Tag Archives: Russell Atkins

The Silver Cesspool

THE SILVER CESSPOOL, Vol. 1, edited by d.a. levy (1963)

The first of d.a. levy’s periodicals, five issues of The Silver Cesspool were published between 1963 and 1964. The short-lived periodical was letterpress printed by levy and featured block prints from Lester Czaban Jr., Charlene Levey, Russell Salamon, John Konyecsni, and levy. Contributors over the five issues included Kent Taylor, Russell Atkins, Adelaide Simon, Judson Crews, Kirby Congdon, Will Inman, Ted Berrigan, A. Greenshoot [pseud. Jim Lowell], and others.

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The Marrahwanna Quarterly

Fourteen issues of The Marrahwanna Quarterly were published by d.a. levy’s Renegade Press from 1964 to 1968. Cover art and illustrations were done by d.a. levy, Kent Taylor, Dagmar, T.L. Kryss, and others. Contributors included John Keys, Margaret Randall, Marvin Malone, Carl Larsen, George Montgomery, Judson Crews, Douglas Blazek, Steve Richmond, Charles Bukowski, d.a. levy, D.r. Wagner, Bill Wyatt, rjs, Russell Atkins, and many others.

1. THE MARRAHWANNA QUARTERLY, Vol. 1, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1964

First edition, side-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 6.5″, 20 pages, 150 copies, letterpress printed by d.a. levy. Illustrated with block prints by Celeste Simon (“Petrograd”), d.a.levy (“You Murderers with Your Indifference”), and Pat Crayton ([untitled]). (Lowell B2, T&H P-38)

  • Contents:
    1. Russell Salamon – “V (after Pynchon)”
      John Keys – “Prescott via Hudson”
      d.a. levy – “Shipensburg”
      Roberta E. Badger – “Please”
      Margaret Randall – “The Broken Glass Begins to Whole Itself”
      Marvin Malone – “The Professional”
      Ann – “Fall”
      Carl Larsen – “Clyde and Martha”
      Carl Larsen – “Slumscapes: 4”
      George Montgomery – “A Poem for Ray & Bonnie”
      J. Cornillon – “Poem” (“Zoom. Zoom Zoom…”)
      Dave Rasey – “Midwestern Manifesto”
      Erik Kiviat – [untitled] “an organ fugue sways…”
      Allen Katzman – “The Transgression”
      George R. Beck – “Two Brothers”
      Judson Crews – “Medical Science”

2. THE MARRAHWANNA QUARTERLY, No. 2, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, Winter 1964-5

First edition, side-stapled in printed wrappers, 6″ x 8.5″, 21 pages, 150 copies, letterpress and spirit duplicator printed by d.a. levy. Illustrated with untitled block prints by Katherine Wasil, cuz, and Kent Taylor. (Lowell B2, T&H P-42)

  • Contents:
    1. Tuli Kupferberg – [untitled] “Here’s a toast to others…”
      D. Blazek – [untitled] “folklore is in bed…”
      R. Blossom – [untitled] “there is a…”
      John Cornillon – “The Fellaheen Prick, to d.a. levy”
      d.a. levy [disguised as (e)y(e)] – “Shit Poem for the Mysterious Annburghers”
      Szabo – “Jerk Off Poem”
      Marguerite Harris – “Metaphysic”
      Kent Taylor – “Grandfather’s Speeches”
      Steve Richmond – “Soft Rain”
      D. Blazek – [untitled] “you know what it means…”
      Steve Richmond – [untitled] “out of my…”
      d.a. levy – “Satori while Praying in the Bathroom”
      Marguerite Harris – [untitled] “the old, spoiled blooms…”

3. THE MARRAHWANNA QUARTERLY, No. 3, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1965

First edition, side-stapled sheets in printed wrappers, 6.5″ x 8.5″, 20 pages, 200 copies, letterpress and mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. Illustrations by Steve Ferguson. (Lowell B2, T&H P-55)

  • Contents:
    1. Grace Butcher – [untitled] “Not to know yourself…”
      Grace Butcher – [untitled] “Only ask without speaking…”
      Russell Salamon – [untitled] “eloquent and obvious…”
      W.E. Wyatt – “from Songs of the Four Seasons”
      Jeff A. Cook – “To the Ugliest Man”
      Joe Nickell – “Not”
      George Bowering – “The Smile”

4. THE MARRAHWANNAH QUARTERLY, No. 4, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1965

First edition, side-stapled in printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 44 pages, 200 copies, letterpress, mimeograph, and spirit duplicator printed by d.a. levy. (Lowell B2, T&H P-56)

  • Contents:
    1. Charles Bukowski – “The Hell of It Is to Throw Away Rejected Poems That Seem to Say Something Anyhow Even If Perhaps Not Too Well—”
      E.K.Albrecht – “Monday Morning Coffee Break”
      E.K.Albrecht – “Haiku” (“Bright sky watches as…”)
      Thom Szuter – [untitled] “the only…”
      Thom Szuter – [untitled] “air water…”
      Thom Szuter – [untitled] “walking in weeds…”
      d.a. levy – “Fragments from the Notebooks of Bennet Hassink”
      Gonzalo Arango – “Nadaist Manifesto”
      Per H. Berrefjord – “About a God”
      d.a. levy – “10 Reasons to Keep Marijuana Illegal” [editorial]
      Freda Norton – [untitled] “In vacant rooms of green/gray…”
      Freda Norton – “Consecrated”
      Freda Norton – “Where has she Gone?”
      Roger Sauls – “Three Poems from the Asylum”
      Douglas Blazek – “Prose Poem on Why Shout?”
      Douglas Blazek – “Mind if I Put it Straight for Once?”
      Douglas Blazek – “A Giant ‘S’ and a Bolt of Lightning”
      Art Rosh – [untitled] “here my face is full…”
      Art Rosh – [untitled] “The black priests churning…”
      Carol Paul – [untitled] “I went to the pot luck dinner…”

5. THE MARY JANE QUARTERLY, Vol. 2, No. 1, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 52 pages, 200 copies, letterpress and mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. (Lowell B2, T&H P-83).

“This issue of the Marrahwannah Quarterly is dedicated to Guru Ronald Jump / imprisoned for poverty.”

