Tag Archives: Stan Persky

The Spicer Circle’s J

August 4, 2022 jason

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

Jack Spicer – Books

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

1. Spicer, Jack. AFTER LORCA
a. 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
First 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
a. 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
a. 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
a. 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
a. 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)

c. 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
a. 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
a. 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
a. 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

—

Open Space

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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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:
1. 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

Cow

Inspired by Stan Persky’s OPEN SPACE, Luther T. Cupp edited COW, which ran for three issues from 1965-1966. Cupp was nicknamed “Link” by Jack Spicer and went by the name Link Martin.

1. COW, The San Francisco Magazine of Livestock, No. 1, Cow Soup Issue, edited by Luther T. Cupp
San Francisco: Cow, 1965
First edition, side stapled printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 11 pages, mimeograph printed.

Contents:
1. Doug Palmer – “Song To: Mr Tambourine Man”
  Deneen Brown – [untitled] “Perhaps it’s a…”
  Lawrence Fagin – [untitled] “So you want to go to space…”
  Stan Persky – “Detective Poem”
  Robin Blaser – “Here, 7/25/65”
  J. Mac Innis – “If Any”
  George Stanley – “Towns”
  Harold Dull – “for Jack”
  Joanne Kyger – “from The Thoughtful Apparitions”
  Jack Spicer – “Dear Sister Mary”
  Ronnie Primack – “Drowning Pool, for Alice”
  Link – “A False Poem of the Renaissance”

2. COW, The Magazine of Afro-Judeo Culture, No. 2, The Un-escalation Issue, edited by Luther T. Cupp
San Francisco: Cow, 1965
First edition, side stapled printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 11 pages, mimeograph printed.

Contents:
1. Jim Thurber – [untitled] “The moon and I…”
  Jim Thurber – [untitled] “The moon is a trick…”
  Robin Blaser – “A Gift (homage to Creeley)”
  Robin Blaser – “Image Nation 1”
  Stan Persky – “Folk Poem”
  Bill Brodecky – “Flower of Evil”
  Mike Hannon – “Thoughts on a Winter Moon”
  Larry Fagin – “Space Poems”
  Geoff Brown – “Poem to Myself”
  Michael Ratcliffe – “for L.F.”
  Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “I didn’t want to think…”
  Jamie MacInnis – “What Cruel Words Do/ a translation”
  Jamie MacInnis – “Lafayette Park”
  Luis Garcia – “The Argument”
  Luis Garcia – “With a Spoon”
  Luis Garcia – “The Couple”
  J.C. Alexander – “Dear Van Gogh”
  Gail Dusenbery – “Girl against Truck”
  Hune Voelcker – [untitled] “Yet when Rim came…”
  George Stanley – [untitled] “The knotted ropes…”
  Gail Dusenbery – “Peanuts? No. Words.”
  Gail Dusenbery – “Cold Lake Snapshot”

3. COW, No. 3, Pregnant Cow Issue, edited by Luter T. Cupp
San Francisco: Cow, 1966
First edition, side stapled printed wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 11 pages, mimeograph printed.

Contents:
1. Bill Deemer and Andrew Hoyem – “The Auto-Biography of L__ A__ L__”
  Stephen Mindel – [untitled] “Lost in the jungle…”
  Stephen Mindel – “Thursday Evening, for Bob White”
  Stephen Mindel – [untitled] “the deer crossed the stream…”
  Marga NewComb – “The Fallen Angel”
  Robin Blaser – “The Black Point”
  Michael Ratcliffe – “Tomorrow’s Another Day”
  H.M. Wickenheiser – [untitled] “Tomb-still repose is split…”
  Jim Semark – “Godzilla”
  Helen Adam – “A Tale of Dew Drops Falling”
  Gordon Gatom – “Trans”
  Mike Hannon – [untitled] “I feel sympathy…”
  Mike Hannon – [untitled] “A man will question…”
  Mike Hannon – [untitled] “Take up your words…”
  Mike Hannon – [untitled] “Just when I think…”
  Mike Hannon – [untitled] “A flash of metal…”
  Mike Hannon – [untitled] “adrift awake…”
  SMN – [untitled] “celled you are in postpale…”
  SMN – [untitled] “The poem walks…”
  SMN – “Mordant Manners”
  SMN – [untitled] “Still into us comes…”
  Robin Blaser – “El Desdichado”
  Michael Ratcliffe – “The Happy Ending”

J

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. Contributors included: Robin Blaser, Richard Brautigan, Bruce Boyd, Kay Johnson, Robert Duncan, Joe Dunn, Ron Loewinsohn, Joanne Kyger, Helen Adam, and others. Covers (sometimes hand-embellished) were by Fran Herndon (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5), Russell FitzGerald (No. 3), and George Stanley (Nos. 6, 7).

