Tag Archives: Robert Duncan

little magazines

The Floating Bear

THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER, No. 24, edited by Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones (New York, September-October 1962)

The subtitle “A Newsletter” is the key to The Floating Bear’s chief contribution to literature of the 1960’s; it was a newsletter, a speedy line of communication between experimental poets. Diane di Prima, in the introduction to the reprint edition of Floating Bear, recalls Charles Olson’s tribute to the magazine: “The last time I saw Charles Olson in Gloucester, one of the things he talked about was how valuable the Bear had been to him in its early years because of the fact that he could get new work out that fast. He was very involved in speed, in communication. We got manuscripts from him pretty regularly in the early days of the Bear, and we’d usually get them into the very next issue. That meant that his work, his thoughts, would be in the hands of a few hundred writers within two or three weeks. It was like writing a letter to a bunch of friends.”

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little magazines

CALL IT BIG TABLE

BIG TABLE, No. 1, edited by Irving Rosenthal and Paul Carrol.

“Big Table was launched in Spring 1959 following the suppression of the Winter 1958 issue of The Chicago Review. An exposé in the Chicago Daily News revealed editors Irving Rosenthal’s and Paul Carroll’s plans to publish work by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and other Beat writers, and the administration quashed the magazine…”

— from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side

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Big Table

“Big Table was launched in Spring 1959 following the suppression of the Winter 1958 issue of The Chicago Review. An exposé in the Chicago Daily News revealed editors Irving Rosenthal’s and Paul Carroll’s plans to publish work by William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and other Beat writers, and the administration quashed the magazine.

Rosenthal and Carroll, along with other Chicago Review editors, resigned and with the suppressed material started Big Table. The first issue was edited by Rosenthal and Carroll, though Carroll had to withdraw his name in order to avoid being fired by Loyola University where he was employed. This issue contained work by Jack Kerouac (who named the magazine in a telegram: “CALL IT BIG TABLE”), Edward Dahlberg, and Burroughs (a section from Naked Lunch), and was summarily impounded by the US Post Office.

The lawsuit was unsuccessful and Big Table continued through 1960 and five issues. Rosenthal left the magazine after the first issue and Carroll stayed on as editor for the duration, publishing such writers and artists as Paul Bowles, Antonin Artaud, Leon Golub, John Logan, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Robert Fulton, Harry Callahan, Douglas Woolf, Aaron Siskind, Paul Blackburn, Franz Kline, Diane di Prima, and Gregory Corso.”

— from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side

1. BIG TABLE, No. 1, edited by Irving Rosenthal and Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Spring 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 158 pages, printed by The Profile Press of New York.

  • Contents:
    1. Irving Rosenthal – “Editorial”
      Jack Kerouac – “Old Angel Midnight”
      Edward Dahlberg – “Further Sorrow of Priapus”
      Edward Dahlberg – “The Garment of Ra”
      William S. Burroughs – “Ten Episodes from Naked Lunch”
      Gregory Corso – “Power, for Allen Ginsberg”
      Gregory Corso – “Army”
      Gregory Corso – “Police”

2. BIG TABLE, No. 2, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Summer 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 124 pages. Cover art by Leon Golub.

  • Contents:
    1. John D. Keefauver – “The Daring Old Maid on the Flying Trapeze”
      Serge Essenin – “The Tramp’s Confession”
      Lawrence Alloway – “Heroes & Monsters & Mothers”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Horseman”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Burnt Man”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Kaddish”
      John Logan – “Fire”
      Antonin Artaud – Three Exhortations”
      Alan Ansen – “Anyone Who Can Pick Up a Frying Pan Owns Death”
      Paul Bowles – “Burroughs in Tangier”
      William S. Burroughs – “In Quest of Yage”
      Gael Turnbull – “The Priests of Paris”
      Brother Antoninus – “Zone of Death”
      Andre Breton – “Despair”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Birth VII”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Orestes”
      Edward Dahlberg – “Because I Was Flesh”
      Paul Blackburn – “The Signals”
      Margarita Liberaki – “Wedding”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Abraham Lincoln”
      Leon Golub – “Plate: Columnar Head”
      Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “The Great Chinese Dragon”

3. BIG TABLE, Vol. 1, No. 3, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, 1959
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 120 pages. Cover photograph by Aaron Siskind.

  • Contents:
    1. Allen Ginsberg – “Kaddish”
      John Rechy – “The Fabulous Wedding of Miss Destiny”
      Robert Duncan – “Evocation”
      John Ashbery – “How much longer will I be able to inhabit the Divine Sepulcher”
      John Ashbery – “April Fool’s Day”
      Aaron Siskin – “Terrors & Pleasures of Levitation: four plates”
      Edward Dahlberg – “Because I was Flesh”
      Robert Creeley – “The Way”
      James Wright – “A Whisper to the Ghost who woke Me”
      Paul Carroll – “Father”
      Norman Mailer – “Quick & Expensive Comment on the Talent in the Room”
      Paul Blackburn – “Banyalbufar”
      Edward Dorn – “The Air of June Sings”
      Renee Riese Hubert – “Sizes”
      Peter Orlovsky – “First Poem”
      Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “Her”
      Jean Genet – “The Beggars of Barcelona”

4. BIG TABLE, Vol. 1, No. 4, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, Spring 1960
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 144 pages. Cover art by Robert Fulton.

  • Contents:
    1. William S. Burroughs – “But is all Back Seat of Dreaming”
      Richard G. Stern – “Two Talking”
      John Ashbery – “Europe”
      Douglas Woolf – “Wall to Wall”
      Franz Kline – “Plate: Mister”
      John Logan – “from Monologues of The Son of Saul”
      Robert Creeley – “The Awakening, for Charles Olson”
      Robert Creeley – “The Wife”
      Robert Creeley – “The Memory”
    2. Robert Creeley – “The Snow”
      Harold Norse – “I Am in the Hub of the Fiery Force”
      Harold Norse – “The Fire Sermon”
      James Wright – “Snow Storm in the Mid-West”
      James Wright – “A Young One in a Garden”
      Lawrence Ferlinghetti – “New York – Albany”
      Paul Blackburn – “The Idiot”
      Paul Blackburn – “Homage to the Spirit”
      Frank O’Hara – “Les Luths”
      Frank O’Hara – “Joe’s Jacket”
      Robert Duncan – “Four Pictures of the Real Universe”
      Denise Levertov – “The Rainwalkers”
      Gregory Corso – “Rembrandt – Self Portrait”
      Gregory Corso – “Emily Dickenson”
      Gregory Corso – “Walk”
      Kenneth Koch – “Lunch”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Message”
      William Hunt – Song from the End of the Earth”
      Michael McClure – “Two Poems from a Small Secret Book”
      Bill Berkson – “Poem”
      Paul Carroll – “34′-23′-35′”
      Diane Di Prima – [untitled] “I am a woman and my poems…”
      Philip Lamantia – “Still Poem 8”
      Philip Lamantia – “Cool Apocalypse”
      David Meltzer – “from Notes for a History”
      Gary Snyder – “The Manichaeans”
      Leroi Jones – “For Hettie in her Fifth Month”
      Charles Olson – “Maximus, to Gloucester, Sunday, July 19”
      Robert Creeley – “Olson & Others”
      Allen Ginsberg – “Notes on Young Poets”
      Paul Blackburn – “Writing for the Ear”
      Paul Carroll – “Five Poets in their Skins”

5. BIG TABLE, Vol. 2, No. 5, edited by Paul Carroll
Chicago: Big Table, 1960
First edition, sewn signatures bound in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 128 pages. Cover art by Harry Callahan.

