used the calendar to date many of his recordings from the period, including “B-flat Dorian Blues (Fifth Day Of The Hammer)”.

3. MacLise, Angus. THE NEW UNIVERSAL SOLAR CALENDAR
First Edition:
New York: George Maciunas, (1969)
Broadside, 20.5″ x 23.5″, black calligraphy and illustrations offset printed on white stock. Layout by Paolo Lionni. Production by George Macunias.

Note: Similar to MacLise’s earlier “Year,” The New Universal Solar Calendar renames the days of the year, but in this format prints the phrases in his characteristic calligraphic hand, producing a full artwork that actually seems to take itself a bit more seriously than most of the multiples produced by Macianus at the time. [see Fluxus Codex page 398]

4. MacLise, Angus. THE CLOUD DOCTRINE
First edition:
Kathmandu: Dreamweapon Press, 1974
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 7.5″ x 10.75″, 16 pages, letterpress printed on handmade paper. Cover woodblock print from a photograph by Ira Cohen.

Note: The Cloud Doctrine was one of the first books produced by the Kathmandu beat poetry presses, and set the template for the books issued in this style.

5. MacLise, Angus. THE SUBLIMINAL REPORT
a. First edition:
Kathmandu: Bardo Matrix, 1975
Machine-sewn in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 10.75″, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies, letterpress printed on handmade paper. Cover woodblock print from a photograph by Ira Cohen. Published as Starstreams Poetry Series, No. 4

According to Ira Cohen: The Subliminal Report included two photos printed in silver ink on white machine made paper, one a mylar portrait of Angus taken in New York, the other a stone garuda sinking into the ground in Dhoka Tole just in front of the Raj Photo Shop where the negatives were developed and first printed…There was a very special collaboration going on here between the artists and artisans, Nepalis and foreigners, which was mutually inspiring and gives the books their unique quality. The Subliminal Report was the first book to utilize Bhutanese silk paper as cover stock.

b. First edition, revised facsimile:
New York: SZ Press, 1984

Photocopied reissue printed in advance of the publication of The Map of Dusk, with brief introductory text by John Fallon and Carolyn Betensky.

6. MacLise, Angus. THE MAP OF DUSK
First edition:
New York: SZ Press, 1984
This is the first publication of the poem in full. An excerpted version of The Map of Dusk appeared in a previous publication by Piero Heliczer in 1959. Illustrated with calligraphic drawings by the author. Includes introduction by Ira Cohen.

Angus Maclise

Angus MacLise was a musician, poet, artist, and counterculture figure who was a mainstay of the downtown New York arts scene in the 1960s.


Angus MacLise Checklist:

Section A: Books and Broadsides
Section B: Contributions to Periodicals
Section C: Recordings
Section D: Publications Edited and Published


· The Dead Language [see also Piero Heliczer]
· Bardo Matrix


Angus MacLise was born in Bridgeport Connecticut in 1938. He studied music and dance before moving to Paris in the late 1950s. In Paris he and his high school friend, avant-garde filmmaker Piero Heliczer, started the Dead Language Press in 1958. The press specialized in poetry and published early works by poets such as Gregory Corso, Olivia de Haulleville, Hendrik Jan Marsman, Anselm Hollo, and others. MacLise also published several of his own poems and manuscripts through the press, including the pamphlet Year that renames all of the days of the year—a convention that MacLise and many of his friends used in dating correspondence or artworks.

MacLise and Heliczer moved back to the United States in the early 1960s, settling in New York and bringing the press with them. In New York, MacLise continued his publishing efforts, while also pursuing music and becoming involved in avant-garde theatrics and performance art pieces. He was a member of the Theater of Eternal Music, started and organized by composer and musician LaMonte Young. He was a regular participant in Fluxus events in New York City and appeared in many experimental films being made by his friends in the downtown arts scene at the time, notably Piero Heliczer and Ira Cohen.

MacLise was a founding member of the Velvet Underground—he was introduced to the band through his roommate John Cale and became the band’s first drummer. Though he helped to found the band, and may have even given it its name, his time with the Velvet Underground was short due to MacLise’s disinterest in creating art for profit or on a schedule dictated by anything other than his own inspiration. He does not appear on any of the band’s recordings.

In 1967 MacLise moved briefly to Berkeley, where he joined the Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company, a street performance troupe that included the painter and illustrator Hetty McGee. McGee and MacLise were married in Golden Gate Park in a ceremony officiated by Timothy Leary. The two would later have a son, Ossian, who began living in a Tibetan monastery at the age of 4 and was recognized at 7 as a tulku—a reincarnation of a lama.

The couple moved back to New York where MacLise again collaborated with Ira Cohen, scoring and appearing in Cohen’s film The Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda.

In 1970 Angus and Hetty began a tour of Asia that ended with their settling in Kathmandu, Nepal. In Nepal, MacLise helped operate the Spirit Catcher Bookshop in Kathmandu which became a gathering place for the growing community of artist and poet expatriates living and working in the area. He founded a literary and poetry journal, Ting Pa, and in 1974 he and Ira Cohen started the Bardo Matrix publishing venture. They published work by MacLise, Paul Bowles, Charles Henri Ford among others.

During this time he was particularly interested in calligraphic art and works on paper. Much of his own work from his time in Nepal includes calligraphic illustrations in a made-up script. He was working on establishing a handmade paper company, Himalayan Paper, Inc. at the time of his death.

MacLise died in 1979 in Kathmandu, Nepal at the age of 41.


References Consulted:

Dreamweapon: The Art and Life of Angus MacLise 1938-1979
New York: Boo-Hooray, 2011


Online Resources:

Blastitude – Angus MacLise: Master of Synthesis

Columbia University Libraries – Angus MacLise papers

Mela Foundation – Angus Maclise: A Brief Chronology

Piero Heliczer – Biography and Bibliography

>> return to PIERO HELICZER main page >>

SECTION G:
This index includes biographical and bibliographical resources


1. IVY MAGAZINE, Vol. 3, No. 2, edited by Undergraduates of the Ivy League
New Haven: Ivy Magazine, February 1959

Related content: “Rebellion Accomplished” by Gavin Scott, an early piece about Heliczer’s time at Harvard who was then living in Paris; includes an early photo of Heliczer.

2. INTERVIEW, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Andy Warhol
New York, Interview, February 1969

Related content: “Piero Heliczer, film-maker / interview” by William Terry Ork



3. FILMMAKERS NEWSLETTER, Vol. 4, No. 4, edited by Suni Mallow, et al.
mags_filmmakers0404New York: Filmmakers Newsletter, 1971

Related content: “The Dead Language” by Piero Heliczer describes the philosophy, work and performances of his press.


4. LE PETIT SPHINX, Vol. 1, No. 5, edited by Jeff Woodward
mags_lepetitLos Angeles: Le Petit Sphinx, n.d.

Related content: “Paris F-M Coop” by Piero Heliczer describing The Paris Filmmakers Cooperative started by him, Barbara Rubin, and Pamela Badyk and their showings.

Piero Heliczer – Ephemera

>> return to PIERO HELICZER main page >>

SECTION F:
This index includes flyers and announcements for readings and film screenings


1. DEAD LANGUAGE / LE SOLEIL DANS LA TETE
Paris: Dead Language, c. 1959
Flyer, 6.25″ x 11″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer

Note: An announcement for a reading at the Left Bank bookshop-gallery, Le Soleil Dans La Tête. The text reads: “burroughs heliczer horovitz maclise norse & om in dead languages last poem session two xiii. & viv. august ix. pm soleil dans la tete 10 rue vaugirard”.

2. PIERO HELICZER WILL READ HIS POEMS
London: Gallery Bookshop, 1961
Flyer, 5″ x 7.75″, offset printed

Note: announces a poetry reading by Piero Heliczer at the Gallery Bookshop, Soho, London on December 9, 1961. Illustrated with the same photograph by Ph. Mechanicus that appears in Outburst, No. 2 and on the cover of & I Dreamt I Shot Arrows In My Amazon Bra.