  • Contents:
    1. Kent Taylor – “May 6, 1965”
      Diane Wakoski – “Discrepancies”
      Robert Lowry – “The Midway Stop”
      Sergio Mondragón – “Contacto de los Dedos”
      Sergio Mondragón – “Riesgo”
      Margaret Randall – “Preparation of the Audience”
      Margaret Randall – “Retrato, for Juanita”
      Joe “Ace” Walker – “Schizophrenia”
      John Mongomery – “The Coloratura Note”
      author unknown – “from the Kabbalah” (trans. S.L.M. Mathers)
      Grace Butcher – “The Flats”
      Grace Butcher – “Cave”
      John Harriman – “from the Hashish Poems”
      d.a.levy – [editorial]
      Kay Wood – “Epitaph”
      d.a. levy – “Fragments from the Notebooks of Bennet Hassink (Book 983)”
      Carl Larsen – “Fractions of Light and Water, Fractions of Flesh”
      George Montgomery – “Birthday Night Prayer”
      d.a. levy – “Peyote Invocation”

6. THE MARIJUANA QUARTERLY, Vol. 2, No. 2, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1966

First edition, side-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 54 pages, 200 copies, letterpress and mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. (Lowell B2, T&H P-84)

“This issue is dedicated to John Sinclair,, recently introduced to the art of sodomy by the entire detroit police dept… The Tongue-in Lowecheeks Award goes to the Detroit Gestapo for harassment of poets below & beyond the call of duty…”

  • Contents:
    1. Ray Bremser – “from Poems of Madness”
      Allen Katzman – “from Poems from Oklahoma”
      Rolla Rieder – “Genesis: A Surrealist Line Sequence”
      Rolla Rieder – “For Gene Fowler”
      D.r. Wagner – “Letter No. 16 from the Same Guy who Always Writes to Me because He Thinks I Am or Was His Friend”
      Irene Schram – “E Train”
      Irene Schram – “From under those Graveblocks”
      d.a. levy – “Written on the ‘Day of the Kif Lion’” [editorial]
      Richard Barker – “On our way to Mexico”
      Irene Schram – “I Dream of Horses”
      Bill Wyatt – “Thoughts of Han Shan”
      Bill Wyatt – “Another Winter”
      John Cornillon – [untitled] “Hard cold tar…”
      d.a.levy – “Sitting on a Bench near T Square (for David Meltzer)”
      Jacob Leed – “Through the Door”
      rjs – [untitled] “children wake up…”
      rjs – [untitled] “my friend says i shouldn’t…”
      George Montgomery – “Upon Seeing Sonny and Cher”
      Russell Atkins – “Front Page”
      Richard Barker – “For Ken Kesey and Thirteen Companions”
      D.r. Wagner – “The Old Up the River from New Orleans Bit Again”
      John Cornillon – “Letter Written by a Poet to his Friend Who Is Being Arraigned on Charges of Possessing Marijuana for the First Time that was Never Mailed”
      Irene Schramm – “Hold”
      Barbara A. Holland – “The House of Ice”
      Matt Shulman – [untitled] “I awaited his arrival…”
      Allen Planz – “Poor White”
      Kitty Estrella – [untitled] “I think of myself…”
      Aurelia Ford – “Mabel Mockingpooch”
      d.a. levy – “The Cleveland Scene” [editorial]
      Russell Atkins – “Spyrytual”

7. THE MARIHUANA QUARTERLY, Vol. 2, No. 3, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 56 pages, 200 copies, letterpress and mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. (Lowell B2, T&H P-85)

“This issue is dedicated to Big Leonard who recently discorporated & went to heaven… The Litany of Ra is dedicated to Adele’s Angels / The Egyptians (MC) & the pacifist segment of the Gooses & all the riders who attended ceremonies at Adele’s Euclid Ave. Temple (/Ride in Peace/) May the Eye of Horus & the Eye of Khepera be opened to you…”

  • Contents:
    1. Mara – [untitled] “cow-lick…”
      Kent and Joan Taylor – [untitled] “boohoo / blue blue…”
      Thom Szuter – [untitled] “sun streak…”
      d.a. levy – [untitled] “flying bull…”
      The Albrechts – [untitled] “grow tesque / metro gnome…”
      Joe Walker – [untitled] “blue mother…”
      Carl Woideck- [untitled] “lick cow…”
      Bill Bisset – [untitled] “th mystery of space deepens…”
      Bill Bisset – [untitled] “suddenly it is late…”
      Bill Bisset – [untitled] “i dont care for yur shit…”
      E.R. Baxter – “Listen River”
      David Sandberg – “Lance, the Cup is Heavy, Drop the Cup!”
      David Sandberg – “Poem for the World’s only Blue Eyed Indian”
      David Sandberg – “Carnival Poem”
      Steve Ferguson – “Poem from Steve”
      John Wherry – “2/6/66”
      Donald Thomas – “A Poem Intitled for Alan D. with Love”
      Alan Dimenstein – “I Got the Happiness Blues”
      D.r. Wagner – “Man Caused by Viruses”
      Sid Rufus – “Which?”
      Walter Lowenfels – “A Passage from a Coming Book”
      George Montgomery – “Involvement”
      Alex Gildzen – “Summer Sunday in Kent”
      Brother James – “Lines”
      Lady Char – “Society”
      W.E. Wyatt – “Poems from the ‘Hash’ Dynasty”
      d.a. levy – “Rectal Eye Vision for Phil Ochs”
      d.a. levy – “Lines for Lady Jane”
      Don Thomas – “Pussy is more than a Dirty Word”
      Edouard Naville – “The Litany of Ra”

8. THE MARIJUANA QUARTERLY, Vol. 2, No. 4, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1966

First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 60 pages, mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. Illustration by Dagmar.(Lowell B2, T&H P-86)

“This issue is dedicated to Lenny Bruce and Garner Ted Armstrong – Apostles of the post-bomb circus liberation front”

  • Contents:
    1. rjs – “Dear Local Draft Board #32”
      d.a. levy – [book review; The Three Pillars of Zen]
      Allen Ginsberg – “A Glass of Ayahuasca”
      D.r. Wagner – “Chapter CXLIV”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “after eight days…”
      Roger Sauls – “Weed”
      Tristan Corbiere – “Oh, That?”
      Tristan Corbiere – “Guitar”
      Tristan Corbiere – “To my Mouse-Colored Mare”
      Milarepa – “from The Hundred Thousand Songs”
      Rene Char – “from Leaves of Hypnos/A War Journal”
      Junker Vromeer M.D. – The Stasher’s-Paranoia Syndrome” (trans. J.D. Kuch)
      d.a. levy – “Editorial Note on Tarot, Palmistry and The Skull Mandala”
      Carl Woideck – “You Don’t Know What Love Is”
      C.J. Torrance – “Death Song of the Assassin”
      David James – “2nd Poem to Lee”
      Sigmond Raoul – “A Refraction of the Cosmic Lubrator Dedicated to Charlie Parker, the late Alto Saxaphonist”
      Reb Barker – [untitled] “great lionhead…”
      d.a. levy – “Additional Sections for The North American Book of the Dead”
      Malcolm Hall – “Notes for a Future Suicide”
      Dan Georgakas – [untitled] “The purest lay…”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “waiting for the bus…”
      Don Thomas – [book reviews]