  • Contents:
    1. Douglas Woolf – “Stand Still”
      Frank O’Hara – “Naptha”
      Edward Dahlberg – “Because I was Flesh”
      Frederick Tristan – “The Bread Tree”
      Frederick Tristan – “The Whole Sea is yet to Come”
      Robert Duncan – “Apprehensions”
      Paul Bowles – “He of the Assembly”
      Kenneth Koch – “Farms’ Thoughts”
      John Rechy – “Between two Lions”
      Bill Berkson – “Poem for Frank O’Hara”
      Pablo Neruda – “Lone Gentleman” (trans. Clayton Eshleman)
      Pablo Neruda – “Death” (trans. Clayton Eshleman)
      John Updike – “Archangel”
      John Ashbery – “Night”
    2. John Ashbery – “A Last Word”
      Harold Rosenberg – “from Arshile Gorky”
      David Meltzer – “Rain Poem”
      David Meltzer – “Heroes: Zap, the Zen Monk”
      Alain Robbe-Grillet – “Scene”
      John Schultz – “Witness”

Online Resources:

From a Secret Location – Big Table

Reality Studio – Big Table

References Consulted:

Maynard, Joe and Barry Miles. William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography, 1953-73
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978

little magazines, Magazine Wars

The Spicer Circle’s J

Cover of Jack Spicer’s J, No. 4. San Francisco 1959

Jack Spicer’s J ran for eight issues: Nos. 1–5 were edited by Spicer in North Beach where contributions were left in a box marked “J” in The Place, a bar on Grant Avenue in San Francisco; Nos. 6 and 7 (an Apparition of the late J) were edited by George Stanley in San Francisco and New York City respectively while no. 8 was edited by Harold Dull in Rome. Spicer believed that poetry was for poets and the magazine had a small circulation but cast a long shadow.

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Pocket Poets Series

>> return to CITY LIGHTS main page >>

This index collects the books published as part of The Pocket Poets Series

1. Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. PICTURES OF THE GONE WORLD
a. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, November 1955
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 44 pages, 500 copies, letterpress printed by David Ruff. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 1.
(Cook 1)

b. First edition, hardcover copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1955
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with printed label tipped on, 5.25″ x 6.25″, 44 pages, 25 copies, letterpress printed by David Ruff, bound by the Cardoza bindery. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 1.
(Cook 1)

Note: from the rear cover: “Pictures of the Gone World is the first volume in the Pocket Poets Series, in which it is planned to make available, in inexpensive form, work by such well known poets as e.e. cummings, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, and William Carlos Williams, as well as poetry by younger less known writers who are also doing significant work in the modern idiom, whether it be ‘in the American grain’ or against it.”

2. Rexroth, Kenneth (translator). THIRTY SPANISH POEMS OF LOVE AND EXILE
a. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 4.75″ x 6″, 40 pages, 950 copies, letterpress printed. Designed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Published as The Pocket Poets Series,  No 2.
(Cook 2)

b. First edition, hardcover copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with printed label tipped on, 5″ x 6.25″, 40 pages, 50 numbered and signed copies, letterpress printed. Designed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Published as The Pocket Poets Series,  No 2.
(Cook 2)

3. Patchen, Kenneth. POEMS OF HUMOR & PROTEST
a. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, July 1956
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 48 pages, 1000 copies, letterpress printed by Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 3
(Cook 3)

b. First edition, hardcover copies:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards with printed label tipped on, 5.25″ x 6.25″, 48 pages, 25 copies, letterpress printed by Villiers Publications in London, bound by the Cardoza Bindery. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 3
(Cook 3)

Note: this collection gathers 32 short poems from seven of Patchen’s earlier books, published during the 1940s and early 1950s.

4. Ginsberg, Allen. HOWL AND OTHER POEMS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, October 1956
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 44 pages, 1000 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 4
(Cook 4)

Note: The first printing lists Lucien Carr’s name on the dedication page. Later printings do not list his name, removed at his request. The hand-pasted wraparound paper label is only present on the first and second printings.

Ginsberg first read part of the poem at the Six Gallery reading on October 7, 1955. The second printing of Howl and Other Poems was seized by the U.S. Customs Office and shortly afterwards Ferlinghetti and Shigeyoshi Murao, manager of City Lights Bookshop, were arrested for selling and publishing obscene literature. Defended by the ACLU, the case was highly publicized and covered by established publications such as Time and Life, adding to the attention of this small press and Howl. Judge Clayton Horn found the book to be not obscene and this landmark decision helped launch City Lights and Ginsberg’s poems into the public arena.

5. Ponsot, Marie. TRUE MINDS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, January 1957
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 32 pages, 500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 5
(Cook 5)

Note: the title of this collection of love poems was taken from Shakespeare’s 116th Sonnet. It would be 24 years later when she would publish her second volume of poems and borrow the title from the next line of the sonnet: “Avoid Impediment”.

6. Levertov, Denise. HERE AND NOW
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, January 1957
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers with printed wrap-around label tipped on, 5″ x 6″, 32 pages, 500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 6
(Cook 6)

7. Williams, William Carlos. KORA IN HELL: IMPROVISATIONS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, August 1957
Sewn and bound in printed wrappers, 5″ x 6.25″, 84 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 7
(Cook 7)

Note: from the rear cover: “William Carlos Williams, at 74, has some claim to be called Poet Laureate of America, being the author of almost forty books, and having won most of the important poetry awards in this country. He is a man known for his enthusiasms, a constant defender of poets and poetry.”

8. Corso, Gregory. GASOLINE
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, February 1958
Perfect-bound in printed wrappers, 5″ x 6.25″, 48 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed by the Pinchpenny Press in Berkeley. Introduction by Allen Ginsberg. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 8
(Cook 8)

9. Prévert, Jacques. SELECTIONS FROM PAROLES
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, July 1958
Sewn and bound in printed wrappers, 5″ x 6.5″, 72 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 9
(Cook 10)

Note: from the rear cover: “In the years immediately following World War II, Jacques Prévert spoke more directly to and for the French who had come of age under the Occupation than any other contemporary poet, if enormous success of Paroles is any indication. First published in 1946, it was almost immediately reprinted, and by 1952 there were 200,000 copies in print.”

10. Duncan, Robert. SELECTED POEMS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, January 1959
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5″ x 6.25″, 80 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed at Villiers Publications in London. Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 10
(Cook 14)

Note: Selected Poems gathers poems written between 1942 and 1950. From the publisher’s statement: “In making this selection from his first four books, together with certain other poems of the same period, Duncan feels he has given his work as a whole a focus that amounts to a new definition of his poetic intent.”

11. Rothenberg, Jerome (translator). NEW YOUNG GERMAN POETS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1959
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 11
(Cook 16)

Note: This collection, edited and translated by Jerome Rothenberg, introduces ten German poets who were born between the First World War and the first years of the Nazi rise to power. The collection includes the first English appearances of Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann and Gunter Grass.

12. Parra, Nicanor. ANTI-POEMS
First edition:
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1960
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 12

Note: These poems are taken from Parra’s Poemas y Antipoemas originally published in 1954. This is the first appearance in English, translated by painter and critic Jorge Elliott.

13. Patchen, Kenneth. THE LOVE POEMS OF KENNETH PATCHEN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1961
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 13





14. Ginsberg, Allen. KADDISH AND OTHER POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1961
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 14

Note: This is the long anticipated volume of poems following the highly successful Howl and Other Poems. It presents the long title poem on the death of his mother and fifteen other poems. Kaddish is the name of the Hebrew prayer for the dead.