3. THE DEAD LANGUAGE PRESENTS WM BURROUGHS reading from THE NAKED LUNCH (recorded in paris 1959) & PIERO HELICZER reading his latest book of poems THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE
New York: Dead Language, 1962
Handbill, 7″ x 14″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer

Note: announces a reading on December 16, 1962 at B Flat, 201 Avenue B, New York, “admission one dollar”. Illustrated with the photograph from the front cover of Heliczer’s poetry collection, The First Battle of the Marne, with the same art nouveau decorative border.

4. THE DEAD LANGUAGE PRESENTS A BENEFIT FOR FLAMING CREATURES / THE FILMS OF SMITH
New York: The Dead Language, 1963
Flyer, 7.5″ x 7″, offset printed

Note: announces screening of Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures on March 9, 1963 at painter Jerry Jofen’s cavernous West 20th Street loft, which, among other things, had a reputation as a shooting gallery. Jofen was known for collaborating with Jack Smith, Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and Angus Maclise. This screening was a benefit for Flaming Creatures, which was in its final stages of editing and would premiere to the public a month later.

5. FIRST RUSHES OF PIERO HELICZERS NEW FILM
New York: Astor Play House, 1965
Flyer, 4.75″ x 5.5″

Note: announces a screening of a new (unnamed) film by Piero Heliczer at the Astor Play House in New York on Friday, July 30, 1965.

6. NEW YORK UNDERGROUND: 8-HOUR SPECTACLE – APPEARANCE OF THE STARS
New York: Broadway Central Hotel, 1965
Flyer, photocopy printed

Note: announces ‘New York Underground: 8-Hour spectacle, appearance of the stars’ in New York on August 11, 1965. Calligraphy by Angus Maclise. This marks one of the earliest performances of the Velvet Underground, appearing as the Falling Spikes. This event also marks a joint appearance of Piero Heliczer and Jack Smith as MC’s, who were both arrested at the event for outstanding warrants.

7. PIERO HELICZER – THE LAST RITES
New York: Filmmakers Cinematheque, 1965
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces a performance of Heliczer’s multimedia play The Last Rites at the Filmmaker Cinematheque on November 10, 1965 in New York.

8. PIERO HELICZERS CHRISTMAS SHOW
New York: U-P Film, 1966
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screening of Heliczer’s Dirt Trilogy (Dirt, Satisfaction, Venus in Furs) presented by the Paris Filmakers Cooperative at the U-P Film in New York on December 15-16, 1966.

9. PIERO HELICZERS NEW YEAR SHOW
New York: U-P Film, 1968
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screening of Heliczer’s Joan of Arc with music by Tony Conrad and starring Andy Warhol, Ted Berrigan and “many others” presented by the Paris Filmakers Cooperative at the U-P Film in New York on January 19-20, 1968.

10. MEDALS OF THE UNDERGROUND
New York: U-P Screen, 1968
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screening of Heliczer’s The Stone Age resented by the Paris Filmmakers Cooperative at U-P Screen on February 23-24, 1968.

11. UNDERGROUND FILMS
Paris: The American Centre, 1968
Flyer, 8.5″, x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screening of Heliczer’s The Stone Age Part Two, and USA v Piero Heliczer, plus other films by Gerard Malanga, Storm de Hirsch, Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas and others at The American Centre in March 1968.

12. PIERO HELICZERS CHRISTMAS SHOW
Paris: The American Center for Students and Artists, 1968
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screening of Heliczer’s Dirt and Joan of Arc, parts one and two at The American Center for Students and Artists on November 29–December 1, 1968.

13. RETURN OF THE LIGHT, PIERO HELICZERS NEW YEAR SHOW
Paris: The American Center for Students and Artists, 1969
Flyer, 9.5″ x 14″, offset printed

Note: announces a screening of three films by Piero Heliczer, presented by the Paris Filmmakers Coop, “avec wm burroughs andy warhol jeff keen betaudier & the children of albion” at 9pm, January 24-26 (1969) at The American Center for Students and Artists located at 261 Blvd. Raspail (Paris).

15. PIERO HELICZER – AQUARIUM & HEART
London: ICA, 1969
Flyer, 8″ x 13″, offset printed

Note: announces a screening of films by Piero Heliczer at the ICA in London on March 15, 1969. Prints a 16-line text by Tom Raworth and a list of titles of other work by Heliczer, including Autumn Feast (1961), Satisfaction (1965) and Rushes from the Stone Age (the latter featuring Tom Raworth, Jack Smith, Gerard Malanga et al).

According to BeatBooks catalog #86, The title of Heliczer’s film, Aquarium, had previously appeared in the name of Aquarium Productions, set up by Heliczer and Angus MacLise sometime around April 1965 for a multimedia stage presentation they were organizing at the Film-Makers’ Cinematheque in New York. Called Launching The Dream Weapon, it featured an early incarnation of the Velvet Underground and preceded Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows by almost a year.

16. POETRY & FILMS
New York: Ikon & Millenium, 1969
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, offset printed. Illustrated with a montage by Jud Yalkut featuring two central images of Piero Heliczer, one of them showing him with his 8mm  camera.

Note: announces a poetry reading at Ikon at 78 East 5th Street in New York on October 11, 1969 and films at Millenium at 46 Great Jones Street in New York on October 12, 1969.

17. PIERO HELICZERS CHRISTMASS HOW
New York: Elgin Cinema, 1969
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, offset printed. Illustrated with a montage by Piero Heliczer.

According to BeatBooks catalog #86,  announces screenings of five films by Piero Heliczer at the Elgin Cinema in New York City on December 21, 1969. The films shown included Venus in Furs (named after the Velvet Underground song and featuring Lou Reed, John Cale, Angus MacLise and Barbara Rubin), and Satisfaction (also featuring Cale, MacLise and Rubin, along with Gerard Malanga, Irene Nolan, Mario Montez, and Jack Smith).

18. PIERO HELICZER NEWY EARS HOW
New York: Bleecker Street Cinema, 1970
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, offset printed

According to BeatBooks catalog #86, announces a benefit for the Paris Filmmakers Coop featuring screenings of films by Piero Heliczer, Andy Warhol, Tony Conrad and Ira Cohen at the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York at midnight on January 31, 1970. Lists the world premiere of Heliczer’s film, ‘Stone Age’, along with Andy Warhol’s ‘Couch’ (in which Heliczer appeared with Gerard Malanga); ‘The Flicker’ by Tony Conrad; and Ira Cohen’s ‘The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda’, though the film title is not stated on the flyer. The multi-media event also featured a performance by Angus MacLise, readings by Gerard Malanga and William Burroughs (possibly from his recently completed novel, ‘The Wild Boys’), a light show, theatre, and ‘inflatable environments’.

19. BLEECKER STREET CINEMA
New York: Bleecker Street Cinema, February 1970
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, offset printed

Note: announces a benefit for the Paris Filmmakers’ Coop at the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York, featuring a midnight screening of films by Piero Heliczer, Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Ron Rice, Jud Yalkut, Yayoi Kusama (presumably ‘Kusama’s Self-Obliteration’), and Jack Smith. Designed by Piero Heliczer.

20. ITALIAN TOUR
Paris: Paris Filmmakers Coop, (c. 1970)
Fyler, 9.5″ x 12.75, offset printed. Illustration by Hundertwasser.

Note: announces ‘Italian Tour – piero heliczer 29 30 31 Mai andy warhol larry rivers irene nolan pattilee chenis claudio monteverde the rolling stones pluto venus 261 Bd Raspail à 21 h’.

21. PIERO HELICZERS APRIL FOOLS SHOW
flyer_aprilfool
Boston: Kenmore Square Cinema, 1970
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screenings of Heliczer films at the Kenmore Square Cinema at 644 Beacon in Boston on Friday and Saturday, April 3-4, 1970.

22. PIERO HELICZERS EASTER SHOW
flyer_aquarium
New York: Bleeker Street Cinema, 1970
Fyler, 8.5″ x 11″, offset printed

Note: announces Aquarium Productions and Museum of the Future gala benefit for Paris Filmmaker Cooperative held at Bleeker Street Cinema in New York on April 10, 1970. The event included screenings of Stan Brakhage’s film Moth Light, Heliczer’s films Robin Hood (avant premiere), Venus in Furs, Satisfaction, Joan of Arc, The Stone Age, and The Plays of Piero Heliczer (avant premiere), plus William Burroughs, Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground, Jack Smith, and others.

