Keith Wilson
Limberlost Press
Boise, ID
(c)1997
The Press seems to have been a labor of love for Rick & Rosemary Ardinger who served as editors for the Press and therefore for this handsome chapbook. A mere 7 poems but one can almost taste the air with them.
The poet ought not be confused with the poet Keith S. Wilson.
(selected and arranged by Charles Robbins)
From the estate of Edward Steese
(c)1984
I have had this one for a bit and it was lost in the stacks. It's neither a chapbook nor strictly speaking a mimeo but I wanted to mention its existence so - here tis. It's a coffee table book sized specially printed paperback. Apparently there was a fancier and more expensive hardcover of this book, but this isn't that. If one is familiar with the man - this one is clearly for you.
Geraldine Connolly
Heatherstone Press, Inc.
(c) 1988
#32 of 300 printed. Inscribed and signed inside front. The book is actually thicker than it might have otherwise been since every other page is empty except for copy of the cover image on it. Odd decision.
Aaron Shurin
20 Pages (division of Sun & Moon Press)
(c)1990
This 20 page booklet is an essay that was first given as a talk at the Painted Bride in Philadelphia in June 1989. Interesting subject matter.
self published
(c)2006
This is a DC poet making his work known early on, Staple bound. Designed by Melanie Henderson, another incredibly talented DC artist. Worth the read, and the finding.
Nichole Sealey
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, IL
(c)2016
The introduction to this tiny collection by Chris Abani is brilliant in its own right. The first poem for me that excited my poetry taste buds is the poem "Clue". Every poem in this 23 page collection is brilliant. Oh my god even!
Karen Donovan
The Sow's Ear 2019 Chapbook Competition Winner
(c)2020
I am as impressed the artwork, Apart Accordion, (2012) by Todd McClellan as I am by the poetry in this fine little collection. Track this one down and read it !
Janet Rumpf
Self Published
This chapbook has local flavor with all the scents creating a bouquet good enough to consume. If, of course, one knew the area being described. It's a labor of love from someone who loved the land and the labor and the town and its people.
Mariflo Stephens
Finishing Line Press
(c) 2019
Very thin collection. Another collection of poetry looking back at a life lived.
Jeanne-Marie Osterman
Slipstream
(c)2021
Narrative personal poetry collection. Nothing wrong with the poems at all but I am weary of all the "first personal singular" throughout. Also, I am not certain that all animals do want the same things.
Hugh Pendexter III
Armstrong State College
Savannah, GA
(c)1994
Staple-bound larger format chapbook. 48 pages. Credited listed on back cover (never saw that before)
Mao Penha
St. Thomas Graphics
Virgin Islands
(c)1984
Wheelchair bound, Mao Penha had this book released in 1984. His is an unfortunate and tragic story and yet he has, as of 2005, made the best of a truly terrible situation.
Ruth Messenger
The Partridge Press
Hudson, OH
(c) 1981
Illustrations by Janet Child. Staple bound collection of island poems. The author had a number of chapbooks published by this printer in the 1970s, apparently, and this was one assembled from some previously published work suggested by the subtitle of the book, "selected poems". There is an address for the author to the person who bought the copy from her and the address is in the Virgin Islands.
subtitled "A Stoogist Manifesto"
Paul Fericano
Poor Souls Press/Scaramouche Books
Millbrae, CA
(c)1980
I was on Ebay tumbling through postings of small press books when I saw this item among a "lot" being sold for an obscene amount of money, at least to me obscene, and I was taken more by the subtitle than the title. "A Stoogist Manifesto"? Three Stooges or Iggy Pop's band? What was all this then?
I found a copy elsewhere and it arrived and I noted that it has a 1980 selling price of a nickel. Yes, five American centavos.
I never hear of the author or the press involved. The author does have a page on Poets & Writers website though.
This is an essay that I will grant some clear political forthright since it was written after Reagan was first elected and was already anticipating his 1984 re-election. It was written in November 1980 so after the election but before RR was sworn in.
However, to me the essay is intentional gobbledygook. The theme of the essay seems to have been that only "Stoogism" was the gleaming poetic light for the future, of course showing no examples of this clear and awesome poetry itself but rather simply ridiculing "existing poetic norms". It does seem that every decade starts out debunking the existing work of the previous one, so perhaps that's what is going on here or maybe it's just some puffery. Not sure.
