Stan Persky began Open Space in 1964, printing 50 copies of each issue on a multilith machine (whereas J was mimeographed). Like J, and M, Open Space was a very local (North Beach) magazine whose contents seemed primarily intended for those who contributed, including: Helen Adam, Robin Blaser, Ebbe Borregaard, Richard Duerden, Harold Dull, Larry Fagin, Jess Collins, Jack Spicer and George Stanley. The magazine was also “quite spicy and a little gossipy, for instance, labeling the famed 1955 reading at the Six Gallery as ‘creamed cottage cheese.’”
1. OPEN SPACE, No. 0, A PROSPECTUS, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, January 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 34 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Translations by Max Knight.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “A Proposition”
Christian Morgenstern – “The Moonsheep”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “This ocean, humiliating in its disguises…”
George Stanley – “Choir”
anonymous – “The Constant Preaching to the Mob”
Allen Ginsberg – “Owl”
Richard Duerden – “A Card for the Tarot”
anonymous – “Okeanos”
2. OPEN SPACE, No. 1, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Collage by Graham Mackintosh.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Come-On”
Robin Blaser – “Psyche”
Hartford Mutual – “No Possum, No Sop, No Taters”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – I (eye)”
Janet Thormann – “The Knight of Cups”
Jack Spicer – “Sporting Life”
Link – [untitled] “the insane lady…”
Link – [untitled] “Like frozen water…”
Lewis Ellingham – [untitled] “Rock, salt and spray, the angels…”
James Alexander – “Amoralesay”
George Stanley – [untitled] “You listen to the leaves, or watch the leaves…”
Helen Adam – “Two Songs for Lewis Ellingham”
Gregory Corso – “Mortal Infliction”
anonymous – “Orders”
3. OPEN SPACE, Valentine Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 60 pages, lithography printed printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Photography by Lartigue.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Alibi”
C. – “In Despair”
C. – “The Marriage”
Bill Roberts – “Recess”
anonymous – “What Happened : Prelude”
Robert Duncan – “Postscript for Open Space, January 1964”
Robin Blaser – “The Prints”
Robin Blaser – “Translation”
Stan Persky – “Gourmet Cooking”
JA – “‘The Island’ by Robert Creeley”
4. OPEN SPACE, No. 2, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 62 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Illustration by Fran Herndon, collage by Graham Mackintosh..
- Contents:
- Cassius Clay – “I’m the King”
Stan Persky – “Second Base”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – II (marginal)”
Jack Spicer – “This is Submitted to Your Valentine Contest”
James Herndon – [untitled] “He went outside…”
Gene Fowler – “The Time Travelers”
Robin Blaser – [untitled] “It is essentially reluctance…”
George Stanley – “Orion”
Link – “Citys Would Make a Masque for Hearts”
Link – “A Poem for Ulysses”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “I hear a banging on the door…”
Robert Duncan – [untitled] “And to Her-Without-Bounds I send…”
Richard Duerden – “Hunger”
Jack Kerouac – “Blindness”
Stan Persky – “A Kingdom”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
5. OPEN SPACE, No. 3, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, March 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 52 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Cover art and illustration by Fran Herndon.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Whan That Aprill With His Shoures Soote”
James Alexander – “Love was Here, for Simon”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Just because baseball is not poetry…”
Philip Whalen – “Technicalities for Jack Spicer”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Fifth Circle of Hell that is not Los Angeles”
Jack Spicer – “Predictions”
Jaimie MacInnes – [untitled] “Lime decayed their mouths…”
Jaimie MacInnes – [untitled] “If running stockings…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The log in the fire…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Finally the messages penetrate…”
George Stanley – [untitled] “Dear Stan…”
Robin Blaser – “2 of Image Nations”
Anselm Hollo – “Air to Dream in”
Marianne Moore – “W.S. Landor”
Stan Persky – “The Wish”
Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “The persimmons are falling…”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
Jack Spicer – “Dear Ferlinghetti”
6. OPEN SPACE, No. 4, Taurus Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, April 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 66 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer and Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Illustrations by Bill Brodecky and Tom Field
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Horns”
Robin Blaser – “Sophia Nichols”
Jess – “Critical Dream – III (trial)”
James Dickey – “The Being”
Harold Dull – “The Fire”
David Bromige – “The Accident”
E.B. [Ebbe Borregaard] – “Sketches for 13 Sonnets”
Deneen Brown – [untitled] “Gathered years…”
Deneen Brown – [untitled] “The rectangle of heat…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Heroes eat soup like anyone else…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Smoke signals…”
Harold Dull – “The Wild Geese”
George [Stanley] – “From Seas Mainly”
Thomas M. Hannon – [untitled] “The angle iron…”
Thomas M. Hannon – “For a Friend Who is Married”
Thomas M. Hannon – [untitled] “Last night…”
Gary Snyder – “Out West”
Stan [Persky] – “Adventurer”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “A redwood forest is not invisible…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The whorship of beauty…”
Jess – [untitled] “Dear Jerry Reilly…”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
7. OPEN SPACE, No. 4, White Hope Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, May 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 66 pages, lithography printed. Illustration by Fran Herndon.