23. THANKSGIVING SHOW
New York: Max’s Kansas City, 1970
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces the screening of Dirt, Joan of Arc, and The Autumn Feast at Max’s Kansas City in New York City on November 25, 1970

24. UNIVERSAL MUTANT THEATRE
New York: Universal Mutant Theatre, 1970
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed. Illustrated with a montage by Heliczer

According to BeatBooks catalog #86, announces screenings of films by Piero Heliczer, Ira Cohen, Marty Topp, Charles Henri Ford, Patti Lee Chenis, and Bruce Conner, “plus films by Schneider [Don Snyder?] Malanga &C a benefit for the museum of the future film school at Universal Mutant Theatre 141 Prince Street”, at midnight on December 11-12, 1970. The building on Prince Street, just outside Greenwich Village, was also home at the time to the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization in the United States.

25. UNDERGROUND FILMS
Paris: The American Centre, 1972
Flyer, 8.5″, x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screening of Heliczer’s Robin des Bois at The American Centre on January 28-29, 1972.

26. A MAJOR POETRY READING BY PIERO HELICZER
New York: Saint Marks Church, 1972
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, photocopy printed

Note: announces a reading at Saint Marks Church in New York on Wednesday, November 29, 1972

27. CROWN OF THE UNDERGROUND – PIERO HELICZER’S ST VALENTINES DAY SHOW
New York: Paris Filmmakers Coop, 1973
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, offset printed

According to BeatBooks catalog #86,  announces film screenings presented by the Paris Filmmakers Coop at Dramatis Personae at 114 West Street in New York on February 13-14, 1973. Lists the world premiere of “Heliczer’s latest film”, Robin Hood, along with Rushes from Ste Therese. Also lists screenings of Storm De Hirsch’s film, Shaman, A Tapestry for Sorcerers (1966), and Jonas In The Brig, newsreel footage of “Jonas Mekas shooting his filmed version of The Brig on the set of the Living Theatre production” (1964).

28. PARIS FILMMAKERS COOPERATIVE
Paris: The American Centre, 1972
Flyer, 8.5″, x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screening of Heliczer’s Robin des Bois at The American Centre on January 28-29, 1972.

29. PARIS FILMMAKERS COOP
Paris: Paris Filmmakers Coop, 1976
Flyer, 8.25″ x 11.75″, offset printed

According to BeatBooks catalog #86,  announces screenings of three films by Piero Heliczer presented by the Paris Filmmakers Coop on April 10 and 17, 1976 at Theatre Mouffetard at 76 Rue Mouffetard in Paris. The first screening showed Autumn Feast (1961) and Dirt (1965), as well as films by Patti Lee Chenis and Ray Wisniewski; the second date showed Joan of Arc (c. mid-60s), and Couch by Andy Warhol. Heliczer co-founded the Paris Filmmakers Coop with mover/shaker and filmmaker Barbara Rubin and her friend, Pamela Badyk, a member of the American Living Theatre company, and its venue for screenings, as here, was invariably the cinema at “La Mouffe” the “Maison pour tous” on rue Mouffetard.

30. PARIS FILMMAKERS COOP
Paris: Paris Filmmakers Coop, 1976
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, offset printed

According to BeatBooks catalog #86,  announces a screening of films by Piero Heliczer presented by the Paris Filmmakers Coop at Theatre Mouffetard at 76 rue Mouffetard in Paris on May 15 and May 22, 1976. The first date featured Heliczer’s film Robin Hood and the second, Sainte Thérèse. The screenings also showed Yoghurt Subculture, a film by Patti Lee Chenis (who also appeared in Robin Hood), and Paul Sharits’s film, Nothing.

31. FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CORONATION…
Amsterdam: n.p., 1977
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces the fourth anniversary of Piero Heliczer’s Coronation as Emperor of Europe in Amsterdam on January 1-2, 1977, with a screening announced for January 3-4.

32. VOTE FOR PIERO HELICZER
Amsterdam: n.p., 1979
Flyer, 8.5″ x 13″, photocopy printed.

Note: prints a song text with musical notes and the slogan “Europe Without Piero Is Like A Song Without Words” with the credit line: “1979 Piero Heliczer. The Committee For The Restoration Of The Holy Roman Empire, Van Woustraat 5, 1074 AA Amsterdam”.

33. PIERO FOR PRESIDENT
New York: Rare Book Room, (c. 1985)
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, photocopy printed

According to BeatBooks catalog #86, reproduces a photograph of two Rabbis, captioned with one saying to the other: “I hear the Rabbi is running for President!”, and the other replying: “You mean, Piero Heliczer?”. A box below requests that signatures for Piero’s name to be on the ballot should be sent to the Rare Book Room at 125 Greenwich Avenue in New York. The flyer coincides with the period when Piero Heliczer was living on the streets of New York, wandering the city and marking its monuments and walls with his signature holograph, a capital ‘P’ inside a segmented circle, with the words ‘Vote for Piero Heliczer’ or ‘Piero Heliczer for President’.

34. PIERO HELICZERS BOOK STREET
New York: Piero Heliczers Book Street, (c. 1987)
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces “Piero Heliczers Book Street Waverly Place & Sixth Avenue”. Dates from the period Piero was living rough on the streets of New York and eking-out a meagre living by selling used books.

35. SUNDAYS CHILD
New York: Rare Book Room, (c. 1988)
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces the Rare Book Room’s publication of Heliczer’s autobiographical sketch, Sundays Child printing a brief descriptive blurb, and simultaneously announcing Heliczer’s campaign for the American presidency.The flyer coincides with the period when Heliczer was living on the streets of New York, wandering the city and marking its monuments and walls with his signature holograph, a capital ‘P’ inside a segmented circle, with the words ‘Vote for Piero Heliczer’ or ‘Piero Heliczer for President’.

36. PIERO HELICZER – FILM RETROSPECTIVE
New York: Film Art Fund, Inc., 1990
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces a series of screenings of Heliczer films during May and June, 1990 at the Anthology Film Archives. The flyer is illustrated with a collage of Andy Warhol with barbells and two nuns set against the backdrop of a crucifixion scene.

37. PIERO HELICZERS CHRISTMAS SHOW
New York: Saint Marks Church, 1990
Flyer, 8.5″ x 11″, photocopy printed

Note: announces “piero heliczer’s christmas show” on December 10, 1990 at Saint Marks Church, illustrated with a Dezo Hoffmann photo of the Beatles collaged against a backdrop of a bridge over the Seine (presumably referencing the group’s 1963-64 Christmas shows).

38. PIERO HELICZERS MYSTERIOUS REAPPEARANCE
New York: Knitting Factory, 1990
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, photocopy printed

Note: announces “piero heliczer’s mysterious reappearance” at the “knitting factory” on December 12, 1990, reproduces a Dezo Hoffmann photo of the Beatles with the addition of a large photo of Heliczer’s high school graduation photo from June 1954.

39. SCREENINGS OF DIRT AND AUTUMN FEAST
Amsterdam, Poets Cinema, 1992
Flyer, 11″ x 8.5″, photocopy printed

Note: announces screenings for Dirt and Autumn Feast on September 20, 1992 at Poets Cinema in Amsterdam.

Piero Heliczer – Publications Edited, Printed, and Published

>> return to PIERO HELICZER main page >>

SECTION E:
This index includes publications edited printed, and published by Piero Heliczer and his Dead Language Press


1. Piero Heliczer and Angus MacLise. IMPRIMATUR M.CC.LXXX.I and THE COMPLETED WORKS OF ANGUS MACLISE
First edition:
White Plains: privately printed, 1957
Hand-sewn in printed and illustrated wrappers, 24 pages, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer.



2. Om [pseud. Olivia de Haulleville]. MARIA
a. First edition, blue paper:
Paris: Dead Language Press, 1958
Broadside, 6.75″ x 15″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Contents: “Maria” [poem]
[not in archive]


b. First edition, white paper:
Paris: Dead Language Press, 1958
Broadside, 5″ x 6.5″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Contents: “Maria” [poem]


According to BeatBooks catalog #86, poem written partly in English and partly in French, probably composed in memory of the author’s maternal aunt, and wife of Aldous Huxley, Maria Nys, who died in 1955.