I have no better understand of what is or is not "Stoogist" after reading this essay than before opening it's staple-bound cover.
Monsell Laury
Crown Printing
US Virgin Island
(c)1976
I recently bought a lot of paperback and chapbooks from a seller in Georgia who must have scooped them up from a former US Naval Captain who wrote poetry and visited the Virgin Islands. He had a number of books from there, many signed by their authors to the Captain.
Monsell Laury was an actress and writer who lived on the Island. This appears to have been her first book. Staple-bound chapbook. Unpaginated. There's a B&W photo inside front of three female poets at a reading. None of whom is the author of this book. That strikes me as odd. The cover image is interesting though.
Rodale Press
Emmaus, PA
(c)1995
This excerpt was taken from The Practical Encyclopedia of Sex and Health written by Stefan Bechtel and others. I think the note on the cover expresses one woman's response. I have nothing further to add.
Jon and Annie West
The Blue Cloudy Quarterly
Marvin, SD
(c)1978
This staple bound chapbook is divided in half : Annie, then Jon. Poems by each. Poems are reprinted from Song of Spirit Woman published in 1974 by Banknote Press. The illustration on the cover is by Cherokee artist, Dewayne Mathews who was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is the 4th chapbook in the series.
Necessary Bodies by Daniel Montz
The Rat by Yohanca Delgado
I mentioned this series of one story booklets before, just quickly mentioning the series again. I will now find a home for them both with young readers can scoop them up.
Lowell S Hale
Peter G, Boyle, publisher
New York
(c) 1922
I have been operating under the (false) assumption that what we currently consider to be the "chapbook era", staple bound booklets of poetry of roughly 32 pages, started in the 1940s and was "sparked" by the activities of several pacifists who were detained during the Second World War in Oregon as described in the book Here at the Edge by Steve McQuiddy.
It's a neat premise, to be sure, since it ties the activities of those pacifists pretty directly to the San Francisco poetry community and the greater world beyond -
then I discover this book, a 1922 staple bound chapbook - likely not called a chapbook in 1922 - which was published by Peter G Boyle who 2 years later would publish Robinson Jeffers book Tamar and Other Poems as a hardbound book.
So, I was already leery about the 1940s narrative even though it fit with the story I have been piecing together BECAUSE I had already found what can only be called "chapbooks" by my definition that predate the 1940s. Are they the anomalies or was my time frame always incorrect?
Since my interest in "modern poetry chapbooks" leads back to and out from San Francisco, I have been viewing anything outside of my own parameters as anomalies. I don't believe there is any one specific title that would be agreed upon as the "first poetry chapbook".
All that said - I did find a Lowell Sebastian Hale (1896-1939) and the briefest of brief histories of this publisher, Peter G. Boyle, but really not much. Yet, a very early poetry chapbook indeed.
self published
(c)1992
There is almost nothing here but paper.
I did a search online and there was a book published in 1968 by William C. Leikam entitled Run for the Waves. The publisher was Caravelle Books (New York)
There is also reference to "the Fox Guy" who might also be the same Bill Leikam who was involved in a San Francisco based nature preserve, and this same person - publishing as W C Leikam brought out a book entitled Road to Fox Hollow in 2022. My guess is that all these folks are the same guy.
Also, it was in a lot I bought from someone who lives in California.
by Jean Latta
Latta's Pacific Sea-Pak, Inc
Newport, OR
(c)1978
16 page cookbook. I know I am looking at this little cookbook with 2024 eyes but who thought it was still funny in 1978 to self-identify as a "slave" even in jest, even as a white woman? All joking aside, hopefully forever, it's now an unfortunate title.
Printed on blue paper, which was an interesting choice. But still....
Susan Gordon
Concrete Wolf
Tillimook, OR
(c)2016
A book of the natural order, human and nature, life and death, sadness and grief, and all in 31 pages.
em townsend
bottlecap press
Hollywood, CA
(c)2023
I like the wraparound cover.
Gabriel Krawec
www.one-story.com
Interesting premise for an operation which appears to have been created to get teens to read, even if it's a single story, paper form. One Story, Inc. out of NYC (of course). Written by a "teen writing contest winner". 16 pages.
Basswood Press
Green Bay, WI
(c)1998
Never heard of the poets nor the Press before. The cover is from a woodcut made by Bethann Handzlik. Peter Blewett and his students published their work under the Dead Pigeon imprint. The Internet provides scant material about that press or Mr. Blewett. Basically, I am acknowledging the existence of......