15. Nichols, Robert. SLOW NEWSREEL OF MAN RIDING TRAIN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1962
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 15

16. Hollo, Anselm (translator). RED CATS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1962
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 16

Note: In his introduction Hollo writes, “In the middle 50’s a number of Soviet writers started what became known as ‘The Thaw’: a movement towards freedom and personal literary and critical expression…” Yevgeni Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky were in their twenties at the time Red Cats was published.

17. Lowry, Malcolm. SELECTED POEMS OF MALCOLM LOWRY
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1962
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 17

Note: from the back cover: “This is the first comprehensive collection of Lowry’s poetry, including most of those strange Mexican verses closely related to his novel, Under the Volcano.
Edited by Lowry’s good friend, Earle Birney, with the assistance of the author’s widow, this book brings into perspective the many poems from various periods which have appeared in magazines, as well as others never before published.”

18. Ginsberg, Allen. REALITY SANDWICHES, 1953-1960
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1963
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 18

Note: Reality Sandwiches collects poems written by Ginsberg between 1953 and 1960, thus presenting his early work prior to his groundbreaking poem Howl in 1956

19. O’Hara, Frank. LUNCH POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1964
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 19

20. Lamantia, Philip. SELECTED POEMS, 1943-1966
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1967
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 20

Note: this volume collects poems of his youth, travels and time in San Francisco: Revelations of a Surreal Youth (1943-1945), Trance Ports (1948-1961), and Secret Freedom (1963-1966).

21. Kaufman, Bob. GOLDEN SARDINE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1967
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 21

22. Pommy-Vega, Janine. POEMS TO FERNANDO
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1968
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 22

23. Ginsberg, Allen. PLANET NEWS, 1961-1967
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1968
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 23

24. Upton, Charles. PANIC GRASS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1968
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 24

25. Picasso, Pablo. HUNK OF SKIN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1968
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 25

26. Bly, Robert. THE TEETH-MOTHER NAKED AT LAST
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1970
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 26

27. di Prima, Diane. REVOLUTIONARY LETTERS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1971
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 27

Note: Revolutionary Letters was published in a number of earlier versions by underground presses. The first City Lights edition collects letters 1-43 and other poems. Later printings include additional letters.

28. Kerouac, Jack. SCATTERED POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1971
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 28

Note: Scattered Poems is a collection of poems published posthumously and compiled by Ann Charters, one of Kerouac’s earliest biographers. The poems included were written as early as 1945. The cover is a reproduction of a photograph of Kerouac
taken by William S. Burroughs in Tangier in 1957.

29. Voznesensky, Andri. DOGALYPSE: SAN FRANCISCO POETRY READING
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1972
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 29

30. Ginsberg, Allen. THE FALL OF AMERICA: POEMS OF THESE STATES, 1965-1971
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1972
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 30

Note: this collection continues Ginsberg’s chronicle of travels across America. He dedicates the volume to Whitman and includes on the dedication page a long quote from Whitman’s Democratic Vistas,
1871. Barry Miles, Ginsberg’s biographer, relates that Ginsberg was living near Kenneth Patchen on Telegraph Hill. Patchen introduced Ginsberg to the Dos Passos translation of Blaise Cendrars’ Trans-Siberian Voyage, which served as a model for Ginsberg’s travelogue-style work, The Fall of America.

31. Winslow, Pete. A DAISY IN THE MEMORY OF A SHARK
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1973
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 31

32. Norse, Harold. HOTEL NIRVANA
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1974
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 32

33. Waldman, Anne. FAST SPEAKING WOMAN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1975
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 33

34. Hirschman, Jack. LYRIPOL
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1976
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 34

35. Ginsberg, Allen. MIND BREATHS: POEMS 1972-1977
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1977
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 35

Note: This collection presents poems written by Ginsberg from 1972 to 1977. Ginsberg dedicated this volume to Chögyum Trungpa, the poet and philosopher who named Ginsberg the “Lion of Dharma” in 1972.

36. Brecht, Stefan. POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1978
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 36

Note: A collection of poems by the son of German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht . It was privately published two years earlier by the poet. The cover photograph is by Arthur Tress.

37. Orlovsky, Peter. CLEAN ASSHOLE POEMS & SMILING VEGETABLE SONGS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1978
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 37

38. Antler [Brad Burdick]. FACTORY
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1980
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 38

39. Lamantia, Philip. BECOMING VISIBLE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1981
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 39

40. Ginsberg, Allen. PLUTONIAN ODE: POEMS 1977-1980
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1982
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 40

41. Pasolini, Pier Paolo. ROMAN POEMS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1986
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 41

42. NINE DUTCH POETS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1982
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 42

43. Cardenal, Ernesto. FROM NICARAGUA WITH LOVE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1986
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 43

44. Porta, Antonio. KISSES FROM ANOTHER DREAM
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1987
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 44

45. Cornford, Adam. ANIMATIONS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1988
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 45

46. LaLoca [Pamala Karol]. ADVENTURES ON THE ISLE OF ADOLESCENCE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1989
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 46

47. Mayakovsky, Vladimir. LISTEN
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 47

48. Kerouac, Jack. POEMS ALL SIZES
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1992
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 48

49. Zamora, Daisy. RIVERBED OF MEMORY
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1992
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 49

50. Murillo, Rosario. ANGEL IN THE DELUGE
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1993
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 50

51. Kerouac, Jack. SCRIPTURES OF THE GOLDEN ETERNITY
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1994
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 51

52. Blanco, Alberto. DAWN OF THE SENSES
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1995
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 52

53. Cortázar, Julio. SAVE TWILIGHT
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 53

54. Campana, Dino. ORPHIC SONGS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1998
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 54

55. Hirschman, Jack. FRONT LINES
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 55

56. Mehmedinovic, Semezdin. NINE ALEXANDRIAS
San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2003
Published as The Pocket Poets Series, No. 56

The Floating Bear

The subtitle “A Newsletter” is the key to The Floating Bear’s chief contribution to literature of the 1960’s; it was a newsletter, a speedy line of communication between experimental poets. Diane di Prima, in the introduction to the reprint edition of The Floating Bear, recalls Charles Olson’s tribute to the magazine: “The last time I saw Charles Olson in Gloucester, one of the things he talked about was how valuable the Bear had been to him in its early years because of the fact that he could get new work out that fast. He was very involved in speed, in communication. We got manuscripts from him pretty regularly in the early days of the Bear, and we’d usually get them into the very next issue. That meant that his work, his thoughts, would be in the hands of a few hundred writers within two or three weeks. It was like writing a letter to a bunch of friends.”

One is apt to think of a literary newsletter as a device for talking about poetry but not as a means for transmitting the poem itself; in Floating Bear most of the space was given over to primary work. The first twenty-five issues (up to the point when LeRoi Jones resigned as co-editor) were published over a two year period and comprised 284 pages of poetry, creative prose, and comment. Among the more frequent contributors to Floating Bear during those first two years were Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Frank O’Hara, Joel Oppenheimer, William Burroughs, Ed Dorn, A.B. Spellman, and George Stanley, as well as editors Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones.

After 1963, Floating Bear’s function as a swift communicator among poets seems to have diminished (Nos. 29 to 37 appeared over a period of five years). Size and frequency varied widely: No. 27 had 36 pages and included a 19-page section of poems by Philip Whalen; the following numbers had 16 pages and included work by eight authors. The range of contributors widened somewhat during this time, perhaps because a number of guest editors assumed partial responsibility for the magazine’s contents. Billy Linich, Alan Marlowe, Kirby Doyle, John Wieners, and Bill Berkson each appeared on the masthead as guest editor for one of the magazine’s last dozen issues. One last issue (No. 38) appeared in 1971 as a joint issue with Intrepid (its No. 20), and was edited entirely by Diane di Prima.