3. Om [pseud. Olivia de Haulleville]. LEMURS
First edition:
Paris: The Dead Language, 1958
Unbound sheets laid into printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 11″ x 9″, 6 pages, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer.

Note: This is the first separate edition of one of three pieces collected in A Pulp Magazine for the Dead Generation.

[scans of this item at Mimeo Mimeo]

4. [anthology] A PULP MAGAZINE FOR THE DEAD GENERATION, edited by Piero Heliczer
ph_pulp
a. First edition, green cover:
Paris: The Dead Language Press, 1959
Three un-boud folded sheets laid into printed wrappers, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Photograph of Om tipped in; this photograph is different in pose, format, and printing method than the one featured in the blue-covered issue. Contributors: Om [pseud. Olivia de Haulleville], Henk Marsman [aka J. Bernlef], Gregory Corso.

b. First edition, blue cover:
Paris: The Dead Language Press, 1959
Three un-boud folded sheets laid into printed wrappers, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Photograph of Om affixed to last leaf, as issued; this photograph is different in pose, format, and printing method than the one featured in the green-covered issue. Contributors: Om [pseud. Olivia de Haulleville], Henk Marsman [aka J. Bernlef], Gregory Corso.

According to BeatBooks catalog #86, the book prints “Lemurs” by Om [pseud. Olivia de Haulleville]; five poems by Henk Marsman (the Dutch poet, Hendrik Jan Marsman, aka J. Bernlef); and four poems from The Vestal Lady on Brattle and Other Poems by Gregory Corso. Each contribution is preceded by a brief text, Corso’s probably written by Piero Heliczer, the others by the poets themselves.

5. THE DEAD LANGUAGE DIXHUIT RUE DESCARTES PARIS
ph_dl1
First edition:
Paris: Dead Language, (c. 1959)
Flyer, 4.5″ x 8.25″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer.

Note: verso lists Dead Language publications, 1957-1959.

6. PURCELL FESTIVAL M.CM.L.IX
First edition:
Paris: The Dead Language, 1959
Flyer, 4.5″ x 8.25″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer.

Note: announces a festival “to be held in paris the second week of july to celebrate henry purcells three hundredth birthday…organised by the dead language”. Text in English and French.

According to BeatBooks catalog #86, The festival was organised by Piero Heliczer, a keen listener of English baroque, William Byrd as well as Purcell. When he visited Cambridge in early February 1960 as part of Michael Horovitz’s Live New Departures, Heliczer was presented with a viola da gamba by the musicologist and Purcell exponent, Thurston Dart, an instrument that Horovitz remembers Heliczer soon mastered.

Earlier, in June 1959, a petit scandale emerged when Peter Forbes, a British tabloid journalist, visited Heliczer in Paris after hearing of his invitations to English school girls to attend the festival, one of them sent to the headmistress of Queen Anne’s School in Caversham. Forbes’s article appeared in the Sunday Pictorial on June 7 and featured a photograph of Heliczer with Olivia de Haulleville (“A Bohemian young scamp and his girl friend”).

It claimed that Heliczer was offering “to receive groups of girls at a festival in Paris… The girls would pay their own fares, but Heliczer would provide free hotel accomodation.” Forbes added that Heliczer hoped “to get one of his girl guests to act in a play he has written. It features a headless man and a girl who appears naked standing on a tombstone”, and quotes the headmistress as initially having been “quite enthusiastic. Some of the girls had obtained their parents’ consent and were looking forward to the trip. Now, however, we shall unquestionably withdraw. I shall write to Heliczer telling him so.” The article concludes: “Other headmistresses, please copy. And Piero, please drop those crackpot capers. They will land you in real trouble one day.”

7. Haulleville, Eric de. MÉLANCHOLIA 1
First edition:
Paris: The Dead Language, (c. 1959)
Postcard, 6″ x 4″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer.

From the verso: “gardez ce poeme dans vos bas grace a sa preparation il les protegera des moisissures” (trans. “keep this poem in your stockings thanks to its preparation it will protect them from mold”).

According to BeatBooks catalog #86,  Baron Eric de Haulleville, Olivia’s father, was a Belgian poet and writer who died in France during the second world war, shortly after his daughter’s birth.

8. Tyndall, Thomas. CITY SUMMER NIGHT
First edition:
Paris: The Dead Language, nd. (c. 1959)
Postcard, 6″ x 4″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer.

From the verso: “keep this poem between your sweaters because of its special properties it will protect them from moths”.

9. WHY ARE YOU LOOKING ASKANCE IM JUST TRYING TO SHOUT
a. First edition, cream-colored stock:
Paris: Dead Language, (c. 1959)
Postcard, 4″ x 6″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer.

 

b. First edition, orange-colored stock:
Paris: Dead Language, (c. 1959)
Postcard, 4″ x 6″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer.

 

Note: a publicity card printing a short text by Piero Heliczer on his private press (“the only one left which has not been absorbed by those given over to reminiscence”), and listing the titles and prices of its early publications.

10. MacLise, Angus. STRAIGHT FARTHEST BLOOD TOWARDS (OPENING SECTION)
ph_straightFirst edition:
Paris: The Dead Language Press, 1959
Single 6.25″ x 22″ sheet folded three times to make six printed pages and a cover, 5.5″ x 6.5″, letterpress printed and with a block print  cover by Piero Heliczer. Angus MacLise’s first publication.

According to BeatBooks catalog #86,  it was after noticing a copy of this title in City Lights Books that La Monte Young first became aware of Angus MacLise. When the latter moved to New York in 1961 they began performing together regularly, and it was through Young that MacLise first met John Cale.

11. [anthology] WEDNESDAY PAPER, edited by Piero Heliczer and Angus MacLise
a. First edition, white cover:
New York: The Dead Language Press, (c. 1961)
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″,  12 pages, offset printed.  Contributors: Gregory Corso, Cyclops [Lester], Anselm Hollo, Gustav Schiele.

ph_wednesdayb. First edition, pink cover:
New York: The Dead Language Press, (c. 1961)
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″,  12 pages, offset printed.  Contributors: Gregory Corso, Cyclops [Lester], Anselm Hollo, Gustav Schiele. This apparent later issue adds the title to Hollo’s poem on the cover.

According to BeatBooks catalog #86,  prints the poems “Song of Stations” by Anselm Hollo and “It Was the Happy Birthday of Death” by Gregory Corso (reputedly included without Corso’s permission). Also features reproductions of a sketch by Egon Schiele (with accompanying texts by him); a holograph letter from Cyclops Lester to Piero Heliczer; a ‘Woman Contest’ (“every two weeks wednesday paper will run photos of the winner and runner up of our quarter moon woman contest”); newspaper clippings; and brief ads. for the Dead Language, New Departures, and “hollands leading litry magazine”, Barbarber.

12. MacLise, Angus. YEAR, A WEDNESDAY PAPER SUPPLEMENT
ph_year
First edition:
New York: The Dead Language Press, 1961
Multiple sheets tape-bound to make a single accordion fold with 12 panels, one for each of the twelve months and an entry for each day, 4.6″ x 9″ (folded), letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Cover illustration, “The Ascension of St. Rose of Lima”, by Aubrey Beardsley.

According to BeatBooks catalog #86, the publication prints MacLise’s renaming of every day of the year, some simply assigned a number, but most given poetic names, such as “day of the hearts blood”, “day of the two daughters”, “the shouts from the sea”, and “last day of the autumn feast”. La Monte Young used the calendar to date many of his recordings from the period, including “B-flat Dorian Blues (Fifth Day Of The Hammer)”.

[scans of this item at Brown Digital Repository]

13. Smith, Jack. THE BEAUTIFUL BOOK
ph_beautifulbook
a. First edition:
New York: The Dead Language Press, 1962 Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 7.5″ x 9″, 20 pages, 200 copies (though it is often claimed that only sixty or so copies were ever completed), letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Includes 19 silver gelatin contact prints (2.25″ x 2.25″), one tipped on to each page: 19 photographs by Jack Smith, and 1 portrait of Jack Smith by Ken Jacobs. Cover art by Marian Zazeela.

b. Facsimile edition, second printing:
New York: Granary Books / Plaster Foundation, 2001
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 7.5″ x 9″, 20 pages, Includes 19 silver gelatin contact prints (2.25″ x 2.25″) made from the original negatives, one tipped on to each page: 19 photographs by Jack Smith, and 1 portrait of Jack Smith by Ken Jacobs. Cover art by Marian Zazeela.