9. THE MARRAHWANNAH QUARTERLY, Vol. 3, No. 1, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1967

First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated covers, 8.5″ x 11″, 24 pages, mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. (Lowell B2, T&H P-125)

  • Contents:
    1. Kent Taylor – “11/30/66”
      d a levy – “The Brotherhood of Bhang” [editorial]
      T.L. Kryss – “Absent Light”
      David W. Harris – “Dog Howl for Mee”
      d a levy – “Another Fragment from the Destroyed Journal”
      Allen Ginsberg – “May 26, 1960”
      Douglas Blazek – “A Primer on Open Skull Pressology”
      Joel Marc Deutsch – “Eyes, for Kent Taylor”
      Joel Marc Deutsch – “Eugene Jolas – “
      Brown Miller – “Letter of Introduction”
      Joel Marc Deutsch – “Just Checking”
      Joel Marc Deutsch – [untitled] “This poem is for you…”
      Joel Marc Deutsch – “Morning Song, 2 Yrs. Later”
      Eugene Jolas – “Daemmerspuk”
      Eugene Jolas – “I Interview Lenin”
      Eugene Jolas – “Rimbaud and the Chauffeur”
      Eugene Jolas – “Panopticon”
      Eugene Jolas – “Astralia”
      Eugene Jolas – “Incantations”
      Eugene Jolas – “Hymn”
      Eugene Jolas – “Mountainwords”
      Brown Miller – “Death and Super-Death”
      Eugene Jolas – “Psalm”
      Eugene Jolas – “Vineyard in the Sun”
      Dave Cunliffe – “Peace Therapy Workings”
      T.L. Kryss – “To Charles Bukowski”
      Kent Taylor – [book review]
      Steve Ferguson – “Poem” (“Iowa is four hundred…”)
      Bill Bisset – [letter]

10. THE KIF QUART-O or THE MAR*AHHHH-WANNNAH QUARTERLY, Vol. 3, No. 2, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1967

First edition, side-stapled in silkscreened cover, 8.5″ x 11″, mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. Cover silkscreen by T.L. Kryss. (Lowell B2, T&H P-126)

  • Contents:
    1. author unknown – “In Defense of Smut and Poets”
      d.a. levy – [untitled] “Sargent Burt Miller typical average…”
      K.S. Friedman – “The Bad Rap Jazz Band”
      d.a. levy – “Notes/ Variations on a Short Poem”
      Kent Taylor – “Atro-City”
      Kent Taylor – “A Call to Arms”
      Kent Taylor – “Clear and Cold”
      Kent Taylor – [untitled] “my cat caught her…”
      Kent Taylor – “East to Cleveland”
      Kent Taylor – [untitled] “if the radio collapses the sky…”
      Kent Taylor – “I Feel Like Seven Days”
      Kent Taylor – “9-4-66”
      Kent Taylor – “Road Land”
      Carl Woideck – “For Sandy”
      Carl Woideck – “For Julie”
      Dennis Mazer – [untitled] “In a grass bag…”
      Marion Black – [untitled] “i remember christmas…”
      Kevin McGown – “Shale”
      George Dowden – [untitled] “today yellow sun…”
      E.R. Baxter III – “Patch Lives!”
      E.R. Baxter III – “For My Friend Who Was Almost Destroyed…”
      David W. Harris – “Side 4 – BMI”
      D.r. Wagner – [untitled] “animal rotting on the road…”
      d.a. levy – [book reviews]
      Daneen – “A Break in the Fast”
      d.a. levy – “Egyptian Troll Sheet Number One”
      Steve Richmond – “Struggle”
      Vishwanath – “The Family”
      author unknown – “The Mind”
      John Smith – “Pot Letter”

11. THE MARRAHWANNAH QUARTERLY, Vol. 3, No. 3, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1967

First edition, side-stapled in hand-painted wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 200 copies, mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. Cover art by Mara. Published as The Concrete Issue. (Lowell B2, T&H P-127)

“This issue dedicated to poet, publisher, martyr: r.j.s.”.

  • Contents:
    1. bp nichol – “Statement”
      d.a. levy – “Why Concrete?”
      T.L. Kryss – “Monsoooooooooon”
      T.L. Kryss – “I Wisht I Cd Play the Beautiful Instrument”
      T.L. Kryss – “Paranoia”
      d.a. levy – “Emergency City Ordinance”
      Bud – [untitled] “He imaginatively apprehends…”
      Julian Kallander – “Forgotten Things”
      D.W. Harris – “Side 10 – New Syndrome”
      D.W. Harris – “Liebestod”
      Russell Atkins – “A Storm Shall Break”
      bp nichol – [untitled] “did you ever…”
      bp nichol – [untitled] “multilingual…”
      Adam Kadmon – [untitled] “eye m struggling…”
      E.S. Harmon – “A Lettre From”
      Allen Ginsberg – [untitled] “censorship of language…”
      Bill Bissett – “Sun”
      Bill Bissett – [untitled] “my lady sd hold it…”
      E.R. Baxter III – “Here on this Page”
      E.R. Baxter III – [untitled] “green grass…”
      E.R. Baxter III – [untitled] “spring is sprung…”
      rjs – “Lines from a Lazy Concrete Poet”
      Bob Cobbing – [untitled] “wan do tree”
      J.D. Kuch – “Poem to Peter Orlovsky”
      D.r. Wagner – “Phantom Beaver Finds Mate”
      Ivo Vroom – [untitled] “wind…”
      bp nichol – “Movie Bill: The Outrage”
      bp nichol – “Homage to Edmund Bergler”
      D.r. Wagner – “Shaking it up with Will”
      D.r. Wagner – “Let’s All Sing like The Birdies Sing”
      d.a. levy – “Solar Swastika”
      d.a. levy – “Visualized Prayer for the American God #6”
      Mara – [untitled] “saule…”
      T.L. Kryss – “Bert Miller does not like…”

12. THE MARRAHWANNAH QUARTERLY, Vol. 3, No. 4, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1967

First edition, side-stapled in silkscreen cover, 8.5″ x 11″, mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. Cover silkscreen by T.L. Kryss. (Lowell B2, T&H P-128)

“This issue is dedicated to Trans-Love Energies (Detroit) and the Buddhists of Collinwood”