Floating Bear was supported solely by contributors; it was never offered for sale. Circulation ranged from 117 to 1250 copies over its eight-year span.

– Peter Martin, “An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Little Magazines”, Tri Quarterly 43, Fall 1976.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

References Consulted:

Clay, Steven and Rodney Phillips. A SECRET LOCATION ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE: ADVENTURES IN WRITING, 1960-1980
New York: New York Public Library / Granary Books, 1998

di Prima, Diane and LeRoi Jones. editors. THE FLOATING BEAR: A NEWSLETTER. Numbers 1-37, 1961-1969
La Jolla: Laurence McGilvery, 1973

Online Resources:

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

Jack Spicer – Contributions to Periodicals

>> return to Jack Spicer main page >>

Section D:
This index collects contributions of poems, stories, letters (poetic), and a play to periodicals; reference is made to Sanford Dorbin’s A Checklist of the Published Writings of Jack Spicer (California Librarian, October 1970).

1946

1. THE OCCIDENT, edited by Jocelyn Willat
mags_occidentwint46Berkeley, Winter 1946

Spicer contribution: “To the Semanticists” [poem], “The Chess Game” [poem], “A New Testament” [poem]
(Dorbin B1-B3)

1947

2. CONTOUR QUARTERLY, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Chris Maclaine
mags_contour01Berkeley, April 1947

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “After the ocean, shattering with equinox…” [poem], “4 A.M.” [poem], “Chinoiserie” [poem]
(Dorbin B4-B6)

1948

3. BERKELEY MISCELLANY, No. 1, edited by Robert Duncan
mags_miscellany01Berkeley, 1948

Spicer contribution: “A Night in Four Parts” [poem], “Troy Poem” [poem], “Sonnet” [poem]
(Dorbin B8-B10)


1949

4. BERKELEY MISCELLANY, No. 2, edited by Robert Duncan
mags_miscellany02Berkeley, 1949

Spicer contribution: “The Scroll-Work on the Casket” [story]
(Dorbin B11)


1954

5. OCCIDENT, edited by Richard Rummonds
Berkeley: Associated Students of the University of California, Spring 1954

Spicer contribution: “On Reading Last Year’s Love Poems” [poem], “The Inheritance: Palm Sunday” [poem]
(not in Dorbin)

1955

6. CITY LIGHTS, No. 5, edited by Peter Martin
San Francisco: City Lights, Spring 1955

Spicer contribution: “On Watching a TV Boxing Match in October” [poem]



1956

7. AUDIENCE, Vol. 4, Number 2 *
Cambridge: Audience, 1956

Spicer contribution: “Five Words for Joe Dunn on his 22nd Birthday” [poem]

1957

8. EVERGREEN REVIEW, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Barney Rosset and Donald Allen
mags_evergreen0102New York City, 1957

Spicer contribution: “Berkeley in Time of Plague” [poem], “The Dancing Ape…” [poem], “Troy Poem” [poem], “The Scroll-Work on the Casket” [story], “Hibernation – After Morris Graves” [poem], “Psychoanalysis: An Elegy” [poem], “The Song of the Bird in the Loins” [poem]
(Dorbin B14-B18)

9. MEASURE, No. 1, edited by John Wieners
mags_measure01Boston, Summer 1957

Spicer contribution: “Song for Bird and Myself” [poem]
(not in Dorbin)


1959

10. BEATITUDE, No. 3, published by John Kelly
mags_beatitude03San Francisco, 23 May 1959

Spicer contribution: “Fifteen False Propositions about God” [poem]
(Dorbin B19)


11. BEATITUDE, No. 6, published by John Kelly
San Francisco, [June] 1959

Spicer contribution: “Epithalamium” [poem] [co-authored with Bruce Boyd, Ronald Primack, and George Stanley]
(Dorbin B20)

12. J, No. 1, edited by Jack Spicer
mags_j01San Francisco, 1959

Spicer contribution: “Hokkus” [poem]
(not in Dorbin)



13. J, No. 2, edited by Jack Spicer *
San Francisco, 1959

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “Down to new beaches where the sea…” [poem], “Epilog for Jim” [poem]
(Dorbin B21-B22)

14. J, No. 3, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco, 1959

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “The slobby sea where you float in…” [poem], “Last Hokku” [poem]
(Dorbin B23-B24)

15. J, No. 4, edited by Jack Spicer
mags_j04San Francisco, [October] 1959

Spicer contribution: “Jacob” [poem]
(Dorbin B25)



16. J, No. 5, edited by Jack Spicer
mags_j05San Francisco, 1959

Spicer contribution: “Fifth Elegy” [poem]
(Dorbin B26)



1960

17. BEATITUDE, No. 17, edited by Bob Kaufman
mags_beatitude17San Francisco: City Light Books, Oct-Nov 1960

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “When I hear the word Ferlinghetti…” [poem]
(Dorbin B29)


1961

18. J, No. 8, edited by Harold Dull *
San Francisco, 1961

Spicer contribution: “A Translation for Jim” [poem], “A Translation for Jeorge” [poem]
(Dorbin B27-B28)

1962

19. THE SAN FRANCISCO CAPITALIST BLOODSUCKER – N, edited by George Stanley
mags_capitalistSan Francisco, Spring 1962

Spicer contribution: “Three Marxist Essays” [poem]
(Dorbin B32)


20. MEASURE, No. 3, edited by John Wieners
mags_measure03Boston, Summer 1962

Spicer contribution: “Central Park West” [poem]
(not in Dorbin)



1964

21. OPEN SPACE, No. 0, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, January 1964

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “This ocean, humiliating in its disguises…” [poem] [collected in Language]
(Dorbin B33)

22. OPEN SPACE, No. 1, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, February 1964

Spicer contribution: “Sporting Life” [poem] [collected in Language]
(Dorbin B34)


23. OPEN SPACE, No. 2, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, February 1964

Spicer contribution: “This is Submitted for your Valentine Contest”  [poem], [untitled] “I hear a banging on the door of night…” [poem] [collected in Language]
(Dorbin B35-B36)

24. OPEN SPACE, No. 3, edited by Stan Persky
mags_openspace03San Francisco, March 1964

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “Just because baseball is not poetry…” [statements], “Predictions” [collected in Language], [untitled] “The log in the fire…” [poem] [collected in Language], [untitled] “Finally the messages penetrate…” [poem] [collected in Language], “Dear Ferlinghetti” [letter]
(Dorbin B37-B41)

25. OPEN SPACE, No. 4, edited by Stan Persky
mags_openspace04tSan Francisco, 1964

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “Heroes eat soup…” [poem] [collected in Language], [untitled] “Smoke signals…” [poem], [untitled] “A redwood forest…” [poem] [collected in Language], [untitled] “The whorship of beauty…” [poem] [collected in Language]
(Dorbin B42-45)

26. OPEN SPACE, No. 5, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, 1964

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “Pull down the shade of ruin, rain verse…” [poem], [untitled] “If your mother’s mother had not riven, mother…” [poem], [untitled] “What in sight do I have…” [poem], [untitled] “It comes May and the summers renew themselves…” [poem], [untitled] “Thanatos, the death-plant in the skull…” [poem] [collected in Language]

