Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy (1993)

Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy
Thomas Lux
Ampersand Press
Creative Writing Program
Roger Williams University
Bristol, RI


Originally published in 1983, this copy was published ten years later. It is a 6th printing. For any chapbook to be printed that often is remarkable. 23 pages. Staple-bound chapbook. Cover is grey. Nothing but text on front. A fairly boring cover, I have to say. The poems are good. Redeeming quality for certain. I do find it curious that these poems held together in chapbook form for a dozen years and 6 printings. I might have thought they would have been sucked up into a bigger work.

Man Joanne Kyger / Women Michael Rothenberg (1987)

Man by Joanne Kyger
Women by Michael Rothenberg
Twowindows Press
Berkeley, CA
(c)1987
Second Printing
Illustrated by Nancy Davis

2 years before Davis and Rothenberg started Big Bridge Press, this tiny chapbook appeared. Twowindows Press may have been a forerunner to Big Bridge. This handsome chap is extremely rare.

Prognosis by Ellen Aronofsky Cole (2011)

Prognosis
Ellen Arnonsky Cole
Finishing Line Press
Georgetown, KY
(c) 2011

If ever a book deserved a different publisher! There is much discussion these days about Finishing Line, much of it having to do with its status as a Vanity Press (which it seems to be) and the recent death of its Publisher.

I have long wondered about the business operation of a Press that had a cookie-cutter approach to the DOZENS upon DOZENS of chapbooks that it publishes each season (or is it month?)

The tell-tale bit of ribbon in each book was enough to make me cringe. That said, the work in this chapbook should be read. It's strong, poignant, and heart-felt. The "prognosis" here is Cancer and the way the author deals with the entire process is remarkable. At the same time, I don't know that the cover image has anything to do with the contents.

It's a good read of well crafted poems, I just wish someone else had published it.

A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

A Child's Christmas in Wales
Dylan Thomas
New Directions
first printing - 1954. This is the 12th printing

As often happens when I volunteer at the library, I find interesting items at the bottom of the donation bins; like this book! Designed like a kids book but far too nice, this handsome book with woodcuts by Ellen Raskin is stunning. A joy to hold and read. Mind-boggling to think that New Directions could, when it felt like it, make beautiful near-letter press quality books. This is an example of it. I could hardly believe it, yet there it was.

Unpaginated. 5 1/2" X 5 3/4". Designed and illustrated by Ms. Raskin. A great and rare find.

Elyria:Point A in Ohio Triangle by Alex Gildzen (2009)

Elyria: Point A in Ohio Triangle
Alex Gildzen
Crisis Chronicle Press
Elyria, OH
(c)2009

I first learned of Alex Gildzen in 2008 when a poet/friend of mine sent me a copy of one of his earlier chapbooks. I was somewhat surprised to see this particular chapbook listed on Paperback Book Swap website since I don't think of chapbooks are items one can swap from there. I was not familiar with the Press but they seem to be pretty active in the North Central part of the state.

Staple-bound, unpaginated on copy paper (bleed-through) with a drawing by author (at age 6) on front.

Cocoon by Lindley Bhanji (1988)

Cocoon
Lindley Bhanji
Platonium Press
Seattle, WA
(c) 1988

Those of you who have read these many entries about chapbooks know that when I don't believe a book should have been printed, I say "SAVE A TREE". I am saying this as way of introduction to Lindley Bhanji's chapbook, COCOON. The first piece, tree's epitaph presents it all quite well:


please spend five minutes mourning
at this page, for the tree which
was killed to make the paper from
which you are reading this epitaph,
and from which you will read
the following pages.

The book contains poems and graphics by Lindley Bhanji and was designed by Chris Winkler. Unpaginated. Staple-bound. Interesting blending of image with text. I haven't found out very much about the Press or the artist. It's a well done chapbook.

New Hampshire in the American Revolution (2010)

New Hampshire in the American Revolution
An Exhibition by the Society of the Cincinnati
Anderson House
Washington, D.C.
Nov. 13, 2010-May 7, 2011

Every once in awhile I find a chapbook that begs to be taken seriously. For it's factual content. This is one of those chapbooks. It's the most recent booklet in a series pertaining to the histories of each state that formed the original colonies at the time of the Revolutionary War and how citizens of each state made a significant contribution to the War effort, where important battles might have taken place, etc.