  • Contents:
    1. Amy Picciano – [untitled] “One came out from a corner…”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “like a nugget of gold…”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “brothers and sisters…”
      T.L. Kryss – “Hemmorhage”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “thirteen tricks…”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “face run…”
      T.L. Kryss – Concrete Poem for Jane Mansfield”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “the hand…”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “the truth about circles…”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “the strange case of…”
      T.L. Kryss – [untitled] “noah spent building the tribes…”
      d.a. levy – “Comments on the Acid Scene”
      d.a. levy – “Psychedelic Information Center”
      d.a. levy – “Comment on the Acid Landscape”
      d.a. levy – “Tantric Strobe”
      Al Bell – “Ing”
      Al Bell – [untitled] “as we walk…”
      George Dowden – “Landscape: 16”
      S.M. Kane – [untitled] “the fire blazes…”
      Gene Bloom – “Paranoia”

13. THE MARRAHWANNAH QUARTERLY, Vol. 4, No. 1, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, Winter 1967-1968

First edition, side-stapled in printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, mimeograph printed by d.a. levy.  (Lowell B2, T&H P-162)

  • Contents:
    1. T.L.Kryss – [untitled] “when you go to san francisco…”
      T.L.Kryss – [untitled] “moon…”
      T.L.Kryss – [untitled] “winter rain and purple rainbow…”
      Rolla Rieder – “Credibility Gaposis”
      Rolla Rieder – “Please Do Not Throw Foreign Articles”
      Rolla Rieder – “Come-On”
      Rolla Rieder – “Illusion”
      W.Y. Evans-Wentz – “The Yoga Philosophy”
      George Montgomery – [untitled] “trip some where…”
      Leon Spiro – [letter]
      Li Po – [untitled] “You ask me…”
      rjs – [untitled] “well you know its not…”
      rjs – [untitled] “yr eyes r a necessari…”
      rjs – [untitled] “how mani desires…”
      rjs – [untitled] “things as they are…”
      d.a. Levy – “Tantric Strobe”
      W.Y. Evans-Wentz – “Forms of Yoga”
      Jiri Valoch – “Two Interlinguistic Poems”

14. THE MARRAHWANNAH QUARTERLY, Vol. 4, No. 2, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1967-1968

First edition, side-stapled in printed and hand-painted wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 200 copies, mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. Cover art by Toni Thomas and Sandy-Jo Hickle. (Lowell B2, T&H P-163)

  • Contents:
    1. Don Thomas – “Grandfather Poems”
      Don Thomas – “Notes from the Gutter”
      Don Thomas – “M 13”
      Don Thomas – “2 Above, 3 Below”
      Don Thomas – “Homage to Issa”
      Don Thomas – “The Balloon Lady”
      Don Thomas – “A Subway Named Mobius”
      Don Thomas – “The Next to the Last Flight”
      Don Thomas – “Dead Man’s Hand”
      E.R. Baxter III – “All that is Hard is not Concrete”
      E.R. Baxter III – “On the Difficulty of Determining”
      E.R. Baxter III – “A Semi-Concretual Christian Fish Story”
      E.R. Baxter III – “Fire & Brimstone”
      E.R. Baxter III – [untitled] “two crows fly…”
      bjt – “Two Poems & A Statement on Concrete Poetry”
      bjt – “The Naked Body I Luv”
      rjs – “Classified Adverseticement for the Local Industri”
      rjs – [untitled] “walk red green red green”
      d.a. Levy – [book reviews]

The Silver Cesspool

The first of d.a. levy’s periodicals, five issues of The Silver Cesspool were published between 1963 and 1964. The short-lived periodical was letterpress printed by levy and featured block prints from Lester Czaban Jr., Charlene Levey, Russell Salamon, John Konyecsni, and levy. Contributors over the five issues included Kent Taylor, Russell Atkins, Adelaide Simon, Judson Crews, Kirby Congdon, Will Inman, Ted Berrigan, A. Greenshoot [pseud. Jim Lowell], and others.

1. THE SILVER CESSPOOL, Vol. 1, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1963

First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 20 pages, c.100 copies, letterpress printed by d.a. levy. Illustrated with block prints by Lester Czaban Jr. (Lowell B1, T&H P-08)

  • Contents:
    1. Jau Billera – “Mulligan Stew”
      Jau Billera – “Time”
      Jau Billera – “Bowery”
      Jau Billera – “Legless”
      Jau Billera – “The Party”
      Jau Billera – “Insomnia”
      Russell Salamon – “Night 1”
      Russell Salamon – “Night 2”
      Russell Salamon – “Autumn”
      Russell Salamon – “Season Circle”
      Russell Salamon – [untitled] “The fragile prey that…”
      d.a. levy – “Faustian”
      d.a. levy – “In Van Gogh I View”
      d.a. levy – “Love”
      d.a. levy – “Monument to Death”
      d.a. levy – “Edgewater Park”
      d.a. levy – “Balboa Park”
      Kent Taylor – “Jewelry”
      Kent Taylor – “Trite Things”
      Kent Taylor – “Flotsam”
      Kent Taylor – “To D.B.”
      Kent Taylor – “Changing”
      Kent Taylor – “Visions”

2. THE SILVER CESSPOOL, Vol. 2, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1964

First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages,c.100 copies, letterpress printed by d.a. levy. (Lowell B1, T&H P-34)

  • Contents:
    1. David Jeffery – “Etchings & Such”
      Russell Atkins – “Objects on a Table”
      Loring Williams – “Retrospect”
      Jau Billera – “The Sullen Sound”
      d.a. levy – “The River”
      Kent Taylor – “Shapes”
      Irene Schramm – [untitled] “We wait the downpour…”
      Stephen Massaro – “Waterfront Sketch II”
      Adelaide Simon – [untitled] “To reach the age where…”
      Russell Salamon – “A Morning”

3. THE SILVER CESSPOOL, Vol. 3, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1964

First edition, saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 20 pages, c.100 copies, letterpress printed by d.a. levy. Illustrated with block prints by Charlene Levey (“Ecstatic Nomad”), Lester Czaban Jr. (“Stealing”), and Russell Salamon (“The Trial”). (Lowell B1, T&H P-35)

  • Contents:
    1. Frank Ankenbrand Jr. – “To a Ship’s Figurehead”
      Kent Taylor – “To the Suicides of The Golden Gate Bridge”
      Irene Schramm – “Birthday Poem”
      Russell Atkins – “Lake in a Storm”
      d.a. levy – “Autumn Leaves, for Susan”
      L.S. Torgoff – “Portrait of Lisa”
      Julie Suk – “Life Class”
      Fay Fox – “Figure-Ground”
      L.S. Torgoff – “A Litany for the Alphabet”
      Irene Schramm – “Letter to Joan Brown”
      Russell Salamon – “For a Poet”
      Adelaide Simon – [untitled] “Painting my bathroom purple…”
      d.a. levy – “To Cleveland on the Understanding of a Poet, for Hadassah”