27. OPEN SPACE, No. 6, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, June 1964

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “1st SF home rainout since. Bounce…” [poem] [collected in Language], [untitled] “The country is not very well defined…” [poem] [collected in Language], [untitled] “I squint my eyes to cry…” [poem] [collected in Language], [untitled] “The metallurgical analysis of the stone that…” [poem] [collected in Language]

28. OPEN SPACE, No. 7, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, July 1964

Spicer contribution: “Love Poems” [poem] [collected in Language], “Protestant Letter” [letter]


29. OPEN SPACE, No. 8, edited by Stan Persky
mags_openspace08San Francisco,  August 1964

Spicer contribution: “Intermission I-III” [poem] [collected in Language], “Transformations I- III” [poem] [collected in Language]


30. OPEN SPACE, No. 9, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, September 1964

Spicer contribution: “Morphemicks, 1-4” [poem] [collected in Language]



31. OPEN SPACE, No. 10, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, October 1964

Spicer contribution: “Phonemics” [poem] [collected in Language]



32. OPEN SPACE, No. 11, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco, November 1964

Spicer contribution: “Graphemics, 1-5” [poem] [collected in Language]



1965

33. THE WIVENHOE PARK REVIEW, No. 1, edited by Thomas Clark and Andrew Crozier
mags_wivenhoe01Essex: University of Essex, Winter 1965

Spicer contribution: “15 False Propositions about God” [poem]



34. WORK, No. 2, edited by John Sinclair
Detroit: Artists Workshop Press, Fall 1965

Spicer contribution: “Graphemics, 10” [poem] [collected in Language]
[not in Dorbin checklist]


35. COW, No. 1, edited by Luther T. Cupp
mags_cow01San Francisco: Cow, 1965

Spicer contribution: “Dear Sister Mary” [letter]




1966

36. WHE’RE, No.1, edited by Ron Caplan
Detroit: Artists’ Workshop, Summer 1966

Spicer contribution: “Dover Beach” [poem] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “The Birds” [poem] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “The Birth of Venus” [poem] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “Lament for the Makers” [poem] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “Postscript” [story] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “The Scroll-Work on the Casket” [story]

37. O’ER, No. 2, edited by David Sandberg
mags_oar02San Francisco, December 1966

Spicer contribution: “Buster Keaton Rides Again: A Sequel” [poem] [collected in After Lorca]



1967

38. THE PACIFIC NATION, No. 1, edited by Robin Blaser
mags_pacific01Vancouver, June 1967

Spicer contribution: “A Poem to the Reader of the Poem” [poem]



39. FLOATING BEAR, No. 33, edited by Diane di Prima
Brooklyn, 1967

Spicer contribution: “The Bridge Game” [poem], “Lives of the Philosophers: Diogenes” [poem]



40. FLOATING BEAR, No. 34, edited by Diane di Prima
Brooklyn, 1967

Spicer contribution: “The Day Five Thousand Fish Died in the Charles River” [poem]



WINE BUTTON, edited by Dave Fraser, Robert Serling, Dick Sweeney
mags_winebuttonHighland Park: Wine Button, n.d. [c.1967]

Spicer contribution: “Correspondence” [letter], “The Day Five Thousand Fish Died along the Charles River”


1968

41. COLLECTION, No. 1, edited by Peter Riley
mags_collection01Sussex, March 1968

Spicer contribution: “The Red Wheelbarrow” [poem]



42. TISH, No. 42, edited by Brad Robinson and Dan McLeod
Vancouver, March 1968

Spicer contribution: “Three Poems for Tish” [poem] [collected in The Book of Magazine Verse]
[not in Dorbin checklist]


43. IRON, No. 4
North Vancouver: Iron, April 1968

Spicer contribution: “A Textbook of Poetry” [poem] [collected in The Heads of the Town Up to the Aether], “7 Poems for the Vancouver Festival” [poem] [collected in The Book of Magazine Verse]

1969

44. IRON, No. 7, edited by Brian Fawcett
British Columbia, 1969

Spicer contribution: “Ode for Walt Whitman” [poem] [collected in After Lorca]



45. TISH, No.44, Issue D, edited by Karen Tallman
Vancouver, February 1969

Spicer contribution: “Five Variations on the Earth” [poem]



46. LAMPETER MUSE, Vol. 3, No. 4, edited by Norman Weinstein *
Annandale-on-Hudson: Bard College, Spring 1969

Spicer contribution: “The Book of Gwenivere” [poem] [collected in The Holy Grail]

1970-1979

47. WRITING, No. 2, edited by Stan Persky *
Vancouver: Georgia Straight, January-February 1970

Spicer contribution: “Admonitions” [poems] [collected in Admonitions]

48. BOSS, No. 4, edited by Reginald Gay
New York: Boss Books, 1970

Spicer contribution: “Indian Summer: Minneapolis 1950” [poem]

[note: published as a broadside in 1970 as Portents 16]

49. CATERPILLAR, No. 12, edited by Clayton Eshleman
New York, July 1970

Spicer contribution: “The Dancing Ape…” [poem], “Berkeley in Time of Plague” [poem], “Psychoanalysis: An Elegy” [poem], “Troy Poem” [poem], “A Dialogue Between Intellect and Passion” [poem], “All Hallows Eve” [poem], “At a Party” [poem], “A Night in Four Parts” [poem], “Orpheus after Eurydice” [poem], “Orpheus in Hell” [poem], “Orpheus’ Song to Apollo” [poem], “The Song of the Bird in the Loins” [poem], “On Reading Last Year’s Love Poems” [poem], “Watching a TV Boxing Match in October” [poem], “The Day Five Thousand Fish Died along the Charles River” [poem], “A Heron for Mrs. Altrocchi” [poem], “Song for the Great Mother” [poem], “Song for Bird and Myself” [poem], “A Poem to the Reader of the Poem” [poem], “Five Words for Joe Dunn on his 22nd Birthday” [poem], “A Prayer for Pvt. Graham Mackintosh on Halloween” [poem], “Letters to Graham Mackintosh” [prose], “Pentheus and the Dancers” [drama], “From a Detective Novel” [fiction], “Letters to Jim Alexander” [prose], “From the Vancouver Lectures” [prose]

50. NINE QUEEN BEES, Zero Issue, edited by Jim Chapson, James Liddy, and Bill Siverly
Honolulu: Nine Queen Bees, Summer 1970

Spicer contribution: “Dover Beach” [poem] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “The Birds” [poem] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “The Birth of Venus” [poem] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “Lament for the Makers” [poem] [collected in Lament for the Makers], “Postscript” [story] [collected in Lament for the Makers]

51. IS, No. 8, edited by Victor Coleman *
Toronto: Coach House Press, 1970

52. THE HARRIS REVIEW, edited by Harris Schiff
New York: Harris Review, 1971

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “The oaks…” [poem], [untitled] “With fifteen cents and that I could get a…” [poem]


53. IO, No. 10 Baseball Issue, edited by Richard Grossinger 
Cape Elizabeth, ME: IO Publications, 1971

Spicer contribution: “Unfinished Translation” [poem]

[note: prepared for, but no included in After Lorca]

54. STOOGE, No. 6, Editor: Geoff Young and Allen Schiller
Albuquerque, 1972

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “These big trucks drive…” [poem]



55. SHOCKS, Double Issue 3/4, edited by Stephen Vincent
San Francisco: Momo’s Press, March 1974

Spicer contribution: “Dear Lorca” [letter] [collected in After Lorca]