If you are a history buff, this is the perfect find. Complete with maps and other objects from the Exhibition.

House by the Sea by Penny Bihler (1975)

House by the Sea
Penny Bihler
From Here Press
Paterson, NJ
(c)1975

35 pages staple-bound chapbook. Penny Bihler was the romantic interest of William J. Higginson. Together they were intimately involved with the operation of From Here Press and Old Plate Press in the Paterson, NJ area from the mid-1970s till as recently as 2007. The cover stock and font are quite recognizable. Penny Bihler also was published as Penny Harter. A unique slice of New Jersey poetics.

Open-Book: an Illustrated Essay by M. Kasper (2010)

Open-Book: an Illustrated Essay
M. Kasper
Ugly Duckling Presse
Brooklyn, NY
(c)2010

Straight from the website of Ugly Duckling Presse, "Open-Book, An Illustrated Essay, is an accordion-fold book of eleven five-line observations on an ancient form of interior décor, a sublime aspect of authority, known as marble revetment. The texts in Open-Book float on marble simulations made using the drawing and filtering functions of photo-manipulation software."

I would add that it has a generic cardboard cover with a special black paper wrap to hold it in place. Not everything that UDP does is a hit.

The Calvert Mansion Riverdale (1958)

The Calvert Mansion Riverdale
The Maryland National Capital
Park and Planning Commission
Prince George's County Regional Office
1958 - 3rd printing


Beautifully made historical chapbook. Images of the founding families and of the mansion of itself. 40 pages. Staple-bound. Image of mansion on front and back covers. Great supplemental resource material. Anyone with an interest in Maryland history should have this item!

my arcane interests

Perhaps everyone has a special interest or hobby that consumes them but at the same time, they keep to themselves. I have two such interests, one I have been writing about for years now and one I had not thought about in a number of years until quite recently.

For well over a decade I have been getting and collecting chapbooks, mostly of poetry but also other oddities as they present themselves. Primarily because I am a published of chapbooks. Plan B Press primarily publishes chapbooks. We have since 1999. I have been aware that the history of chapbooks is much older than that but that's when I started.

Prior to that, from the time that cassette decks and tapes came into vogue, I was making my own mixtapes. Before High Fidelity, before Hip Hop. I haven't really thought about the "when" of it as it pertains to my involvement in the form, but it would have had to be the late 1970s (after I decided that the failed 8-track format as a dud) Because I had been a DJ on college radio and knew a bit about segues, I liked that a cassette allowed for that nearly perfect segues from song to song as one could in the booth with two turntables going.

Throughout the 1980s and well into the 1990s I made dozens upon dozens of tapes. From vinyl and from other cassettes. Mixology. Then, I moved and the machines didn't move with me. I moved light - kept the tapes but had no machinery to listen to them with. They sat in boxes for several moves. To Philadelphia, to Alexandria,VA and then to Fairfax,VA. Finally, when we moved back to Alexandria, my wife turned to me and said, "let's get a deck so we can listen to your tapes". She had made tapes too, her family made their living ON THE AIR as it were. However, I had tons more than she did so the primary focus was for me to listen to my tapes and perhaps purge the ones that were dups or didn't work anymore.

I did purge some - then about three weeks ago I was trolling the local Freecycle and saw that someone was offering a box of mixtapes. I pounced. I now have over a hundred (new to me) mixtapes. Some of the tapes I cringed at the sight of: Supertramp, Weather Report, Yellowkjackets. I will be moving them along. But some are very good. They play as though I had recorded them myself, but I hadn't. The handwriting is different. I am enjoying the experience and of course I am thinking about my own history mixing, the mixing that captured the moment of my life I was recording. All that. I feel a little like a voyeur listening to someone else's moments being captured. It's weird. The same can be said about chapbooks.

Not all, but some; the self-published ones in particular. They were being made as a mixtape on paper. They are theme-encapturing. They are about that moment, generally. Dealing with a death of a loved one. A spouse. They aren't really meant for general distribution. But they are made and occasionally one ends up in my collection.

Other chapbooks are not time sensitive but are "greatest hits" or the like. Some presses push the page count till they are all but books with spines, or a books with spines but are really cheating because the page count is slight.

I like the idea of a chapbook as a paper mixtape, I will be using that phrase in the future.