4. THE SILVER CESSPOOL, Vol. 4, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1964

First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages,c.100 copies, letterpress printed by d.a. levy. Illustrated with block prints by John Konyecsni (“Birds”) and d.a. levy (“A Night at Uxmal”). (Lowell B1, T&H P-36)

  • Contents:
    1. Judson Crews – “Thoughts on Returning”
      Kirby Congdon – “Flaring Trees”
      James D. Callahan – “Ethics”
      d.a. levy – “Pollock”
      Ronald Caplan – “From Forbes & Shady”
      Keith Davie – “Written after a Poetry Reading by M. Marcus”
      Lewis Turco – “Song”
      L.S. Torgoff – “To Catch a Thief”
      Judson Crews – “The Brain in the Weather”

5. THE SILVER CESSPOOL, Vol. 5, edited by d.a. levy
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1964

First edition, side-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages, c.100 copies (including 14 special illustrated copies), letterpress printed by d.a. levy.
(Lowell B1, T&H P-37)

  • Contents:
    1. Will Inman – “from 108 Handles”
      Milton Phillips – “from Which Side of the Mirror”
      David Federman – [untitled] “No longer…”
      Dave Rasey – “At Times”
      Ted Berrigan – “Jumping from Pottawottamie (for Martin Cochran)”
      Adelaide Simon – “Nocturne”
      Kent Taylor – [untitled] “we watch sponges…”
      A. Greenshoot [Jim Lowell] – “Cleveland Greenery”
      Ariella – [untitled] “Who created you that you…”
      Kent Taylor – [book review of Hermes Past the Hour by Judson Crews]
      Rick Klein – [untitled] “i come to you…”

The Free Lance

“The Free Lance Poetry and Prose Workshop was begun in 1942 by Mrs. Helen Collins, a librarian whose outlook was decidedly advanced for that profession here in those days. In 1950, Russell Atkins, a charter member of the group, suggested starting a ‘little magazine’ and brought this project together. He edited and published the first issue through financial gifts. It was distributed mainly in Cleveland. The 1952 issue was the first issue circulated outside of Cleveland. We were in correspondence with Judson Crews’ Suck Egg Mule, E.V. Griffith’s way-out editing of the Minnesota Quarterly. Mrs. Collins presented the magazine at Breadloaf. Many suggestions, help, from Langston Hughes, Loring Williams, Arna Bontemps. With the start of Trace magazine, Free Lance began its correspondence with Villiers’ James Boyer May. Collectively, this constituted some of what was the avant garde of the early fifties.

“Free Lance did not advocate the Carlos Williams school that began later. It has never held any particular sympathy for that concern with ‘ordinary language’: a dead-end seemingly. However, it did publish emerging Robert Creeley along with others in the boldest of experimentation. Eventually, Free Lance set an entirely different pattern of thought which persists even now. After some surprises to Cleveland (viz., Irving Layton’s poem, ‘The Dwarf’ which used ‘fuck’ as early as 1955 in Cleveland, and a short salon play, ‘The Abortionist’, at a time when the word was unmentionable here) Free Lance published its ‘psychovisualism’ theory. Few ‘little magazines’ had launched as complete and as original a bid for a ‘scientific aesthetic’. Free Lance was established, indisputably, as Cleveland’s avant garde. The magazine picked up interest. Editor-in-Chief Casper L. Jordan, Adelaide Simon, Helen Collins began to bring influences to bear: Mr. Jordan through the library at Wilberforce University; Mrs. Simon stirred memories of Hart Crane (who, after all, was a neglected name in Cleveland); Mrs. Collins determined policies. Many poets who became the “Beats” of late 1957 passed through our early files.

“Free Lance is now Cleveland’s hard core for poetry. Recently it supplied the largest continuous support for other activities pertaining to poetry, viz., the Fenn College Poetry Center; radion station WCLV’s Poetry Seminar (Jau Billera); d.a. levy’s Renegade Press. To the extent of its means it brings to Clevelanders names such as Judson Crews, Tracy Thompson, David Cornel DeJong, Irving Layton, Robert Creeley, Barris Mills, Charles Bukowski, Robert Sward

“Recently, Adelaide Simon re-organized the Free Lance Workshop, developing it along the lines of a zany salon for pent-up poets, painters, musicians. Russell Salamon invents words while d.a. levy makes prints using a condom in some instances; Russell Atkins suddenly psychovisualizes at the piano while Jau Billera plays tapes of poets he has recorded; Mr. and Mrs. Kent Taylor, James R. Lowell and Alsbrooks Smith run the gamut from art to sociology and politics while Mrs. Simon brings out day-old cakes, beer and newly arrived ‘Little Mags’. Celeste Simon pounces on overbearing seriousness devastatingly; the Fergusons relax. Mr. Simon returning from a Cleveland Orchestra concert brings delighted sanity to the evening. Somebody reads a poem occasionally. There are visitors.”

– Russell Atkins [Input, Vol. 1, No. 4 (New York, December 1964)]

Russell Atkins – Contributions to Books and Anthologies

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SECTION B:
This index includes contributions to books and anthologies


1. THE CLEVELAND MANIFESTO OF POETRY
First edition:
Cleveland: The Asphodel Bookshop, 1964
Single sheet printed on both sides, 8.5″ x 11″, mimeograph printed. Dated June 1, 1964 with statements by d.a. levy Kent Taylor, Jau Billera, Russell Atkins, Russell Salamon, and Adelaide Simon.
(T&H B-01)

465, AN ANTHOLOGY OF CLEVELAND POETS, edited by d.a. levy
levy_465First edition:
Cleveland: 7 Flowers Press, 1966
Side-stapled sheets in silk-screened cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 64 pages, 500 copies. Contributors: Russell Atkins, Judith Hawthorne Albrecht, Grace Butcher, Geoffrey Cook, John Cornillon, Susan Cornillon, Joel Marc Deutsch, Joel Friedman, Bennet Hassink, Walter R. Keller, Joyce Guion, T.L. Kryss, Jacob Leed, d.a. levy, Mara, Franklin W.W. Osinski, r.j.s., Thom Szuter, Kent Taylor, Don Thomas, Kathie Lenehan. Preface by Rene Char. Cover silkscreen by Ralph and Diedra Poplar. Mimeograph printed by d.a. levy.
(T&H P-106)