56. MANROOT, No. 10, edited by Paul Mariah
South San Francisco: Man-Root, Fall-Winter 1974

Spicer contribution: “To the Semanticists” [poem], “The Chess Game” [poem], “A New Testament” [poem], [untitled] “After the ocean, shattering with equinox…” [poem], “4 A.M.” [poem], “Chinoiserie” [poem], “The Scroll-Work on the Casket” [story], “Indian Summer: Minneapolis 1950” [poem], “Christmas Eve: 1952” [poem], “All Hallows Eve” [poem], “Watching a TV Boxing Match in October” [poem], “Lyric for Gary” [poem], “Sonnet for Gary” [poem], “Portrait of an Artist” [poem], “The Inheritance: Palm Sunday” [poem], “A Postscript to the Berkeley Renaissance” [poem], “The Gardener’s Son” [poem], “Manhattan” [poem], [untitled] “These woods, so fit for emperors…” [poem], “Admonitions” [poem] [collected in Admonitions], “15 False Propositions about God” [poem] [collected in 15 False Propositions about God], “Billy the Kid” [poem] [collected in Billy the Kid], “Hokkus” [poem], [untitled] “Down to new beaches where the sea…” [poem], “Epilog for Jim” [poem], [untitled] “The slobby sea where you float in…” [poem], “Last Hokku” [poem], “Jacob” [poem], “Fifth Elegy” [poem], “Three Marxist Essays” [prose], “Central Park West” [poem], [untitled] “This is an ode to Horace Stoneham…” [poem], “Dear Lew” [letter], “This is Submitted for your Valentine Contest”  [poem], “Protestant Letter” [letter], “Dear Sister Mary” [letter], “The Red Wheelbarrow” [poem], “Epithalamium” [poem] [co-authored with Bruce Boyd, Ronald Primack, and George Stanley]

57. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 12, edited by Larry Fagin
mags_adventuresp12New York: The Poetry Project, Summer 1975

Spicer contribution: “Babel” [poem], “Dardenella” [poem], “Lives of the Philosophers: Diogenes” [poem], [untitled] “Lack of oxygen…” [poem], [untitled] “In- / Visible zombies…” [poem], “Spider Song” [poem]

58. THE CAPILANO REVIEW, No. 8/9, edited by Pierre Coupey
Vancouver: Capilano College, Fall 1975

Spicer contribution: “The Dancing Ape…” [poem], “Psychoanalysis: An Elegy” [poem], “The Song of the Bird in the Loins” [poem]


59. TELEPHONE, No. 10, edited Maureen Owen
New York: Telephone Books Press, 1975

Spicer contribution: “Five Variations for K.” [poem]




60. IO, No. 24, edited by Kevin Kerran and Richard Grossinger
Ann Arbor: North Atlantic Books, 1977

Spicer contribution: “Love Poem 1” [poem] [collected in Language], [untitled] “It comes in May…” [poem] [collected in Language], “Four Poems for the St. Louis Sporting News” [poem]

61. BOUNDARY 2, Vol. 6, No. 1,  edited by William V. Spanos *
Binghamton: SUNY, Fall 1977

Spicer contribution: “An Exercise” [poems]

1980-1989

62. ACTS, No. 6, A Book of Correspondences for Jack Spicer, edited by David Levi Straus and Benjamin Hollander *
San Francisco: Acts, 1986

63. LINE, No. 7/8, edited by Roy Miki *
Burnaby: Simon Fraser University, Spring-Fall 1986

Spicer contribution: “Poems for the Vancouver Festival” [poems]

64. IRONWOOD, Vol. 14, Issue 2, No. 28, edited by Michael Cudihy *
Tucson: Ironwood Press, Fall 1986

Spicer contribution: [untitled] “As if the Chinese vase…” [poem]

1990+

65. O-BLEK, No. 10, edited by Peter Gizzi and Connell McGrath *
Stockbridge: The Garlic Press, Fall 1991

Spicer contribution: “For Kids” [poem], “Spider Song” [poem]

66. LIFT, Nos. 10/11, edited by Joseph Torra *
Somerville: Lift, 1992

67. EXACT CHANGE YEARBOOK, No. 1, edited by Michael Palmer *
Boston: Exact Change, 1994

68. AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW, Vol. 17, No. 1, edited by Stephen Berg *
Philadelphia: World Poetry, January-February 1998

Spicer contribution: “A Poem without a Single Bird in it” [poem]

69. NO: A JOURNAL OF THE ARTS, No. 3, edited by by Deb Klowden and Ben Lerner
New York: Lost Roads Publishers, 2004

Spicer contribution: “Troilus” [play]

—

[* not in archive]

Jack Spicer – Books

>> return to Jack Spicer main page >>

Section A:
This index collects books, chapbooks, and pamphlets

1. Spicer, Jack. AFTER LORCA
spicer_lorcaa. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, November-December 1957
Saddle-stapled in illustrated wrappers, 6.5″ x 8.5″, 76 pages, 474 copies, multilith printed by Joe Dunn. Jack Spicer’s first book of poetry. Cover illustration by Jess Collins. Introduction by Federico Garcia Lorca.
(Johnston A2)

b. First edition, lettered and signed copies: 
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, November-December 1957
Saddle-stapled in illustrated wrappers, 6.5″ x 8.5″, 76 pages, 26 copies lettered and signed with a drawing by the author, multilith printed by Joe Dunn. Jack Spicer’s first book of poetry. Cover illustration by Jess Collins. Introduction by Federico Garcia Lorca.
(Johnston A2)

c. First edition, second issue:
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, November-December 1957
Unbound (but collated and folded) without wrappers issued in mailing envelope at a later date.
(Johnston A2)

d. First UK edition:
London: Aloes Books, 1969

e. Second edition:
n.p.: Marco Polio, 1974

2. Spicer, Jack. HOMAGE TO CREELEY 
spicer_homageFirst edition:
Annapolis: Harold and Dore Dull, Summer 1959
Side-stapled in printed covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 33 pages, 100 copies, spirit-mimeo printed. Incorporated into A4.


3. Spicer, Jack. BILLY THE KID
spicer_billya. First edition, first state:
Stinson Beach: Enkidu Surrogate, October 1959
Saddle-stapled in illustrated wrappers, 6.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages, 750 copies, offset printed.  Illustrations by Jess Collins.

b. First edition, second state:
The second state includes holograph corrections to text on page 8; holograph addition of ‘Face’ at end of section VI.

c. Second edition:
Dublin: New Writers’ Press, 1969

d. Third edition
n.p.: Oyster Press, March 1975

4. Spicer, Jack. THE HEADS IF THE TOWN UP TO THE AETHER
spicer_headsa. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: Auerhahn Press, 1962
Perfect-bound in illustrated  and printed wrappers, 4.75″ x 6.75″, 109 pages, 750 copies, letterpress printed by Dave Haselwood. Illustrated by Fran Herndon.
(Auerhahn 21)

b. First edition, hardcover, signed copies:
San Francisco: Auerhahn Press, 1962
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards, 4.75″ x 7.25″, 109 pages, 50 copies signed by the author and artist, with an original drawing by Spicer, letterpress printed by Dave Haselwood, bound by the Schuberth Bindery. Illustrated by Fran Herndon.
(Auerhahn 21)

Note: Printed announcement issued.