Note: a printed sheet issued with the Granary Books / Plaster Foundation edition in 2001 stated: Noting the scarcity of this title on the rare book market and its absence from many prominent collections (not to mention the chaotic circumstances in which it was produced) it is likely that considerably fewer than 200 books were actually nished and distributed. Jack Smith, Piero Heliczer, and their associates assembled the books during the late spring and early summer of 1962 before shooting began on Smith’s seminal film Flaming Creatures (1963), one of the most notorious underground films of the 1960s, which became a test case of censorship laws.

14. FOLDING CHAIR OF THE PRINTING MASTER, A CATALOG OF ITEMS PRINTED BY THE DEAD LANGUAGE 1963
First edition:
New York: The Dead Language Press, 1963
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 4.75″ x 5″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Cover art by Aubrey Beardsley.

Note: a catalogue of Dead Language editions listing seven publications, each one including the price and pithy comments or quotes. The text ends: “make checks payable to piero heliczer”.

15. Hollo, Anselm. LOVER MAN
ph_lover
First edition:
New York: The Dead Language Press, (1963)

Accordion-bound sheets laid into printed and illustrated wrappers, 6.75″ x 8.75″, 12 pages, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Cover art (“Le Viol”, 1934) by Rene Magritte.

According to BeatBooks catalog #86, the Folding Chair Dead Language catalog describes the publication as “a very free translation of the lemminkainen cantos of the kalevala” (a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology). (©BeatBooks.com)

16. FOLDING CHAIR OF THE PRINTING MASTER, A CATALOG OF ITEMS PRINTED BY THE DEAD LANGUAGE 1963
First edition:
Paris: The Dead Language Press, 1963
Multiple sheets tape-bound to make a single accordion fold with 8 panels, 4.75″ x 5″, letterpress printed by Piero Heliczer. Cover art by Aubrey Beardsley.

Note: a catalogue of Dead Language editions listing ten publications, with The Beautiful Book, The First Battle of the Marne, and Loverman added to the seven titles listed in the earlier edition, the first two featuring quotes from Ron Rice and Fielding Dawson respectively.

[facsimile at Brown University Library digital repository]

17. [anthology] CORONA SPINARUM: SON OF WEDNESDAY PAPER, OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE EMPIRE OF EUROPE & THE PIERO HELICZER FAN CLUB, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Piero Heliczer
First edition:
Amsterdam: Piero Heliczer, October 1980
Folded and gathered unbound sheets, 5.75″ x 8.25″, 8 pages, photocopy printed.
[not in archive]

Note: prints the abstracts from the first meeting of the Imperial Council, attended by Piero, Bill Levy and Ira Cohen.

18. [anthology] DE VROUWE VAN ALLE VOLKEREN [trans. THE LADY OF ALL NATIONS], edited by Piero Heliczer
First edition:
Amsterdam: Piero Heliczer, 1981
Folded and gathered unbound sheets, 5.75″ x 8.25″, 12 pages, photocopy printed.
[not in archive]

Note: includes a map of Amsterdam with numbers encircled of places of importance, a professional horoscope reading (by Ronnie Dreyer),  holy texts of Saints, and  an ad for a marijuana sweepstakes.

19. [anthology] CORONA SPINARUM, No. 3, edited by Piero Heliczer
First edition:
Amsterdam: Piero Heliczer, 1981
Folded and gathered unbound sheets, 5.85″ x 8.3″, 12 pages, photocopy printed.
[not in archive]

Note: announces a poetry reading by Heliczer, and prints various texts (on Thomas Beckett, Bernadette Soubirous, Jeanne d’Arc, and Thérèse de Lisieux) in French, Dutch and English.

Piero Heliczer – Film

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SECTION D:
This index includes films by Piero Heliczer, with a short section at the end highlighting films that Piero Heliczer appears in


Films by Piero Heliczer: 

1. THE AUTUMN FEAST (1961) [film on Ubu Web]
Format: 8mm, 14 minutes, black and white and color, silent / sound on tape
Writer/Director: Piero Heliczer
Cinematography: Jeff Keen
Cast: Piero Heliczer, Kate Heliczer, Jacqueline Keen and others
Music: Angus MacLise – cembalum, Tony Conrad – mandolin, Piero Heliczer – flute

Note:  a deliberately non-synchronous film, shot in 8mm with the sound on tape. Piero Heliczer reads his poem “The Autumn Feast,” and the visuals interact with, but do not represent what is read.

“A grown up fantasy based on Guy Fawkes Day, the great children’s holiday of England, which is a combination of Halloween and the Fourth of July.” – Piero Heliczer.

“The Autumn Feast lays bare (there should be something that rhymes with hair here or bare there) the mythic structure behind the orange domes and cardboard battlements and gilded gables of our Pasty National Howard Johnsons Baghdad. It rubs the very noses of our mannequins in our mold and sends us spinning into the street – undone and toothless” – Jack Smith

2. THE SOAP OPERA (c. 1964)
Format: 16mm, 13 minutes, silent
Cinematography: Piero Heliczer
Cast: Piero Heliczer, Angus MacLise, Jack Smith, Marian Zazeela, LaMonte Young and others.

“This is basically a documentary on the beginnings of the cultural revolution on the Lower East Side, New York. While finishing this film, Piero Heliczer starred in Jack Smith’s FLAMING CREATURES and later in Bill Vehr’s AVOCADA.” – The Film-Makers Coop

“Also known as THE HOME OPERA and THE PANIC OPERA. At home in a small loft in the early days of the Golden Age of the Lower East Side. With Piero Heliczer, Angus Maclise, Jack Smith, LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela and others.” – Piero Heliczer.

3. DIRT (1965) [film on Ubu Web]
Format: 8mm, 12 minutes, color/black and white, silent with sound on tape
Writer/Director: Piero Heliczer
Producer: Andy Warhol
Cast: John Cale, Storm De Hirsch, Bobby Driscoll [Nun], Dee Dee Driscoll, Rose Feliu-Pettet [Bride], Charles Henri Ford, Julie Garfield, Kate Heliczer, Sally Kirkland, Gretl Learned, Angus MacLise, Gerard Malanga, Jack Martin, Ann Mattingley, Barbara Maultsby, Jonas Mekas, Mario Montez, Irene Nolan, Bobby Notkoff, Barbara Rubin, Edie Sedgwick, Harry Smith, Jack Smith, Charles Stanley, Andy Warhol, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela
Music: Marc Antoine Charpentier: Kyrie and Credo from the mass, “Assumpta Est Maria”
Filming location: New York City

Note: planned as a three hour epic, but when finished was only 12 minutes: also known as BATH SEQUENCE.

“Two nuns take a bath, then meet a sailor on the Staten Island Ferry. With Irene Nolan, Gretl Learned, Angus Maclise, Mario Montez and others.” – Piero Heliczer.

“Among all the new movies (it has been quiet lately on the underground scene) Piero Heliczer’s Dirt touched me most deeply. Its beauty is very personal and lyrical. And every frame of it is cinema. I can do not justice to this beautiful work in one paragraph. It was shot on 8mm and much of its beauty and its cinema come from 8mm properties of camera and film. It is all motion. Together with Brakhage’s Songs, Branaman’s abstractions and Ken Jackob’s not yet released work, Heliczer’s Dirt is one of the four works that use 8mm film properly and for art’s sake” – Jonas Mekas, Village Voice.

4. THE LAST RITES (1965)

5. SATISFACTION (c. 1965)
Format: 16mm, 10 minutes, color/black and white, silent with sound on tape
Writer/Director: Piero Heliczer
Cinematography: Piero Heliczer
Cast: John Cale, Sally Kirkland [The Nun], Angus MacLise, Gerard Malanga [Flash Gordon], Mario Montez, Irene Nolan [School Girl], Barbara Rubin [The Nun], Jack Smith [God], Frances Stillman [The Nun]
Music: The Rolling Stones (“Satisfaction”)
Sound Engineer: Tony Conrad

“A nun goes to Heaven and arrives there at the same time as Flash Gordon. With Sally Kirkland (as the Nun), Irene Nolan (as the School Girl), Frances Stillman and Barbara Rubin (as Nuns), Gerard Malanga (as Flash Gordon, Jack Smith (as God), Jack Martin, Angus Maclise, Mario Montez, and others.” – Piero Heliczer.