2. THE MUNTU POETS OF CLEVELAND
First edition:
Cleveland: The United Black Artists of Cleveland and Free Lance Poets Press, 1968
Saddle-stapled in illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″. Introduction by Russell Atkins.
Atkins contribution: “Spyrtual” [poem]

3. A TRIBUTE TO JIM LOWELL
First edition:
Cleveland: Ghost Press, June 1967
Side-stapled illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 500 copies, mimeograph printed. Cover and silkscreens by T.L. Kryss.  Contributors include (in order of appearance) B.P. Nichol, T.L. Kryss (Preface), R. Wolter, Jonathan Williams, Mitchell Goodman & Denise Levertov, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Olson, Russell Atkins, Marvin Malone, William Wantling, Jacob Leed, T.L. Kryss, Dwight MacDonald, Paul Carroll, Carl Woideck, d.a. levy, Douglas Casement, George Dowden, Mike Murphy, Franklin W.W. Osinski, Geoffrey Cook, Kent Taylor, D.R. Wagner, Charles Bukowski, Donald Cauble, J.M. Edelstein, James Laughlin, Robert Lowell, Douglas Blazek, Brown Miller, Phillip Kaplan, Gilbert Sorrentino, Guy Davenport, Felix Pollak, Michael McClure, rjs, Dave Cunliffe, Ron Caplan, Carl Weissner, David W. Harris, Walter Lowenfels, John Cornillion, Allen De Loach, Jasper Wood, Walter R. Keller , Ted Berrigan.

Russell Atkins – Books

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SECTION A:
This index includes books, chapbooks, booklets, and other separate publications


1. Atkins, Russell. A PODIUM PRESENTATION *
First edition:
Brooklyn Heights: The Poetry Seminar Press, 1960
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 4.5″ x 8.5″, 8 pages, mimeograph printed.

Note: Atkins’ first book. The book’s opening poem previously appeared in the Seattle magazine Experiment: A Quarterly Of New Poetry (Vol IV, no. 1 [1951]). Back cover lists three of Atkins’ previous publications: “The Hypothetical Arbitrary Constant of Inhibition” (see The Free Lance 8:2 [1964]); “A Psychovisual Perspective for ‘Musical’ Composition” (see The Free Lance 3:2 [1955] and 5:1 [1958]); and “The Invalidity of Dominant Group Educational Forms” (see The Free Lance 7:2 [1963]).

2. Atkins, Russell. PHENOMENA
First edition:
Wilberforce: The Free Lance Poets and Prose Workshop and Wilberforce University Press, 1961
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 4.5″ x 8.5″, 79 pages.


3. Atkins, Russell. OBJECTS
First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1961
Saddle-stapled in illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 20 pages, 200 copies, offset printed. Cover illustration by Ben Tibbs. Published as the 16th Hearse Press Chapbook edited by E.V. Griffith.

4. Atkins, Russell. TWO BY ATKINS: THE ABORTIONIST & THE CORPSE
First edition:
Cleveland: Free Lance, 1963
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers,  5.5″ x 8.5″, 40 pages. “Two poetic dramas to be set to music”.

Note: Two By Atkins: The Abortionist and The Corpse: Two Poetic Dramas To Be Set To Music was published by The Free Lance Press, a division of the Free Lance Poets and Prose Workshop, under the auspices of Caspar LeRoy Jordan. Both texts had originally been published in 1954, The Abortionist in The Free Lance: a magazine of poetry and prose and The Corpse in the Western Review (Iowa State University). Name on cover as “Rvssyll Atkyns.”

5. Atkins, Russell. OBJECTS 2
a. First edition:
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1963
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 100 copies, letterpress printed by d.a. levy. Cover art by d.a. levy. This Renegade Press edition includes three poems that appear in OBJECTS (Eureka: Hearse Press, 1960) but is otherwise a different collection. (T&H P-07)

b. Second edition:
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1964
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 20 pages, letterpress printed by d.a. levy. Second Renegade Press printing with sequence of poems changed from first printing, plus one added poem. (T&H P-17)

6. Atkins, Russell. DISTANT THE SOUND [POLLUTED LAKE SERIES, No. 1]
levy_polluted01First edition:
Cleveland: Renegade Press, 1965
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 4.25″ x 6″, 12 pages, letterpress printed by d.a. levy. (T&H P-43)

7. Atkins, Russell. SPYRYTUAL
levy_spyrytualFirst edition:
Cleveland: 7 Flowers Press, 1966
Side-stapled sheets bound in to printed wrappers, 4.25″ x 8.25″, 4 pages, 200 copies, letterpress and mimeograph printed by d.a. levy. (T&H P-112)


8. Atkins, Russell. OBJECTS FOR PIANO *
First edition:
Cleveland: Free Lance, 1967
Saddle-stapled in wrappers, 16 pages. Musical score. There is a short afterword in which the author’s interest in modern music is described.

Note:  Dedicated to the memory of the co-founder of Free Lance Press, Adelaide Simon. Objects for Piano is the third in a series of chapbooks which included Objects and Objects 2. The decorative cover design adapts and incorporates a figure from one of Atkins’ essay on composition [“Psychovisual Perspective for ‘Musical’ Composition,” The Free Lance, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1958)].

9. Atkins, Russell. HERETOFORE
First edition:
London: Paul Breman Ltd, 1968
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 32 pages, offset printed. Published as Volume 7 in the Heritage Series.


10. Atkins, Russell. THE NAIL
First edition:
Cleveland: Free Lance Press, 1970
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 90 pages.

Note: The Nail was based on the eponymous story by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón and written in 1957 at the suggestion of composer Hale Smith. It is meant to be set to music for performance.

11. Atkins, Russell. HERE IN THE
First edition:
Cleveland: Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1976
Perfect bound in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 52 pages, offset printed. Published as Cleveland Poets Series No. 13.

12. Atkins, Russell. WHICHEVER
First edition:
Cleveland: Free Lance Press, 1978
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages, offset printed.



13. Atkins, Russell. MALEFICIUM
First edition:
Cleveland: Free Lance Press, 1971
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″,  72 pages, offset and xerography printed.


14. Atkins, Russell. JUXTAPOSITIONS *
First edition:
Cleveland: privately printed, 1991
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 11″, 28 pages, offset and xerography printed.



[* not in archive]

Hearse Press Chapbooks

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Hearse Press published 18 chapbooks from  1958 to 1970. According to Griffith, “When I first envisioned Hearse, I wanted to also do some chapbooks, but it was nearly a decade before that wish became a reality.”