5. Spicer, Jack. LAMENT FOR THE MAKERS
spicer_lamenta. First edition:
Oakland: White Rabbit Press, 1962
Hand-sewn in illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8″, 16 pages, 100 copies, offset printed. Illustrated by Graham Mackintosh.
(Johnston A11)

Note: According to Johnston, “Back of title page has a fictitious acknowledgments list (by Graham Mackintosh) taken from Robert Duncan’s The Opening of the Field.”

b. First UK edition:
London: Aloes, 1971

6. Spicer, Jack. THE HOLY GRAIL
spicer_holya. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1964
Saddle-stapled and glued into illustrated wrappers, 6.25″ x 8.5″, 80 pages, offset printed. Illustrated by Graham Mackintosh.
(Johnston A19)

b. First edition, hardcover copies:
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1964
Hardcover, 6.25″ x 8.5″, 80 pages, 13 copies signed (4 were reportedly destroyed during signing), offset printed. Illustrated by Graham Mackintosh.
(Johnston A19)

spicer_holy2c. Second, Pirated edition:
Berkeley: Jolly Roger Press, February 1969
Side-stapled printed and illustrated sheets, 8.5″ x 11″, 20 pages, 500 copies. Published anonymously by Richard Krech and John Oliver Simon at the Undermine Press.

Pirate’s Note: “I only heard Jack Spicer read once, at the the Berkeley poetry conference in july 65. an hour after he read THE HOLY GRAIL, the last copy was gone from the avenue bookstores… this free pirate edition is distributed to make the poem available to those who need it.”

d. Third edition:
Watertown: Augtwofive, 1970





e. Fourth edition:
Portland: Timeworn (Poor Claudia at Revolution Publishing), 2014

7. Spicer, Jack. LANGUAGE
spicer_languagea. First edition:
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, June 1965
Perfect-bound illustrated wrappers, 6.25″ x 10″, 72 pages, 950 copies, letterpress printed by Graham Mackintosh.
(Johnston A30)

Note: Most of these poems first appeared in OPEN SPACE.

b. First edition, second printing:
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1970
Perfect-bound illustrated wrappers, 6.25″ x 10″, 72 pages, 950 copies, offset printed from the first edition. Text added to the colophon: “Second printing 1970”.
(Johnston A54)

8. Spicer, Jack. BOOK OF MAGAZINE VERSE
spicer_magazinea. First edition:
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1966
Perfect-bound printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 7.75″, 56 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed by Graham Mackintosh. Prepared for publication from the original manuscript by Stan Persky. Illustrated by Graham Mackintosh.
(Johnston A33)

According to Johnston, “The cover is a parody of the cover of Poetry (Chicago). The poems are arranged in groups intended for various little magazines and newspapers, each section printed on a stock appropriate to that publication, so that for example, the poems for Tish are on blue mimeo paper, those for the St. Louis Sporting News on newsprint.”

b. First edition, second printing
San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1970
Perfect-bound printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 7.75″, 56 pages, 1500 copies, letterpress printed by Graham Mackintosh. Prepared for publication from the original manuscript by Stan Persky. Illustrated by Graham Mackintosh.
(Johnston A33)

9. Spicer, Jack. A BOOK OF MUSIC
spicer_musica. First edition, regular copies:
San Francisco: White Rabbit, 1969
Saddle-stapled illustrated wrappers, 6.25″ x 9.25″, 20 pages, 1800 copies designed and printed by Ron and Graham Mackintosh from a typescript made available by Peter Howard. The cover was one decided upon by the author. Illustrated by Graham Mackintosh.
(Johnston A48)

b. First edition, variant copies:
Variant copies include additional printed text on the front leaf: “150 copies printed Christmas, 1969 / for friends of White Rabbit, Oyez, / and the author”.
(Johnston A48a)

10. Spicer, Jack. THE RED WHEELBARROW
a. First edition, regular copies:
Berkeley: Arif Press, June 1971
Hand-sewn printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 5.5″, 24 pages, 475 copies, letterpress printed. Illustrated by  Wesley Tanner. Printed by Wesley Tanner at Cranium Press.

b. First edition, numbered copies:
Berkeley: Arif Press, June 1971
Hand-sewn printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 5.5″, 24 pages, 25 copies with hand-colored frontispiece, signed by the illustrator, letterpress printed. Illustrated by  Wesley Tanner. Printed by Wesley Tanner at Cranium Press.

Note: Printed announcement issued.

11. Spicer, Jack. SOME THINGS FROM JACK
First edition:
Verona: Plain Wrapper Press, 1972
Wrappers, 6.5″ x 10.25″, 11 pages, 91 numbered copies, printed letterpress. Introduction by Richard Rummonds. Linocut by Miroslav Zahradka.

12. Spicer, Jack. ADMONITIONS
First edition:
New York: Adventures in Poetry, 1974
Side-stapled printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 44 pages, mimeograph printed.



13. Spicer, Jack. QUARTUS 1: A LOST POEM
First edition:
Verona: Plain Wrapper Press, 1974
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards, 9.5″ x 11.5″, 8 pages, 114 numbered copies signed by the artist, letterpress printed. Postscript by Richard-Gabriel Rummonds. Illustrated with two etchings by Ariel Parkinson.

14. Spicer, Jack. FIFTEEN FALSE PROPOSITIONS ABOUT GOD
First edition:
South San Francisco: Manroot, September 1974
Saddle-stapled printed and illustrated wrappers, 6.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages, offset printed.

Note: This poem first appeared in Beatitude, No. 3 (San Francisco, May 1959)

15. Spicer, Jack. THE COLLECTED BOOKS OF JACK SPICER
a. First edition, paperback copies:
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, May 1975
Perfect-bound printed wrappers, 6.25″ x 8.75″, 382 pages including bibliography of first editions, 1000 copies. Edited and with commentary by Robin Blaser. Typography by Graham Mackintosh/White Rabbit.

b. First edition, hardcover copies: 
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, May 1975
Hardcover in acetate dust jacket, 6.5″ x 9″, 382 pages including bibliography of first editions, 1000 copies. Edited and with commentary by Robin Blaser. Typography by Graham Mackintosh/White Rabbit.

c. First edition, hardcover, numbered and signed copies:
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, May 1975
Hardcover in acetate dust jacket and slipcase, 6.5″ x 9″, 382 pages including bibliography of first editions, 100 copies, numbered and signed by Robin Blaser. Edited and with commentary by Robin Blaser. Typography by Graham Mackintosh/White Rabbit.

16. Spicer, Jack. ONE NIGHT STAND & OTHER POEMS
First edition:
San Francisco: Grey Fox Press, 1980
Hardcover in cloth-bound boards without dust jacket as issued, 98 pages. Edited by Donald Allen. Preface by Robert Duncan.

17. Spicer, Jack. COLLECTED POEMS, 1945-46
First edition:
Berkeley: Oyez/White Rabbit Press, 1981
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 7″ x 9″, 32 pages, lithographed from the author’s typescript.


18. Spicer, Jack. THE TOWER OF BABEL
First edition:
Hoboken, N.J: Talisman House, 1994
Perfect-bound photo-illustrated wrappers, 170 pages. Chapter one of Jack Spicer’s Detective Novel, edited by Ed Foster and Kevin Killian.

Described by Lewis Ellingham and Kevin Killian as “a satiric look at the private world of poetry gone public in the wake of the Six Gallery HOWL reading of October, 1955.”

19. Spicer, Jack. TRAIN OF THOUGHT
First edition:
Gran Canaria: Zasterle Press, 1994
Perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 62 pages, 300 numbered copies. Edited with an introduction by Lewis Ellingham and Kevin Killian.
Chapter three of Jack Spicer’s unpublished detective novel

20. Spicer, Jack. MAP POEMS
First edition:
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2005
Thirty-five copies printed: bound in brown paper wrappers. Introduction by Kevin Killian and Peter Gizzi

—

The Divers Press Checklist

>> return to THE DIVERS PRESS main page >>

A. Books published by The Divers Press:

1. Blackburn, Paul. PROENSA
First edition:
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, June 1953
Hand-sewn and bound into illustrated wrappers, 56 pages, 7.25″ x 11″, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. (Woodward A18)

In the Divers Press Prospectus, Robert Creeley writes, “Proensa is a bilingual edition of the work of seven Troubadours (including Piere Vidal, Sordello, and Bertran de Born). So far as we know, it is the only book of its kind now available. The re-creation of a past time is never very simple, or as Blackburn wrote: ‘Pride, interest, self-love were all sins then. Today they have been transformed into virtues… All this means a problem in poetic craft, if one is so perverse as to attempt translation of medieval languages.’ Blackburn’s attempt succeeds in giving us poetry, not a trot.”