1. J, No. 1, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.

Contents:
1. James Alexander – “The Jack Rabbit Poem”
  Ebbe Borregaard – “Ballad for S A D”
  Ebbe Borregaard – “Ballad of Billy Swan”
  Robin Blaser – “Two Astronomers with Notebooks”
  Jack Spicer – “Hokkus”
  Joe Dunn – “Love”
  Richard Brautigan – “The Fever Monument”
  Sam the Tenor Man – “The Radio said Giants Cinch Loop Flag”
  Bois Burk – “Ode to Pierre”
  Bruce Boyd – “After Midnight”
  Roland March – [untitled] “Mister Brustein…”
  Damon Beard – [untitled] “Adverse repercussionless…”
  Kay Johnson – [untitled] “My soul is the absurdity…”
  Kay Johnson – [untitled] “The door in the dream…”
  Robert Duncan – “Dream Data”
  Sagen – “Dear Sprach” [pseuds. Borregaard and Spicer]
  Harvey Harmon – “A Soldier and His Shadow”
  Tony Richards – “Summer”

2. J, No. 2, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 36 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.

Contents:
1. George Stanley – “Tete Rouge”
  Fran Herndon – untitled illustration
  Jess Collins – “I Ups to My Self And”
  Harvey Harmon – [untitled] “More paths…”
  Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Down to new beaches…”
  Robert Duncan – “Dear Carpenter”
  Harvey Harmon – “A New Estate”
  William Morris – “Dear Senior Poet”
  Stan Persky – [untitled] “but it was a moment…”
  Mary Murphy – “In-”
  Will Holther – ” Lament for Otto de Fey”
  Jack Spicer – “Epilog for Jim”
  J.P. Shark – [untitled] “On account of changing tidal conditions…”

3. J, No. 3, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Russell FitzGerald.

Contents:
1. Bruce Boyd – “Introduction”
  Bruce Boyd – “Toward Morning”
  Bruce Boyd – “War”
  R.H. Blyth – “Letters to the Editor”
  Rueban – “Q”
  Mary Murphy – [untitled] “The skull is not the bones…”
  Leo Krikorian – [untitled] “1. No drinking on duty…”
  Ron Loewinsohn – “Entangling Alliances”
  George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
  Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The slobby sea where you float…”
  Damon Beard – [untitled] “Even —…”
  Jack Spicer – “Last Hokku”
  JBH [James Herndon?] – [untitled] “I don’t know how many…”

4. J, No. 4, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 36 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.

Contents:
1. Robert Duncan – “A Sequence of Poems…”
  Richard Brautigan – “The Pumpkin Tide”
  Richard Brautigan – “The Sidney Greenstreet Blues”
  Richard Brautigan – “Surprise”
  Garln – “Garln to His Friend”
  Joanne Kyger – “Tapestry #3”
  Josef Elias – “Joetry”
  Donald Allen – “for Barbara”
  John Ryan – “Pecadillo”
  Jack Spicer – “Jacob”
  George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
  Wallace Allen Healey – “Politics”

5. J, No. 5, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 34 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.

Contents:
1. L. Frank Baum – “from Sky Island”
  Larry Eigner – “Front”
  Jess Collins – “The Poets Corner” [comic strip]
  Richard Brautigan – “1942”
  Mary Murphy – [untitled] “Lack of oxygen…”
  D.D. – “Fishing on Saturday”
  Kay Johnson – “The Space is Too Wide”
  Ron Loewinsohn – “WIBC Poems”
  George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
  Robert Duncan – “The Song of the River to its Shores”
  Richard Duerden – “Right Now”
  Sheila Roche Harmon – [untitled] “A young devil sat…”
  Jack Spicer – “Fifth Elegy”
  William Berryman – “On the Composition of Bones”
  William R. Allen – “Letter”

6. J, No. 6, edited by George Stanley
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by George Stanley.

Contents:
1. Helen Adam – “Scenes from San Francisco’s Burning”
  Paul Goodman – “I Love You, Necessary–”
  Joanne Kyger – “Pan as the Son of Penelope”
  Lucio Manisco – “Un Misto di Boheme Mistica e Letteraria”
  William A. Berryman – [untitled] “in the after hours…”

7. J, No. 7, edited by George Stanley
New York: J, 1960
Corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 32 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by George Stanley.

All contents are anonymous.

8. J, No. 8, 1961, edited by Harold Dull *
Rome: J, 1961
Contributors: Harold Dull, Stan Persky.

—

[*not in archive]

online excerpt from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side (Granary Books, 1998):