1. Larsen, Carl. ARROWS OF LONGING
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1958

2. [Anthology]. NINE BY THREE
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1959

3. Orlovitz, Gil. THE PAPERS OF PROFESSOR BOLD
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1959

4. Mason, Mason Jordan. A LEGIONERE
Eureka: Hearse Press, [1959]

5. Bukowski, Charles. FLOWER, FIST AND BESTIAL WAIL
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1960
First edition, saddle-stapled illustrated wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.25″, 28 pages, (200 copies), offset printed, cover illustration by Ben Tibbs, edited by E.V. Griffith. The author’s first book. Published as Hearse Chapbooks 5. (Dorbin A1, Krumhansl 3)

6. Nowlan, Alden A. A DARKNESS IN THE EARTH
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1959

7. Mason, Mason Jordan. THE CONSTIPATED OWL
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1959

8. Eckman, Frederick. HOT & COLD RUNNING
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1960

9. DeJong, David Cornel. ELKS, MOOSES, LIONS, AND OTHER ESCAPES
Eureka: Hearse Press, [1963]

10. Crews, Judson. THE FEEL OF SUN & AIR UPON HER BODY
Eureka: Hearse Press, [1959]
First edition, comb-bound illustrated boards., 32 pages, 125  copies.  Published as Hearse Chapbook 10. Illustrated with photographs cut from magazines on both sides of covers, with title and author name letterpress printed in green on front, plus two similar leaves in text. The images appear to come from nudist, girly, travel, and other magazines. Each copy presumably is unique.

11. Mason, Mason Jordan. THE TWENTY-THIRD OF LOVE
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1964

12. Crews, Judson. THE OGRES WHO WERE HIS HENCHMEN
Eureka: Hearse Press, [1960]

13. Singer, James. GOD WITH A BIG O
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1960

14. Griffith, E.V. ANSWERS: EYE POEMS
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1960

15. Griffith, E.V. QUESTIONS: EYE POEMS
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1961

16. Atkins, Russell. OBJECTS
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1960

17. Griffith, E.V. THE FOXFIRES
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1963

18. Witt, Harold. WINESBURG BY THE SEA: A PREVIEW
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1970

HEARSE, A VEHICLE USED TO CONVEY THE DEAD

Starting with the publication of HEARSE 1 in 1957, E. V. Griffith’s HEARSE PRESS would go on to publish 17 issues of the little magazine, a series of 18 chapbooks including Charles Bukowski’s mags_hearse01first, and COFFIN, a portfolio of broadsides. Among those published by HEARSE PRESS are Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, Judson Crews, Russell Atkins, Mason Jordan Mason, Larry Eigner, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Joel Oppenheimer, Paul Blackburn, Robert Creeley, LeRoi Jones, and many more.

According to Griffith in SHEAF, HEARSE, COFFIN, POETRY NOW: A HISTORY (Hearse Press, 1996):
“In format, HEARSE was a center-stapled booklet 5.5″ x 8.5″ page size; the wire staples which held the propensity for rusting. The Rhino Bristol cover stock ran through several different colors — blue, gray, green, yellow, and (much later) pink — with the name in buk_flowerblack ink. (A few issues varied this by using white cover stock, and a colored ink.) Its appearance owed much to — in fact, almost copied — Larsen’s EXISTARIA.” (more…)

Hearse

>> return to Hearse Press main page >>

HEARSE, A VEHICLE USED TO CONVEY THE DEAD ran for 17 issues and was published by E. V. Griffith’s Hearse Press from 1957 until 1972. According to Griffith in SHEAF, HEARSE, COFFIN, POETRY NOW: A HISTORY (Hearse Press, 1996):

“In format, HEARSE was a center-stapled booklet 5.5″ x 8.5″ page size; the wire staples which held the propensity for rusting. The Rhino Bristol cover stock ran through several different colors — blue, gray, green, yellow, and (much later) pink — with the name in black ink. (A few issues varied this by using white cover stock, and a colored ink.) Its appearance owed much to — in fact, almost copied — Larsen’s EXISTARIA.”


1. HEARSE, No. 1, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse01First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1957
Saddle-stapled  in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages, 100 copies, offset printed.

Contents: poems by Joel Oppenheimer, Robert Creeley, Raymond Souster, Larry Eigner, Jonathan Williams, Langston Hughes, Louis Dudek, Gil Orlovitz, David Cornel DeJong, Bariss Mills, Judson Crews and 11 other poets; artwork by Kenneth Lawrence Beaudoin, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, an excerpt from the autobiography of Dick Stud, and a collage by Mercy Pennis Hyman.

2. HEARSE, No. 2, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse02First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1957
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 24 pages, offset printed.

Contents: poems by Gil Orlovitz, Langston Hughes, Robert Creeley, Charles Bukowski, Joel Oppenheimer, Lloyd Zimpel, Richard Brautigan, Theodore Enslin, John Forbis, Alden A. Nolan, Raymond Souster and 16 other poets; artwork by E. V. Griffith, and Henry Miller, and a short story by Harold Witt.

3. HEARSE, No. 3, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse03First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1958
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 32 pages, offset printed.

Contents: poems by Kenneth Rexroth, Langston Hughes, Alden A. Nolan, Gil Orlovitz, Judson Crews, David Cornel DeJong, Carol Ely Harper, Mason Jordan Mason, Richard Brautigan, Raymond Souster, Clarence Major, and 5 other poets; artwork by Kenneth Lawrence Beaudoin, and Ben Tibbs, and a short story by R. T. Taylor.

4. HEARSE, No. 4, edited by E. V. Griffith
First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1958
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages, offset printed.

Contents: poems by Russell Atkins, Charles Bukowski, Maxine Cassin, Paul Blackburn, Mortimer Tission, and 10 other poets; artwork by E. V. Griffith, and Farley Gay, and a short story by Mary Graham Lund.

5. HEARSE, No. 5, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse05First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1959
Saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 20 pages, offset printed.

Contents: poems by Allen Ginsburg, Paul Blackburn, Robert Creeley, LeRoi Jones, Joel Oppenheimer, David Cornel DeJong, Frederick Eckman, Alden A. Nolan, Walter Lowenfels, and 8 other poets; artwork by E. V. Griffith.

6. HEARSE, No. 6, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse06First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1960
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 20 pages, offset printed.

Contents: poems by George Scarborough, Felix Stefanie, Russell Atkins, Gil Orlovitz, Jon Barkley Hart, Maxine Cassin, Judson Crews, and 5 other poets; artwork by E. V. Griffith, and Bob Brown, a short story by Clarence Major, and a excerpt from the autobiography of Raven Lunatick.

