Albert Goldbarth
Ion Press/raccoon series
Memphis, TN
(c) 1981
Albert Goldbarth is a much published poet with more than 40 books in print. He has won numerous awards as well. This collection is somewhere in the middle of his writing career.
Well made book of well crafted interconnected poems, or perhaps it should be read as single piece.
Roy Neil Graves
raccoon /Ion Books
Memphis, TN
(c) 1987
The 23rd publication put out by the raccoon series. The author was a long time English Professor at the University of Tennessee - Martin Campus.
A typically good production of the press; the writing is very good and the presentation is notable.
Kirby Congdon
The Cycle Press
Brooklyn, NY
(c)1976
Cycle Press was co-founded by Kirby Congdon in 1976. This book is a mimeo oversized book. It contains, as the title states, a drawing - a piece of music - and a poem.
It's a beautifully made book to be sure.
Joe Rosenblatt
Black Moss Press
Ontario, Canada
(c) 1978
Small format chapbook. Illustrated and unpaginated.
I became familiar with this author's work when I was in Toronto in 2018 (found one of his books in a used bookstore). And recently found this item online. It's pretty interesting. The subtitle is "an experiment in punk". Well, kinda but not really. The author is too old to "get" punk and the thrust of the booklet is Eve leaving the Garden. Possibly. It's not exactly spelled out precisely. There is more interest in the snake. The snake as a metaphor yadda yadda.
I wanted to like it more than I ended up liking it but that's not unique to this book. There are a number of concepts that don't quite reach their goal. I fear that is the situation with this book. All the same, you should read it. It's worth the adventure.
Malcolm Cowley
New Directions
Norfolk, CT
(c) 1941
Malcolm Cowley was a writer, talent scout, editor, historian, literary critic, and poet. He is most well known for his book Exiles Return by he was also the author of Blue Juniata a book of poetry that was published in 1929.
This collection of poetry, staple-bound, marked his return to poetry as well as marking an evolutionary step for New Directions as it moved from chapbooks into books with spines. Unpaginated. A fine representation of Cowley's poetic work.
Flora Bishop Hendricks
The Estate of Flora Bishop Hendricks
(c) 1987
This 45 page collection of poetry is as much a remembrance of the author as a volume of work. As one can see, it was published by the Estate of - Ms. Hendricks and at the end of the book is a mention of where the poems in this small book came from: a 1928 book entitled Bowls of Phantasy published by Robert Packard in Chicago and an unpublished collection of work written in the 1930s.
Ms. Hendricks died in Putney, Vermont but had Chicago roots. Her poetry is emblematic of her time (not my shot of Bourbon) but it is beautiful in its own way.
edited by David Gitin
The Headstone Press
Thorp Springs Press
Berkeley, CA
(c) 1971
I got this gem because it was edited by David Gitin who I believe to be an under appreciated poet and it was only after it arrived that I realized the uniqueness of this book. It was printed by Thorp Springs Press which was quite active in the Berkeley/SF poetry world in the late 1960s - early 1970s. The Press was headed by Paul Foreman who I have written about earlier in this on-going blog. So, he printed it. For The Headstone Press which I never heard of before.
This volume contains work by some of the best poets writing at the time. Am I kidding? Hardly. I am talking about Diane di Palma, Larry Eigner, Clark Coolidge, Ron Silliman, Carl Rakosi, Lewis MacAdams, Denise Levertov and the editor of this volume himself. One of Silliman's pieces is a great concrete poem. This is a great find. So happy to have been the one to find it! (okay, it's a slight brag)
The Girl Who Came Out with the Stars
David T Manning
Old Mountain Press
Webster, NC
(c) 2012
David T Manning is a former Poet Laureate of North Carolina and the author of several books. Old Mountain Press is a self publishing operation. It's 37 pages, with a spine. So thin a spine that no text could appear on the tiny sliver of nothing, but it's all a trick of the eye. A blink and it's gone. Lost on the bookshelf of time.