Sondra Upham
Slapering Hol Press
Sleepy Hollow, NY
(c)2000
This hand sewn inscribed and signed chapbook came from the Hudson Valley Writers Center and was printed on interesting paper (I have seen or felt a book that was made of the same kind of paper before)
This is a contest winner as well. Not all the poems are fluffy happy clouds though. Living with the Memory of Rape is as gut wrenching and painful as the title suggests.
The Blue Cloud Quarterly
Marvin, SD
(c)1982
Another fine example of what this Quarterly produced during their heyday. Cover art by Wendy Rose.
The Christian Science Publishing Society
Boston, MA
(c)1994
I am writing about this booklet because they had the wherewithal to have nice cover stock paper and interior for a book that likely would get manhandled (to death) by an actual child. Full color images throughout. Well done.
Brandon Krieg
Herring Alley Pamphlets
Kutztown, PA
(c) 2021
I happened to be in Kutztown, PA which is a quaint little college town in the midst of horse and buggy Amish world. There is a bookstore on the Main Street. There is a "Local Author" section in this bookstore and there was this interesting staple bound booklet there. I bought it.
I bought it because I have a connection to the area and had seen the author on a community TV show read 30 minutes of his poetry. Okay, maybe it was less than 30 minutes since there was banter with the host but I listened to him read. And shortly after I see this book and bought it and am glad that I did. For one thing, the poetry is good. For another the poet is also the publisher and a college professor at that school in town named for the town (clues abound)
Additionally the author/publisher also made the woodcut that graces the cover. It's a complete package of Brandon Krieg. How cool is that? Pretty stinking cool, actually.
Lushena Books Inc.
Bensenville, IL
(c) 1999
This "historic" booklet has in hindsight proven to be a partial hoax as the Willie Lynch part has been dismissed - yet as a completed image and text the booklet does attempt to represent the brutal nature of the American institution of Slavery.
Jen Silverman
Driftwood Press
(c)2022
Let me be clear : this is a chapbook with a spine. Not staple-bound. A spine so thin that no text could appear and since the cover is primarily black that means that the spine is black and therefore is exactly the "thin slice of nothing" that I call chapbooks to begin with. It's a thin black line on a bookstore shelf. Only chapbook prospectors would even try to dig it out and take it off a shelf.
The interview with the author by the publisher is nearly as long as the poetry in this book. That said, I look forward to reading more of what Driftwood presents. As should you.
Bits Press
Department of English
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH
(c) 1980
This is an interesting piece for several reasons. I found some of the poems in this thin hand sewn chapbook to be very good. Actual poetic language instead of "journal entries with spacing". For example, in her poem 'Grandfather' she has the line "In the cellar's cool dark" which I could feel as I was reading it.
Other poems, to my "delicate" nature had way too many first person singulars in them but at least there was more poetic phrasing than I tend to be reading these days.
The other thing, the more important thing chronologically is that there is no listing of this chapbook on her Wikipedia page. This chapbook mentions that her first full length collection Globe would be coming out in 1981 and her Wikipedia page started with Globe. When it should start with this one.
And for what it's worth - the title poem is good as are the 3 poems inspired by Japanese prints.
Processed World
San Francisco, CA
(c) 1985
Found this in a Goodwill shop next to a cool record store in South Street in Philadelphia earlier this week. Never heard of the publication before but it's extremely within my wheelhouse of anti-capitalism, "beware of technology" zeitgeist from the days just before the Internet became a "thing" in our world. Articles, poetry, images in a staple bound 65 paged bundle. If you are even slightly anti-globalist, you need to find these zines. Read them, keep them.
Edward F. Gillett, Jr, Esq.
Foreword by Hon. Peter Rodino
US Government Printing Office
Washington, DC
(c) 1980
At the time this staple bound booklet was printed Peter Rodino was the Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary. Of course this type of booklet is more likely to be available in the DC area, where I live so it doesn't surprise me that I happened across it. 73 pages. It's a more serious take on how bills are past than the famous SchoolHouse Rock interpretation, but I do like that one better. It's got a song. This one is a tad dry.