- Contents:
- Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “Where ever you go I am with you…”
E.B. [Ebbe Borregaard] – “Sketches for 13 Sonnets”
Fran Herndon – untitled illustration
Harold Dull – “Venus and the Moon Poem”
Deneen Brown – “for Bill Brodecky”
E. Poe – “Ulalume”
Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “I admit…”
George [Stanley] – “The Lyre in the East Rising”
George [Stanley] – “The Shepherds Verse”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – IV (haven)”
8. OPEN SPACE, No. 5, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, May 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer and Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Illustrations by Fran Herndon, Nemi Frost, Tom Field, Bill Wheeler, and Graham Mackintosh.
- Contents:
- Richard Duerden – “Border: The Sun Imprisoned”
John Ashbury – “A Blessing in Disguise”
Lewis Ellingham – [untitled] “A new log had been put on the fire…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Pull down the shade of ruin, rain verse…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “If your mother’s mother had not riven, mother…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “What in sight do I have…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “It comes May and the summers renew themselves…”
Graham Mackintosh – [untitled] “Like Odysseus under the ram…”
Robert Duncan – “A New Poem, for Jack Spicer”
Helen Adam – “Farewell Stranger”
Jamie MacInnis – [untitled] “These are your nights…”
Ronnie Primack – “From a line by Spicer”
Lewis Brown – “Bartok, for Pen Lace”
anonymous – “Book of the Boss”
George [Stanley] – “Two Parts of a Poem”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Thanatos, the death-plant in the skull…”
Stan [Persky] – [untitled] “a man drawing the sword…”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
Gene Fowler – “Credo”
C.A. Swin – [untitled] “Fourth, ballad, and take roses…”
Stan Persky – “Gemini”
9. OPEN SPACE, No. 6, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, June 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art by Helen Adam, illustrations by Armando
Navarro and Robert Berg.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Orphic Space”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “1st SF home rainout since. Bounce…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The country is not very well defined…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “I squint my eyes to cry…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The metallurgical analysis of the stone that…”
George Stanley – “The Gifts of Death, after Virgil, for Louis Zukofsky”
Robin Blaser – “Image-Nations 3”
Robin Blaser – [untitled] “O-friend…”
Lewis Ellingham – “A Cold Dawn”
Deneen Brown – [untitled] “It lit up…”
Wystan – “One Circumlocution”
Lewis Ellingham – “The Perfect Correspondent”
Lewis Ellingham – “The Sleepers”
Lewis Ellingham – “Underweir”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 5”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 6”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 7”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 8”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 9”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – V (ivy)”
Gael Turnbull – “A Voice, Voices, Speaking”
Gael Turnbull – “To be Shaken”
Stan Persky – “A Poem of Light and Dark, for C.S. Lewis”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
10. OPEN SPACE, No. 7, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, July 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 82 pages, lithography printed by Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Cover art by Jess. Illustrations by William McNeill, Ken Botto, Fran Herndon, and Nemi Frost.
- Contents:
- L. Kearney – [untitled] “A rock…”
L. Kearney – [untitled] “A certain kind of dusk…”
L. Kearney – [untitled] “I could be wrong except for…”
Hart – “Chaplinesque”
Robert Duncan – “A Note for Open Space 7”
Robert Duncan – “The Structure of Rime XXIII”
Robert Duncan – “Shadows”
Jack Spicer – “Love Poems”
George Stanley – “Songs from Arcadia”
Joanne Elizabeth Kyger – “In July”
Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “there is no meeting…”
Helen Adam – “Sing Song”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – VI (quicksilver)”
Jim Alexander – “Alexander”
Jim Alexander – “Jacob’s Larder”
Jim Alexander – “Poem Toward a Rondel”
D.R. Drake – “3”
Harold Dull – “First Lesson”
Harold Dull – “Second Lesson”
Harold Dull – “Third Lesson”
Harold Dull – “Fourth Lesson”
Lewis Ellingham – “11, 12”
Stan Persky – “Report to the Stockholders”
11. OPEN SPACE, No. 8, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, August 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 76 pages. Cover art by Robert Berg.