6. VENUS IN FURS (1965)
Format: 16mm, 16 minutes, color, silent with sound on tape
Director: Piero Heliczer
Cinematography: Piero Heliczer
Cast: John Cale, Piero Heliczer, Angus MacLise, Lou Reed, Barbara Rubin, The Velvet Underground
Music: The Velvet Underground (“Heroin”, “Venus in Furs” with Piero Heliczer on saxophone)
Sound Engineer: CBS-TV News

“This companion film to SATISFACTION is set at the opposite solstice and recapitulates part of DIRT. With Julie Garfield and Barbara Rubin (as Nuns), Chas Stanley (as Death), Margaret Boyce Cam (as the Nurse), Lou Reed, John Cale, Angus Maclise and others. A chess game under the bridge becomes a party in Hell. A must for lepidopterists.” – Piero Heliczer.

7. JOAN OF ARC
Format: 16mm, 11.5 minutes, color, silent with sound on tape
Cast: Arnold Rockwood (as the Policeman), Jack Smith (as LBJ), Rene Ricard, Ira Cohen, Wm. de Vore, Gerard Malanga, Tuli Kupferberg (as Bonnie Prince Charlie), Jose Rodriguez Soltero (as the Priest), Angus MacLise, Irene Nolan (as Marlene Dietrich), Chas Henry Ford, Jane Waldren, Wendy Norins, Andy Warhol, and many others
Music: Tony Conrad

“The story of Joan of Arc as applied to the present revolution in arts and mores. The Gothic is applied to the War in Vietnam. The film is experimental in the sense that in it the visual becomes tactile. With Arnold Rockwood (as the Policeman), Jack Smith (as LBJ), Rene Richard, Ira Cohen, Wm. de Vore, Gerard Malanga, Tuli Kupferberg (as Bonnie Prince Charlie), Jose Rodriguez-Soltero (as the Priest), Chas. Henri Ford, Jane Waldren, Wendy Norins and many others.” – Piero Heliczer.

8. THE STONE AGE
Format: 16mm, 24 minutes, color/black and white, silent with sound on tape
Cast: Tom Raworth, Mary and Gudmundur Gudmunsson Erro, Agneta Freiberg, Jane Fagin, Michael Malce, Francois le Coeur, Jackie Curtis, Viva, Michal Auder, Terence Ork, Mario Anniballi, Jud & Jeni Yalkut, Marion Brown, Mossa Bildner, Dexter Kelly, Betsy Greenstein, Gerorge Whitman, Alferdo Leonardi, Patti-Lee Chenis, Cornelia Wessels, Joseph Arak, Jose Rodriguez-Soltero, Rolando Pena, Suzanne de Maria, Lohr Wilson, Jerry Benjamin, Jack Smith (as Casanova), Michael Snow (as Aristotle), Gerard Malanga (as Orfeo) and many others
Music: Claudio Monteverdi (“Orfeo – Act III”)

9. HARUNOBU
Format: 8mm, 5 minutes, color, silent with sound on tape
Cast: Antoine Perich and others

“The action takes place in a pissoir in june/1958 the weather is very good every now and then it/ rains very hard at night there is lightning in/ the day time bright sun without rain bows the / day is bright as urine/ some of the action takes place on the outer/ surface of the pissoir shell/ harunobu wears a white noh mask and/ reddish black wig her japanese dress is white/ lack and red like a st raphael advertisement/ jean sebastien bach/ gregory shaxper/ with antoine perich and others.” – Piero Heliczer.

10. BESSIE SMITH (1967)
Format: 16mm, 6 minutes, color, silent with sound on tape

“Photographed by gerard malanga in the subways of new york (actually the set of the blue centaur left over from the economy cutbacks at mgm and paramount/ joseph smith; patti lee chenis/ barrabas son to joseph smith: bill iwata/ captain john smith/ captain smiths band white masks mustaches armored round quattrocento helmets/ angel black face wears a checkered ginham dress/ band of angels/ johann sebastian back wears a wig in blackface looks a lot like george washington two fingers of his left hand are missing/ bessie smith: lily ocasio/ joseph smith and barabbas smith are played by one man preferably buster keaton/ angel and bach are played by one man preferably django reinhardt/ captain smiths band is played by the band of angels.” – Piero Heliczer.

11. THE NAKED LUNCH (1968)
Format: 1/4″ magnetic tape, 30 minutes

“A film for tape recorder no projector needed/ sound by wm burroughs.” – Piero Heliczer.

12. ST. THERESE DE L’ENFANT JESUS
Format: 16mm, 40 minutes, black and white, silent

13. ROBIN HOOD
Format: 16mm, 39.5 minutes, black and white, silent


Film with Appearances by Piero Heliczer: 

1. BENGASI (1942)
Director: Augusto Genina
Writers: Edoardo Anton, Ugo Betti, Alessandro De Stefani, Augusto Genina
Piero Heliczer (as Sandrino Berti (aka “Pucci”))

2. ACQUE DI PRIMAVERA (1942)
Director: Nunzio Malasomma
Writers: Nunzio Malasomma, Sergio Pugliese
Piero Heliczer (as “un altro bambino”)

3. FLAMING CREATURES (1963)
Format: 16mm, 45 minutes, black and white, mono
Writer/Director: Jack Smith
Cinematography: Jack Smith
Cast: Francis Francine (as himself), Sheila Bick (as Delicious Dolores), Joel Markman (as Our Lady of the Docks), Mario Montez (as The Spanish Girl (aka Dolores Flores)), Arnold Rockwood (as Arnold), Judith Malina (as The Fascinating Woman), Marian Zazeela (as herself), Beverly Grant (as Whirling Dervish), Piero Heliczer (as himself)
Music: Tony Conrad
Filming Location: New York City

“An experimental film that features graphic sexual imagery, an earthquake, and a lipstick commercial.”

4. COUCH (1964)
Format: 16mm, 54 minutes, black and white, silent
Director: Andy Warhol
Producer: Andy Warhol
Cast: Bingingham Birdie, Rufus Collins, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Kate Heliczer, Pierre Helzicer, Jane Holzer, Jack Kerouac, Mark Lancaster, Joseph LeSeuer, Naomi Levine, Gerard Malanga, Taylor Mead, Billy Name (as Billy Linich), Ivy Nicholson, Ondine, Peter Orlovsky, John Palmer, Amy Taubin, Gloria Wood

The couch at Andy Warhol’s Factory was as famous in its own right as any of his Superstars. In Couch, visitors to the Factory were invited to “perform” on camera, seated on the old couch. Their many acts-both lascivious and mundane-are documented in a film that has come to be regarded as one of the most notorious of Warhol’s early works. Across the course of the film we encounter such figures as poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso, the writer Jack Kerouac, and perennial New York figure Taylor Mead.

5. SCREEN TEST(1965)
Format: 16mm, 3 minutes, black & white, silent
Director/Producer: Andy Warhol
Cinematography: Gerard Malanga

Piero Heliczer, dressed in a broad-brimmed black hat and high collar, is placed in front of a plastic sheeting. He slowly smokes a cigarette, occasionally blowing a smoke ring. Towards the end of the roll he smiles, closes his eyes and sticks his tongue out at the camera

Note:between 1964 and 1966 Andy Warhol made about 500 different Screen Tests of various personalities who visited his atelier Factory.

6. BROTHEL (1966)
Format: 16mm, 45 minutes, color, mono
Director/Writer: Bill Vehr
Producer: Bill Vehr
Cinematrography: Bill Vehr
Cast: Mario Montez, Jack Smith, Piero Heliczer, Tosh Carillo, Francis Francine

Brothel is a 45-minute color film starring Mario Montez, Jack Smith, Piero Heliczer, Tosh Carillo, and Francis Francine. Filmmaker Carl Linder was particular taken with Vehr’s film, describing the film’s protagonist as “neo-romantic, Beardsley-esque phantoms from an Oscar Wilde garden.”