2. Creeley, Robert. THE KIND OF ACT OF
First edition:
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, May 1953
Hand-sewn and bound into illustrated wrappers, 6.25” x 7.25”, 24 pages, 250 copies, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Cover by René Laubiès. (Novik A2)

In the Divers Press Prospectus, Robert Creeley writes, “The Kind of Act of is a collection of those poems written since the publication of Le Fou. I don’t know that they are better or worse, etc., but they came out of a time which was difficult, and needed statement of a kind which could hold both myself and them. The forms are, for the most part, tighter, i.e., more condensed.”

3. Eigner, Larry. FROM THE SUSTAINING AIR
First edition:
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, July 1953
Hand-sewn and bound into illustrated wrappers, 6.75” x 9”, 16 pages, 250 copies, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Cover by René Laubiès. (Wyatt A2)

An excerpt from a letter to Robert Creeley from William Carlos Williams upon receiving Eigner’s FROM THE SUSTAINING AIR: “Eigner’s book is charming. I haven’t got such a relaxed feeling from anything in years. There is no tension whatever, but a feeling of eternity. It is hard to say how he achieved this in the world today. As far as I can see it comes from a perfect ear… Let me see anything he writes, it is contagious…”

4. Olson, Charles. MAYAN LETTERS
First edition:
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, January 1954
Sewn and perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 92 pages, 6.5″ x 8.5″, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Preface by Robert Creeley. Contains 17 letters from Charles Olson to Robert Creeley written between February 18 and July 1, 1951. (Butterick & Glover A9)

In the Divers Press Prospectus, Robert Creeley writes, “Mayan Letters… is an altogether rare instance of culture morphology at work. It insists on the full complex of attentions involved, and proves no art can sustain itself free of a basic human contact. Which comments belie, perhaps, the intensely human character of the letters themselves.”

5. Layton, Irving. IN THE MIDST OF MY FEVER
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, February 1954
(Bennett & Polson A6)

6. Creeley, Robert. THE GOLD DIGGERS
First edition:
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, February 1954
Sewn and perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 144 pages, 5” x 6.75”, 500 copies, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Cover by René Laubiès. (Novik A4)

7. Seymour-Smith, Martin. ALL DEVILS FADING
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, Spring 1954

8. Macklin, H.P. A HANDBOOK OF FANCY PIGEONS
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, May 1954

9. Kitasono, Katsué. BLACK RAIN: POEMS & DRAWINGS
First edition:
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, August 1954


10. Creeley, Robert. A SNARLING GARLAND OF XMAS VERSES
First edition:
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, 1954
100 copies, published anonymously (Novik A5)

11. Woolf, Douglas. THE HYPOCRITIC DAYS
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, January 1955

12. Blackburn, Paul. THE DISSOLVING FABRIC
First edition:
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, March 1955
Sewn and perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 24 pages, 6.5” x 8”, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Cover by Dan Rice with silkscreen reporduction by Arthur Okamura. (Woodward A1)

13. Duncan, Robert. CAESAR’S GATE: POEMS 1949–1950
a. First edition, regular copies:
Palma de Mallorca: Divers Press, September 1955
Sewn and perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 24 pages, 6.75” x 8.75”, 200 copies, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Illustrated by Jess Collins. (Bertholf A8a)

b. First edition, numbered copies:
Palma de Mallorca: Divers Press, September 1955
Sewn and perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 24 pages, 6.75” x 8.75”, 10 copies, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Illustrated by Jess Collins. (Bertholf A8b)

c. First edition, lettered copies:
Palma de Mallorca: Divers Press, September 1955
Sewn and perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 24 pages, 6.75” x 8.75”, 3 copies, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Illustrated by Jess Collins. (Bertholf A8c)

B. Books designed and printed by The Divers Press:

1. Olson, Charles. IN COLD HELL, IN THICKET
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, February 1953
Sewn and perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 62 pages, 7” x 8.5”, 500 copies, hand-set and printed by Mossén Alcover. Published as Origin 8 (Winter 1953) as part of the first series of Cid Corman’s long-running magazine. (Butterick & Glover A7)

2. Corman, Cid. THE PRECISIONS
New York: Sparrow Press, March 1955

3. Layton, Irving. THE BLUE PROPELLER
Montreal: Contact Press, 1955

C. The Divers Press ephemera:

1. PROSPECTUS OF THE DIVERS PRESS
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, 1953
Single sheet measuring 13.75″ x 6″ folded twice to make a 6-page booklet, letterpress printed by Mossén Alcover. (Novik 101)

Note by Creeley: “Printing is cheap in Mallorca, and for a small press like our own it means freedom from commercial pressures. It means, too, that we can design our books in a way that we want, since they are handset and made with an almost forgotten sense of craft. Above all, it is our chance to print what we actually like and believe in.” Creeley goes on to list several titles, the first four from the press, noting prices and distributors.

2. NEW BOOKS CATALOG
Palma de Mallorca: The Divers Press, Spring 1954
Single sheet measuring 4.75″ x 11.5″ folded twice to make a 6-page booklet, letterpress printed by Mossén Alcover.

Lists multiple forthcoming and previously published books by The Divers Press and includes names and addresses of distributors including Black Mountain College and Raymond Souster in Toronto.

3. CAESAR’S GATE PROSPECTUS
Black Mountain: Black Mountain College, 1955
Single sheet measuring 4.25″ x 6.25″, letterpress printed.

Text from Robert Duncan and Jess Collins holograph noting the various issues, limitations, and prices of the forthcoming book.

References consulted:

Bennett, Joy and James Polson. IRVING LAYTON: A BIBLIOGRAPHY 1935-1977
Montreal: Concordia University Libraries, 1979

Bertholf, Robert J. ROBERT DUNCAN: A DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1986

Butterick, George F. and Albert Glover. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY CHARLES OLSON
New York: The Phoenix Book Shop, 1967

Clay, Steven and Rodney Phillips. A SECRET LOCATION ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980
New York: New York Public Library / Granary Books, 1998

Novik, Mary. ROBERT CREELEY, AN INVENTORY 1945-1970
Kent: The Kent State University Press, 1973

Woodward, Kathleet. DOCUMENTS FOR NEW POERTY II: PAUL BLACKBURN: A CHECKLIST
San Diego: Archive for New Poetry, 1980

Wyatt, Andrea. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY LARRY EIGNER, 1937-1969
Berkeley: Oyez, 1970

Black Mountain, San Francisco Renaissance

Robert Duncan

Described by Kenneth Rexroth as “one of the most accomplished, one of the most influential” of the postwar American poets, Robert Duncan was an important part of both the Black Mountain school of poetry, led by Charles Olson, and the San Francisco Renaissance, whose other members included poets Jack Spicer and Robin Blaser. A distinctive voice in American poetry, Duncan’s idiosyncratic poetics drew on myth, occultism, religion—including the theosophical tradition in which he was raised—and innovative writing practices such as projective verse and composition by field.

further reading…