Ultimatum by Glen Coffield (1943)

 

Ultimatum

Glen Coffield

Untide Press

Camp Angel, OR

(Conscientious Objector camp)

(c)1943

I never expected to have a copy of this booklet, even a reproduction of this booklet, in my hands ever. But to me it's the true starting point of both the modern poetry chapbook movement and the mimeograph revolution. 

As it happened, the person responsible for the recreation also wrote the book about the camp where all this took place and the men involved and who then also explored some of the initial ripples that were caused by the making and exchanging of these "simple things". 

I have been assembling material for a book about poetry chapbooks and after reading multiple accounts of the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance it became clear to me that something happened before the 1950s, something had happened to a handful of the men who made their way to San Francisco after WWII and I learned that this same handful had spent the war as COs (Conscientious Objectors) confined to a camp in Oregon. That camp, Camp Angel, was designated to have a Fine Arts Group complete with a mimeograph machine. 

In addition to Glen Coffield at the camp were William Everson, Kenneth Patchen, William Eshelman, George Woodcock and others. Several of these COs went to become poets or printers who started their own presses, or influencers in other fields. 

I am extremely excited to have this item. It serves as the starting point for me, and now I can plunge in.