7. HOMEO (1967) [link to Dailymotion]
Format: 16mm, 38 minutes, color
Director: Étienne O’Leary
Cast: Michel Asso, Michel Auder, Yves Beneyton, Dennis Berry, Juliet Berto, Margareth Clémenti, Pierre Clémenti, Francis Conrad (as Konrad), Billy Copley, François De Menil, Barbara Girard, Michèle Giraud, Piero Heliczer, Nicole Laguigner, Taylor Mead

O’Leary’s second film is a disjointed collage of beautifully shot footage: cityscapes, signs and billboards, nudes and cameos by other French actors/filmmakers of the day.

8. NO PRESIDENT (1967)
Format: 16mm, 50 minutes, black and white
Director: Jack Smith
Cast: Tally Brown, Tosh Carillo, Doris Desmond, Charles Henri Ford (as Lady Dracula), Bill Fortenberry, Francis Francine, Piero Heliczer, Donna Kerness, Nancy King, Robert Lavigne, Gerard Malanga, Joel Markman, Gay Martini, Mario Montez, Irving Rosenthal

Note: original title was “The Kidnapping of Wendell Willkie by the Love Bandit”

Piero Heliczer – Contributions to Periodicals

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SECTION C:
This index includes contributions to periodicals; chronological entries within years are approximate


1955

1. THE HARVARD ADVOCATE, Vol. 138, No. 4, edited by Eugene S. Dodd
Cambridge: The Harvard Advocate, March 1955

Heliczer contribution: “Guide to Ancient Sicily” [poem], “I Saw the Last One Fall” [poem]



2. I.E. THE CAMBRIDGE REVIEW, No. 3, edited by Robert Peirce
Cambridge: The Cambridge Review, Spring 1955

Heliczer contribution: “Dawn” [poem]




3. THE HARVARD ADVOCATE, Vol. 128, No. 1, edited by Eugene S. Dodd *
Cambridge: The Harvard Advocate, September 1955

Heliczer contribution: “The Salesmen in their Youth” [poem]


4. THE HARVARD ADVOCATE, Vol. 129, No. 2, edited by Eugene S. Dodd *
Cambridge: The Harvard Advocate, November 1955

Heliczer contribution: “The Tree of Knowledge Tree” [prose]


5. THE HARVARD ADVOCATE, Vol. 129, No. 3, edited by Eugene S. Dodd *
Cambridge: The Harvard Advocate, December 1955

Heliczer contribution: “Conduct Since Birth” [poem]


6. AUDIENCE, Vol. 2, No. 3, edited by Ralph Maud
Cambridge: Audience, October 1955

Heliczer contribution: “Odalisque, Choice of Disciplines” [poem], “Odalisque, No One’s Young Cat” [poem]


7. AUDIENCE, Vol. 2, No. 7-8, edited by Ralph Maud *
Cambridge: Audience, December 1955

Heliczer contribution: “Vegetable Bacchanal” [poem]




1956

8. AUDIENCE, Vol. 4, No. 5, edited by Anthony Cowan
Cambridge: Audience, [c. 1956]

Heliczer contribution: “Sunday” [poem]




9. I.E. THE CAMBRIDGE REVIEW, No. 5, edited by Robert Peirce
Cambridge: The Cambridge Review, March 1956

Heliczer contribution: “Antiepithalamion: The Archaic Smile as People Leave the Park” [poem]




1957

10. ACCENT, Vol. 17, No. 3, edited by Kerker Quinn, et al.
Urbana: Accent, Summer 1957

Heliczer contribution: “Rogan” [poem], “Poem Written with a Green Pencil” [poem]

Note: “Rogan” was collected in Best Poems of 1957: Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards (Stanford University Press, 1958).

11. AUDIENCE, A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, Vol. 5, No. 1, edited by Peter Michael Wyman
Cambridge: The Audience Press, May 1957

Heliczer contribution: “White Strawberries” [play], “A Letter” [prose]




1958

12. QUARTERLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, Vol. 9, No. 3, edited by T. Weiss and Renée Weiss
Annandale-on-Hudson: Bard College, 1958

Heliczer contribution: “Mame” [poem], “Poem Written with a White Pencil” [poem], “Sixth or Seventh Prelude” [poem], “Third Chorus from Antigone” [poem]

13. ACCENT, Vol. 18, No. 2, edited by Kerker Quinn, et al. 
Urbana: Accent, Spring 1958

Heliczer contribution: “The Tomb of Henry James (ii)” [play]



14. AUDIENCE, A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, Vol. 5, No. 2, edited by Peter Michael Wyman
Cambridge: The Audience Press, Spring 1958

Heliczer contribution: “Dirge for the Poet’s Mother” [poem]



15. PATTERNS, Vol. 2, No. 3, edited by Gladys LaFlamme and J.R. Brownfield *
Burlington: Patterns, Spring 1958

Heliczer contribution: “Music for Oboe and Guitar”



16. THE EDITOR, No. 2, edited by Gerald Bunker and Stephen Kaye
Cambridge and Providence: The Editor, Fall 1958

Heliczer contribution: “Memories” [poem], “In Mourning” [poem], “Unpoem Number One” [poem]


17. PATTERNS, Vol. 2, No. 4, edited by Gladys LaFlamme and J.R. Brownfield
mags_patterns0204Burlington and Chicago: Patterns, Fall 1958

Heliczer contribution: “Betrothals” [poem], “My Body” [poem]



18. BARBARBER, No. 2, edited by Gerard Bron, Frits Jacobsen, Henk J. Marsman, and Gerard Stigter *
Amsterdam: Barbarber, (c. 1958)

Heliczer contribution: “Introduction” [autobiography], “FVGA xiii” [poem], “Girl Body” [poem]




1959

19. AUDIENCE, A QUARTERLY OF LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, Vol. 6, No. 2, edited by Firman Houghton
Cambridge: Audience, Spring 1959

Heliczer contribution: “December Music in April” [poem]



20. LEFT BANK THIS MONTH, Vol. 2, No. 1, edited by Ronald Sheridan *
Dover: Sheridan Publications, (c. 1959)
Heliczer contribution: “Girl Body” [poem]





21. NEW DEPARTURES, No. 1, edited by Michael Horovitz
mags_newdepartures1Oxford: New Departures, Summer 1959

Heliczer contribution: “Paris, A Scenario for a Silent Movie” [poem]



22. THE EDITOR, No. 3, edited by Gerald Bunker and Stephen Kaye
Cambridge and Providence: The Editor, Summer 1959

Heliczer contribution: “Broom” [poem]



23. GADFLY, No. 2, edited by Sara Dakin and Olivier Bernier
Cambridge: Gadfly, December 1959

Heliczer contribution: “Harvard Academic” [prose]




1960

24. SENS PLASTIQUE, REVUE MENSUELLE, No. 11, edited by Jean-Jacques Leveque *
Pierrefitte-sur-Seine: Sens Plastique, January 1960

Heliczer contribution: “Hundertwasser” [prose]

Note: According to BeatBooks catalog #86, Sens Plastique was closely associated with the bookshop-gallery, Le Soleil Dans La Tete, where Heliczer held Dead Language readings.

25. TOMORROW, No. 3, edited by Ian Hamilton
Keble College, Oxford: Tomorrow, February – March 1960

Heliczer contribution: “Yesterday is an Avenue of Faith” [poem]


26. NEW DEPARTURES, No. 2/3, edited by Michael Horovitz
London: New Departures, June 1960

Heliczer contribution: “Wm Byrd” [prose]




27. ISIS, No. 1381, edited by John Spicer *
Oxford: Isis, November 1960

Heliczer contribution: “Live Nude Letter to the Mass Aged Isles” [poem]

Note: The Isis Magazine is a student publication at the University of Oxford, where the magazine was established in 1892. Traditionally a rival to the student newspaper Cherwell, Isis was finally acquired by the latter’s publishing house, Oxford Student Publications Limited, in the late 1990s.  The two publications are named after the two rivers in Oxford, “Isis” being the local name for the River Thames.