Fernando Reyes
self published
(c)2023
It meant to be something. Really it did. A self promotion tool? The illustrations created by this gentleman are far superior to his words. And though he meant the booklet to introduce himself to the publishing world ("publish my book"), it really only highlights his artistic side. Unfortunately, a poet he is not. Rather, to me, he is not. Others might feel differently. Maybe his goal will be achieved. But I think his goal ought to be what he draws and not what he writes.
Edith Graciela Sanabria
y Grace Press
Alexandria, VA
(c) 1997
The Press failed this project. Entirely.
Karl Shapiro
Library of Congress
Washington, DC
(c)1967
This booklet is of a lecture given by Mr. Shapiro about Mr. Jarrell. 47 pages. Handsome insignia of the Library of Congress crest on back. Staple bound.
Earl McMurray
The Ledge Press
1997 Poetry Chapbook Contest Winner
Glendale, NY
(c)1997
Staple bound chapbook on slick cover stock. Photo of the poet inside back cover. Belated congrats for this contest winner (decades belated at this point). Have to say, (I) greatly appreciate that many of the poems in this winner book are absent of first person singular.
Department of Information
Ministry of Communication
HMG
Nepal
(c)1986
More information that I would ever need about the royal couple as of 1986. A royal family in the tradition of all single family rulers. Their heirs still run the country in 2024. No - this isn't poetry but they are chapbooks. Or booklets. Or historical documents. (a wink to Galaxy Quest). Okay, it's more nuanced than that. The Monarch was abolished in 2008. But the same family ruled the country since the mid-1700s and the same other family rules as prime minister even now.
Marvin, SD
(c) 1979
Similar to the Joel Oppenheimer book I just wrote about this one also "defies" definition in that it isn't even mentioned on the Wikipedia page for the author. There is a listing on that page of a version of this book published in 1981 by White Pine Press (something about this press, I swear) with an introduction to the work by Paula Gunn Allen, who also wrote the introduction - likely word for word taken - for the 1979 book published by The Blue Cloud Quarterly. I suggest you click onto the link for the Blue Cloud Quarterly since it goes into much deeper detail about that publication. I personally am ambivalent about Catholic publications "work on behalf of" Native writers since the history of European religions contributing to the obliteration of Native religions is raw and without justification.
And yet, if this publication had not brought out the work by a number of Native voices, would we even know of them?
Or know the name of the artist, Rokwaho, who did the cover image?
I greatly value the writings of all "marginal" groups who are part of the American Experience since for most of the history of the United States that narrative has been controlled by white Christians of European descent.
Joel Oppenheimer
White Pine Press
Fredonia, NY
(c) 1987
This is the second book published by White Pine Press of poetry by Joel Oppenheimer that has intrigued me. This time because this is actually a reprint of a book that was published, according to the Wikipedia page for Mr. Oppenheimer, just two years prior by Press of the Good Mountain - which after doing a quick bit of research online I found to be an actual publisher located in Rochester, NY. The Press was created at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1950. The instructor of Typography at the college, Alexander Lawson, was the supervisor of the Press.
Thirty-five years later, the Press of the Good Mountain published Why Not and then 2 years later, White Pine Press brought out their own version of the same book. Contractual issues? One can only speculate as those involved have all gone into the reeds at this point. However, on the printer's page there is an acknowledgment that the book is an expanded version of the "limited letterpress edition" which had been made by a David Lorczak at the Press of the Good Mountain. The cover illustration is by Joel Oppenheimer.
I wonder how few copies exist of that original 1985 letterpress edition. Apparently the 1985 edition had 100 copies printed. I have seen the cover online. Copies are not cheap online then again, they all seem to be signed by either Joel or David.
The Maverick Press
Eagle Press, TX
(c)1993
Inscribed and signed inside front. Printed on recycled paper. One of 150 copies printed. Signed on back pages. Unpaginated.
Ms. Cullar was an artist as well as the editor of a literary publication called "The Maverick Press" in that part of Texas. The cover image was created by Ms. Cullar. Hand sewn. Beautiful book. Well crafted poems.
Northern Virginia Community College (Alexandria Campus)
(c)1986
Recently a poet's personal library was "donated" to a local library that I am involved with. The poet's collection was rather unceremoniously released as the poet had died a few weeks prior and apparently their books were not designated to be placed anywhere. So...
The poet had also taught English and creative writing at the NOVA (as it is commonly referred to in the region) as well as other colleges through their life.
Typical college student fare. Nothing remarkable. But it was captured and collected and preserved. Noted.