7. HEARSE, No. 7, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse07First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1960
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by David Cornel DeJong, Langston Hughes, Charles Bukowski, Raymond Souster, Patricia Hooper, Larry Eigner, Gil Orlovitz, Jack Anderson, Diane DiPrima, Judson Crews, and 8 other poets, and a short story by Mary Graham Lund.

8. HEARSE, No. 8, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse08First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1961
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by Charles Bukowski, Jonathan Williams, Gil Orlovitz, Frederick Eckman, Maxine Cassin, Russell Atkins, and 11 other poets, and a short story by Irving Halperin.

9. HEARSE, No. 9, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse09First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1961
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 16 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by Paul Blackburn, Richard Brautigan, Gil Orlovitz, Robert S. Ward, George Scarborough, and 4 other poets.

10. HEARSE, No. 10, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse10First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1969
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 32 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by Winfield Towny Scott, Charles Bukowski, Marge Piercy, Harold Witt, William Childress, Maxine Cassin, Dave Etter, Theodore Enslin, Carroll Arnett, and 9 other poets.

11. HEARSE, No. 11, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse11First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1969
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 48 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by William Childress, Robert Bly, Charles Bukowski, Hayden Carruth, Kathleen Fraser, Larry Eigner, Lyn Lifshin, Harold Witt, Vern Rutsala, Robert Mezey, Gerg Kuzma, Thomas Mayer, Nancy, Willard, George Hitchcock, Keith Wilson, Rochelle OWents, Dave Etter, Carroll Arnett, Peter Wild, Terry Stokes, and 12 other poets.

12. HEARSE, No. 12, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse12First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1970
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 44 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by Diane Wakowski, Robert Mezey, John Haines, Dave Etter, Charles Simic, William Childress, Charles Wright, Michael Benedikt, William Matthews, David Ingatow, Harold Witt, Rochelle Owens, David Antin, Robert Gershon, and 17 other poets.

13. HEARSE, No. 13, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse13First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1970
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 52 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by Marge Piercy, Charles Simic, Marvin Applewhite, Jack Anderson, Michael Benedikt, Howard McCord, Dave Etter, Nancy Willard, Lewis Warsh, Gerard Malanga, Harold Bond, Keith Wilson, Morton Marcus, John Gill, and 11 other poets.

14. HEARSE, No. 14, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse14First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1970
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 52 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by James Schevill, Philip Levine, Nancy Willard, Marvin Bell, Larry Eigner, Stephen Sandy, James Welch, Charles Bukowski, Robert Peters, William Childress, Marge Piercy, Harold Witt, James Tate, Adrien Stoutenburg, Peter Wild, Carolyn Stoloff, Terry Stokes, Harley Elliott, and 20 other poets.

15. HEARSE, No. 15, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse15First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1971
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 64 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by Hayden Caruth, William Matthews, Marge Piercy, Charles Bukowski, John Woods, Herbert Scott, Gary Gilder, William Childress, Greg Kuzma, Theodore Enslin, Albert Goldbarth, Jack Anderson, Peter Wild, Michael G. Culross, H.L. Van Brunt, Lyn Lifshin, Norman Dubie, and 30 other poets.

16. HEARSE, No. 16, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse16First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1971
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 64 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by Harold Witt, Daniel Hoffman, Philip Booth, Ted Kooser, David Wagoner, William Matthews, David Ingatow, Robert Mezey, Larry Levis, Paul Zimmer, Dave Etter, Carolyn Stoloff, Lyn Lifshin, Charles Edward Eaton, Ernest Kroll, David Hilton, Sonya Dorman, Robert Hershson, Terry Stokes, and 28 other poets.

17. HEARSE, No. 17, edited by E. V. Griffith
mags_hearse17First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1972
Saddle-stapled printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 88 pages, letterpress printed.

Contents: poems by Charles Bukowski, Harold Norse, X.J. Kennedy, Robert Mezey, James Schevill, Charles Wright, John Woods, William Childress, Russell Edson, Peter Everyone, Colette Inez, Douglas Blazek, Thomas Lux, William Witherup, Robert Hershon, Peter Wild, Lyn Lifshin, Geof Hewitt, Dave Kelly, Stephen Dunn, William Hathaway, Adrien Stoutenburg, and 39 other poets.

Russell Atkins


Russell Atkins Checklist:
Section A: Books
Section B: Contributions to Books and Anthologies
Section C: Contributions to Periodicals

The Free Lance [coming soon]


Poet, composer, and editor Russell Atkins was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Raised by his grandmother, mother, and aunt, he developed a love of music early on and studied piano from the age of seven. Atkins went on to study music at the Cleveland School of Arts and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was also involved in the Karamu House, considered the oldest African American theater in the United States and home to many productions of Langston Hughes’s dramatic works. In 1950, Atkins co-founded, with Adelaide Simon, the magazine Free Lance. Recognized as one of the oldest, most influential little magazines of the Black avant-garde, the journal did much to disseminate innovative writing in the African American community and influenced the New American Poetry. During these years, Atkins corresponded with many poets, including Marianne Moore, Langston Hughes, and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka).

Music is central to Atkins’s methods of writing; he once wrote of his practice, “I would ‘compose’ like a painter and write poems like a composer.” Atkins developed a mode of composition he calls “phenomenalism,” in which image and sound combinations extend the possibilities of semantic meaning through sonic play and visual forms. He is often described as a “concrete poet,” and his influential essay “A Psychovisual Perspective for ‘Musical’ Composition” elaborated on the visual aspects of musical and verse composition.


Online Resources:
Deep Cleveland: biographical data
Eclipse: facsimiles of Atkins work


References Consulted:

Griffith, E.V. SHEAF, HEARSE, COFFIN, POETRY NOW: A HISTORY
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1996

Harter, Christopher. AN AUTHOR INDEX TO LITTLE MAGAZINES OF THE MIMEOGRAPH REVOLUTION
Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2008

LOOKING FOR D.A. LEVY (RANDOM SIGHTINGS): THE D.A. LEVY BIBLIOGRAPHY, Volume 1 [1963-1966], edited by Kent Taylor and Alan Horvath
Vancouver: Kirpan Press, 2006

LOOKING FOR D.A. LEVY (RANDOM SIGHTINGS): THE D.A. LEVY BIBLIOGRAPHY, Volume 2 [1967-1968], edited by Kent Taylor and Alan Horvath
Vancouver: Kirpan Press, 2008

Lowell, James R. “A Preliminary Checklist of the Writings of d.a. levy (1942-1968)” appearing in THE SERIF, Kent State University Library Quarterly, Vol. VIII, No. 4, December, 1971