3 littles by red iron press

graphic material
CSA
red iron press
Toronto, Canada
October, 2004


I'm not at home
Mykel Board
red iron press
Toronto, Canada
Sept., 2004


by its shadow
Philomene Kocher
red iron press
Toronto, Canada
October,2003


I got this "tinies" from someone who attended the Buffalo (NY) small press festival last year. I don't know much about the press or any of the writers. They are indeed very small in size and page-count.

Little Richard the Second by Gregg Biglieri (2011)

Little Richard the Second
Gregg Biglieri
Ugly Duckling Presse
Brooklyn, NY
(c)2011

Ugly Duckling Press is quite capable of making extremely handsome and desirable chapbooks. This one is no exception. Letter-pressed and hand sown stitchery. A single poem, a beautiful thing. For collectors, this is one to get!

Annson Kenney follow-up

received this from Peter Bushyeager, who co-founded Hot Water Review : "Annson and I went to Temple U. together. He was a year ahead of me. He majored in music and I majored in communications. We sang together in the Mens Glee Club (!!) and several years after school reconnected through the Philly poetry/art/music scene. I think he participated in one of the Poetry and Art Fairs that were done in the 70s at the now-defunct YMHA Poetry Center on Broad St. He was a funny, courtly, sometimes outrageous guy who was also cerebral and welcoming to other artists. He had a relationship with Maralyn Polak, the poet and Inquirer columnist.

HIs works in Hot Water are actually performance pieces and he performed some of them. He was involved with Relache, a new-music group that was active in Philly in the 70s and 80s (maybe still active, I don't know)"

Just a Little Piece of Heartburn by Tom Cheshire

Just a Little Piece of Heartburn
Tom Cheshire
Safety Third Enterprises
no publication date

The nicest thing about this chapbook is the cover. The rest of the book, the "guts" if you will, is intentionally primitive and hand-written. No part of the guts were typed. It's a schtick. It's a waste of a tree. SAVE A TREE!

The Faith of John Greenleaf Whittier (1957)

The Faith of John Greenleaf Whittier
An Essay by Rufus M Jones
A Tribute by Benjamin F Trueblood
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
(c)1957

Nice supplemental booklet. 32 pages. A few B&W photos in book.

Sea Birds by Linda Parker (1981)

Sea Birds
Linda Parker
Fathom Press
(c)1981

Published by Robie Liscomb's Fathom Press using Michael Tarachow's Pentagram Press's equipment - as stated in back of book. Liscomb and Tarachow were friends and worked together on a number of projects in the early 1980s. I have exchanged a few emails with Michael Tarachow and learned additional details of the history of Pentagram Press and the intersections between their Presses. It's a wonderful example of a coordinated effort.

Cover art by Thorpe Feidt. Unpaginated. One of 250 copies. Nice book. Well worth the search.

Acting Problems by Judith Berke (1993)

Acting Problems
Judith Berke
Silverfish Review Press
Eugene, Oregon
(c)1993

This is a 30 page chapbook masquerading as a book with a spine. Ah, it IS a book with a spine. No, it's a 30 page chapbook pretending. In the words of Holden Caulfield, it's a phony. Phony bologna. It's acting like something it isn't. The title is apt. It has an acting problem.

The poetry is okay. It rounds out a multidisciplinary career for Judith Berke. I was not moved nor impressed with the work. Sorry, SAVE A TREE!

Green Man in Suburbia by Marcia L. Hurlow (2008)

Green Man in Suburbia
Marcia L Hurlow
Backwards City Publications of Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina
(c)2008

Winner of the Backwards City Chapbook Prize in 2008. Staple-bound chapbook. Cover image by Jaimee Hills. 25 pages. A nice collection.

Poems of the Part and of the Whole Rashaan C. Linson (1993)

Poems of the Part and of the Whole
Rashaan Connell Linson
Namaste Press
Houston, TX
(c)1993

Hand-sewn chapbook. Unpaginated. One of 500 copies. Never heard of the author or of the Press. The Press no longer exists, but there is a 70-year old named Connell Linson who still lives in Houston. (the poet, perhaps?) According to the bio in back of book, Linson was the former director of the Sudan Arts Southwest and Houston's Black Arts Center. He is the author of two collections of poetry in addition to this chapbook.

The book cover and lay-out are fairly basic and generic. Anyone want to swap?