- Contents:
- Michael McClure – “The Mystery of the Hunt”
L. Kearney – [untitled] “In the children’s forest…”
Robert Duncan – “A Note for Open Space 8”
Robert Duncan – “Structure of Rime XXIV”
Robert Duncan – “Chords”
Robert Duncan – “Spelling”
Robert Duncan – “At Lammas Tide”
Robert Duncan – “Saint Graal (after Verlaine)”
Charles Dodgson – [untitled] “I have a fairy by my side…”
Charles Olson – “Against Wisdom as Such”
Jamie MacInnis – “Every Little Star”
Jess – “Tricky Cad, Case IV”
Jack Spicer “Intermission I-III”
Jack Spicer – “Transformations I-III”
Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
Edna Barnes – [untitled] “If beyond passion our love…”
Harold Dull – [untitled] “I’ve listened before…”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Burden of Loveliness, 1”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Burden of Loveliness, 2”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Great Sand Dunes (for Joey)”
Stan Persky – “Muse News”
12. OPEN SPACE, No. 9, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, September 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5? x 11?, 92 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art by Harry Jacobus. Illustration by Jess.
- Contents:
- Harold Dull – [untitled] “He tries…”
Richard Duerden – “Iris, Cut for an Intended Painting”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Step (a collage poem)”
Jack Spicer – “Morphemicks”
Lewis Ellingham – “Nightmare and Dream”
George Stanley – “Untitled”
Lew Brown – “Lionel”
Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “Clear face facing…”
Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “In my dream…”
Richard Duerden – “The Air”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “I tell you…”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Beyond where you…”
George Stanley – “For Bill”
Tom Field – “The Dentist”
Robert Duncan – “Parsifal: The Easter Magic”
Stan Persky – “They”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
13. OPEN SPACE, No. 10, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, October 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5? x 11?, 92 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art and collage poem by by Jess.
- Contents:
- George Stanley – “Elpinor”
George Stanley – [untitled] “I thought of Achilles…”
Ronnie Primack – “Love Poem”
Robin Blaser – “It It It It”
M. Hannon – “Station Crossing”
M. Hannon – [untitled] “My hand goes dark…”
Jamie MacInnis – “Uncourtly Love”
Jack Spicer – “Phonemics”
Richard Duerden – “The Host, September”
Robert Duncan – “The Currents”
Ron Loewinsohn – “some more from The Step”
Harold Dull – “Day”
Harold Dull – “Night”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Now the winter burns…”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Tell me nothing now…”
Stan Persky – “The Story”
Stan Persky – “House & Garden”
14. OPEN SPACE, No. 11, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, November 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 70 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover photograph by Margot Prattlesome Dross.
- Contents:
- Ronnie Primack – “V”
Oscar Wilde – “The Harlot’s House”
Harris Schiff – “for Lewis Warsh”
Jack Spicer – “Graphemics”
Richard Duerden – “In the Morning”
Robert Duncan – “Moving the Moving Image”
Michael S. Willis – “A History of I and Eyes”
George Stanley – “Penelope’s Prayer”
George Stanley – “I Thought of Achilles”
George Stanley – [untitled] “The year’s ending…”
M.S.W. – [untitled] “A lover’s face…”
Lewis Ellingham – “Psyche”
Harold Dull – [untitled] “Is he an intrusion…”
Harold Dull – [untitled] “We fought…”
Deneen Brown – [untitled] “Blood colored biscuits…”
Harold H.C. – “The Broken Tower”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
15. OPEN SPACE, No. 12, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 90 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Illustrations by Jess and Robert Duncan.
- Contents:
- Joanne Kyger – “From Our Soundest Sleep, It Ends”
Robert Duncan – “The Torso, Passages 18”
Robert Duncan – “The Earth, Passages 19”
Robert Duncan – “Structure of Rime XXVI, Passages 20”
James Alexander – “The Greater Happiness”
Stan Persky – [untitled] “The first thing I notice…”
Robin Blaser – “The City”
Robin Blaser – “Saturn, Star of Melancholy”
Robin Blaser – “Orpheus”
Robin Blaser – “Image Nations, 4”
Jamie MacInnis – “Ducks for Grownups”
Thomas Clark – “The Site”
Harris Schiff – “(Unfinished), for Jack Spicer”
Lewis Ellingham – “O, O”
Harris Schiff – “Library Window-sill”
Lew Brown – “To Break the Day’s Contentions”
Lew Brown – “I Hear Chains”
Lew Brown – “O to Reknit this Morning”
Lew Brown – “Blackstone”
Lew Brown – “Tuig”
Harold Dull – [untitled] “When leaves like ashes fall…”
Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “You are more constant…”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “To be more tied…”
Lawrence Kearney – “For Jamie”
Ron Loewinsohn – “Some more from The Step”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
Online Resources:
Flying Object – scans of all issues