“In many ways the most beautiful of all the mimeo magazines, J had an eight-issue run. The first five issues were edited from North Beach bars by Jack Spicer with Fran Herndon as art editor. Spicer, who embodied the spirit of poetry in the Bay area, collected pieces for his magazine from a box marked “J” in The Place, a bar at 1546 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. A refugee from Los Angeles with two degrees from Berkeley, he had been a student of Josephine Miles there in the mid-1940s. They became close friends, and Spicer participated in the Friday afternoon poetry readings in Wheeler Hall during the late 1940s as well as the readings organized with Rockefeller money by Ruth Witt-Diamant at the new Poetry Center at San Francisco State. Into the cauldron of poetic politics surrounding Miles, Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and others, Spicer introduced his freest of spirits, sometimes more Caliban than Ariel. Spicer lived for words (even making his living as a research assistant on a lexicographical project at Berkeley). He could be found most evenings in one of the North Beach bars or coffeehouses leading the discussion on poetry, poetics, myth, linguistics, and other mysteries. Like Blake and Yeats (with the help of Mrs. Yeats), Spicer attempted to clear his mind and open himself to “dictation” from other sources, which he devotedly pursued. Spicer also believed wholeheartedly in the necessity of human beings’ helping each other through communication, which he confronted in the editorship of J, a little newsletter of the poetic spirit. Donald Allen acted as J’s distributor in New York (“New York Contributions are not forbidden. But quotaed”), selling copies for Spicer to the Wilentz brothers of the Eighth Street Book Shop. In an early letter to Spicer, Allen eagerly wondered “what your editorial policy may be. Seduction by print.””

Further Reading:

Mimeo Mimeo on J

M

The Spicer Circle magazine M appeared in 1962 in the period after J and before Open Space. Edited by poets Lew Ellingham and Stan Persky, the magazine published John Allen Ryan, George Stanley, Heinrich von Kleist (translated by Jim Herndon), Robin Blaser, William McNeill, Jack Moore, Gail Chugg, Bob Conner, David Melville and the editors. Ellingham spent years researching a biography of Spicer, which was eventually co-authored with poet Kevin Killian as Poet Be Like God (Wesleyan, 1998).

M, No. 1, edited by Lew Ellingham and Stan Persky
San Francisco: M, Spring 1962
First edition, side-stapled illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 64 pages, mimeograph printed.

“Contributions may be sent to 4 Harwood Alley of c/o ‘M’ at Gino & Carlo’s Bar, 548 Green Street, San Francisco 11. There is a box in the bar to receive contributions, and the bartender will hold any too large to be placed in the box.”

Contents:
1. George Stanley – [untitled] “Not speaking in human speech…”
  Lewis Ellingham – “Essays on Six Subjects”
  Gail Chugg – “The Avenging Angel”
  anonymous – “The River Bed”
  Stan Persky – “Orpheus Under the Golden Gate Bridge”
  George Stanley – “The Death of Orpheus”
  Gail Chugg – “A Romantical Poem for Leigh Hunt”
  Stan Persky – “Lake”
  Gail Chugg – “The Spell Binders”
  George Stanley – “The Great Wall of Canada”
  anonymous – “The Eagle & The Sperm Whale”
  anonymous – “Alaska, The Beautiful”
  anonymous – “Change”
  Stan Persky – “Twenty Years After”
  Bob Conner – “To an Archaic Apollo”
  anonymous – “The Commendatory”
  anonymous – “The Guardians”
  anonymous – “The Stone Statue”
  Gail Chugg – “A Poem of Granite for Lew”
  Stan Persky – “The Western Buildings”
  Robin Blaser – “The Faerie Queene”
  George Stanley – “The Crazy Bartender”
  John Allen Ryan – “Fresco IV”
  Jack Moore – [untitled] “I try at times…”
  Wm McNeill – “Unyielding Demands”
  Wm McNeill – “Kyoto: A Dream on the Banks of Two Rivers”
  Bill McNeil – “By Heian’s Gate”
  John Allen Ryan – “Convict Creek”
  John Allen Ryan – “Second Annie Poem”
  Heinrich von Kleist, trans. Jim Herndon – “On The Marionette Theatre”
  David Melville – “Dop Dop Dop”

M, No. 2, edited by Lew Ellingham
San Francisco: M, 1962
First edition, side-stapled illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 48 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover illustration by Paul Alexander.

“This is the second issue, published on a summer holiday.”

Contents:
1. Bill Roberts – “The Dwarf’s Handshake”
  Jim Alexander – [untitled] “Promytheus wd hav askd…”
  Larry Fagin – [untitled] “Though we come back…”
  Helen Adam – “Memory”
  Jack Flynn – “Jed”
  Ruben Dario, trans. John Allen Ryan – “Cleopompa and Heliodemus”
  Stan Persky – “The Astronomer”
  Larry Fagin – “For Bill”
  Ebbe Borregaard – “October Seventh Poem”
  Jim Alexander – “Melody of Triumverates”
  Bill Roberts – “The Tower and the Cross”
  John Allen Ryan – “The Gleaners”
  Tony Sherrod – [untitled] “Beneath one thigh…”
  Parker Hodges – “Irresistably, the Birds”
  Lewis Ellingham – “Poem for S.”
  Larry Fagin – [untitled] “No don’t dead hide my dying giving…”

verdant press

Tag Archives: Stan Persky

The Spicer Circle’s J

Jack Spicer – Books

Open Space

Cow

J

M

a random walk through the open field…