28. AUDIENCE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE & THE ARTS, Vol. 7, No. 1, edited by Firman Houghton
Cambridge: The Audience Press, Winter 1960

Heliczer contribution: “How Body of Angel is Maden” [poem], “Suicide for Three Harps and Hand Drum” [poem], “Antiaubade Nymphomania” [poem], “Bedtime Story Incessament” [poem], “A Blue Saint with Uncle Eyes” [poem]


1961

29. DE TAFELRONDE, No. 2/3, edited by Paul de Vree
Antwerp: De Tafelronde, January 1961

Heliczer contribution: “Yesterday is a Faith Strike” [poem]

Note: poem has been translated to Dutch

30. OUTBURST, No. 1, edited by Tom Raworth
mags_outburst1
London: Outburst, 1961

Heliczer contribution: “From Wyatt A Play” [poem]




31. POOR OLD TIRED HORSE, No. 7, edited by Ian Hamilton Finlay
Edinburgh: The Wild Hawthorn Press, 1961

Heliczer contribution: “Epilogue” [poem]




32. RHINOZEROS, No. 5, edited by Klaus-Peter Dienst & Rolf-Gunter Dienst
mags_rhino5Hamburg: Langer Peter Verlag, 1961

Heliczer contribution: “Bateau” [poem], “Shuffle” [poem]




1962

33. LOCUS SOLUS, No. 5, edited by John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Harry Mathews and James Schuyler
Lans-en-Vercors: Locus Solus, 1962

Heliczer contribution: “The Beautiful Ambush” [poem], “The Diving Bell” [poem]



34. MICA, No. 6, edited by Helmut Bonheim and Raymond Federman
mags_mica6Santa Barbara: Mica, June 1962

Heliczer contribution: “Bateau” [poem]





1963

35. AUDIENCE, A QUARTERLY OF LITERATURE & THE ARTS, Vol. 8, No. 4, Issue 50, edited by Firman Houghton
Cambridge: Audience Associates, February 1963

Heliczer contribution: “The Street Photographer” [prose]



36. DAS NETZ, No. 2, edited by Peter Maurer and Claus Bohn
Tuttlingen: Young-Press, 1963

Heliczer contribution: “Ornithology for Love Cyclops” [poem]



37. NUL, No. 7, edited by Dirk Claus
Sint Niklaas, Belgium: Paradox Press, 1963

Heliczer contribution: “Leadbelly (A.D. 1882 to 1949)” [poem], “How Body of Angel is Maden” [poem], “The Hermit Mistress” [poem]


38. OUTBURST, No. 2, edited by Tom Raworth
mags_outburst2
London: Outburst, 1963

Heliczer contribution: “Buckingham Palace” [poem]





1964

39. NIGHT TRAIN, edited by Johnny Byrne, Lee Harwood, Roger Jones, and Miles
London: Night Train, May 1964

Heliczer contribution: “America” [prose]




40. NIAGARA FRONTIER REVIEW, No. 1, edited by Charles Olson
mags_niagara
New York: Frontier Press, Summer 1964

Heliczer contribution: “Llanto por Lucas Carnach” [poem]



41. POETS AT LE METRO, Vol. 17, edited by Dan Saxon *
New York, October 1964

Heliczer contribution: “Some Thing Good” [poem]



42. JOGLARS, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Clark Coolidge and Michael Palmer
Providence: Joglars, Winter 1964

Heliczer contribution: from “The Peacock Vow” [prose]




1965

43. PODIUM, Vol. 19, No. 4, edited by Remco Campert
Amsterdam: Podium Foundation, May 1965

Heliczer contribution: “America” [poem]




44. NADADA, No. 2, edited by Timothy Baum
New York: Nadada Inc, October 1965

Heliczer contribution: “Mantis” [poem]




45. THE SPERO, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Douglas and Kathy Casement
Chicago: Fenian Head Centre Press, 1965

Heliczer contribution: “Victorian Era” [poem]




46. UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA POETRY REVIEW, No. 4, edited by Duane Locke
Tampa Poetry Review, 1965

Heliczer contribution: “Victorian Era” [poem]





1966

47. THE GREAT SOCIETY, No. 1, edited by Robert J. Rickin and Ira Cohen
mags_greatsociety1
New York: Tompkins Square Books, 1966

Heliczer contribution: “The Death of Stephen Ward” [poem]




1967

48. THE GREAT SOCIETY, No. 2, edited by Robert J. Rickin and Ira Cohen
mags_greatsociety2NY: A Heddaoua Publication, 1967

Heliczer contribution: “Tattoo” [poem]




49. GROWING HAND, edited by Vincent J. Cresciman
mags_growinghandSan Francisco: Growing Hand, 1967

Heliczer contribution: “Harunobu” [play]




50. THE PARIS MAGAZINE, No. 1, edited by George Whitman
mags_parismag
Paris: Shakespeare & Co., October 1967

Heliczer contribution: “Bedtime Story” [poem]





1968

51. THE WORLD, No. 12, edited by Anne Waldman *
New York: The Poetry Project, June 1968

Heliczer contribution: “Trois Poemes Damour” [poem]



52. INTRANSIT THE ANDY WARHOL – GERARD MALANGA MONSTER ISSUE, edited by Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga
Eugene: Toad Press, 1968

Heliczer contribution: “Poem Number One” [poem], “Sunday Night in Victoria Station” [poem], “How Body of Angel is Maiden” [poem]


53. THE ANT’S FOREFOOT, No. 3, edited by David Rosenberg *
Toronto: The Coach House Press, Winter 1968-1969

Heliczer contribution: “Abdication of the Throne of Hell 1662” [poem]


1969

54. MISTLETOE
mags_mistletoenp: Mephistopheles Publications, 1969

Heliczer contribution: [untitled] “it is said that a magician…” [poem]



55. EXTENSIONS, No. 2, edited by Suzanne Zavrian and Joachim Neugroschel
mags_extensions2New York: Extensions, 1969

Heliczer contribution: “Chinatown (for wm burroughs who got into the trolley didnt pay no fare going to chinatown)” [poem]


56. ROOTS FORMING, No. 1, edited by Jeff Woodward.
mags_roots1Monroe: Roots Forming, Summer 1969

Heliczer contribution: “None of This is Going to be Really There (for irene)” [poem]



57. THE ANT’S FOREFOOT, No. 4, edited by David Rosenberg *
Toronto: The Coach House Press, Fall 1969

Heliczer contribution: “Elegy for the Avenue B Cinema, for Jack Smith” [prose], “Girl Body” [poem]




1970

58. EXTENSIONS, No. 4, edited by Suzanne Zavrian and Joachim Neugroschel. 
mags_extensions4New York: Extensions, 1970

Heliczer contribution: “America” [prose]





1970+

59. THE ANT’S FOREFOOT, No. 8, edited by Gerard Malanga *
Toronto: The Coach House Press, Winter-Spring 1971

Heliczer contribution: “Elle” [poem]

60. TELEPHONE, No. 8, edited by Maureen Owen
New York: Telephone, 1973

Heliczer contribution: “Longtemps Je Me Suis Couche De Bonne Heure Alphabet Soup” [poem], “Poem for Marshall McLuhan” [poem]


61. THE WORLD, No. 26, edited by Anne Waldman *
New York: The Poetry Project, Winter 1973

Heliczer contribution: “Abdication of the Throne of Hell 1662” [poem]



62. MANDALA, No. 1, edited by Harry Hoogstraten, Han Henuat, Peter H. van Lieshout, and Jos Knipscheer *
Amsterdam: In De Knipscheer, 1975

Heliczer contribution: “Leadbelly” [poem]

63. MANDALA, No. 7, edited by Harry Hoogstraten, Jos Knipscheer, Peter H. van Lieshout, Franco Beltrametti *
Amsterdam: In De Knipscheer, 1977

Heliczer contribution: “Prevent the Political Assassination of Artists” [prose]

64. POETRY REVIEW, Vol. 67, Nos. 1 & 2, edited by Eric Mottram
London: The Poetry Society, 1977

Heliczer contribution: “On a Woodcut by Andrew Vesalius” [poem], “I Don’t Want to Try” [poem]



65. MANDALA, No. 8, edited by Harry Hoogstraten and Jos Knipscheer *
Amsterdam: In De Knipscheer, 1978

Heliczer contribution: “Letter to H.M. Queen Juliana” [prose]

66. IN SESSIE, No. 1 *
Amsterdam: Insessie Magazine, late 70’s

Heliczer contribution: “Fuga XIII” [poem]