Throwing Spitballs at the Nuns by Rose Lesniak (1982)

 

Throwing Spitballs at the Nuns

Rose Lesniak

Toothpaste Press

Iowa City, IA

(c) 1982

This copy was signed by author and illustrator, the talented Ann Mikolowski who did in fact provide stunning images for this chapbook. Hand-sewn binding on hand made paper. Unpaginated. A beautiful piece of art in its own right. And the poetry is great as well. I love me some Toothpaste Press!

Telephone Company Repairman Poems by Barbara Moraff (1983)

Telephone Company Repairman Poems
Barbara Moraff
Toothpaste Press
Iowa
(c) 1983

#294 of 400 printed. Signed by poet. Another incredibly handsome book by this inventive and influential press. Unpaginated. Letter pressed. Hand sewn.

One can see the effort and can imagine the frustration at the same time. Frustration in the sense that these delicate books were never going to make their way onto a bookstore shelf and be properly displayed. This book is thick enough to have a spine with text but doesn't because it was hand sewn without any spine cover at all. So beautiful, so delicate. It's not surprising that the following year, 1984, is when Toothpaste transitioned into Coffee House Press. Ironically, on the CHP website there is no mention of Toothpaste Press whatsoever. Even though they say the press started in 1972 in Iowa as a letterpress operation. Well, yes, that is true. To a point. But give credit where it was due. Coffee House began in Iowa AS Toothpaste Press. They moved to the Twin Cities and rebooted as Coffee House Press to make books with spines that could get onto book shelves across the country! At least be honest about it!!

I happen to like the efforts of Toothpaste much more than Coffee House. While I do understand who Allan Kornblum made the decision that he did, I still mourn the loss of the special quality that the chapbooks lost in the transition to perfect bound books. sigh

Canciones by Antonio Machado (translated by Robert Bly) 1980

Canciones
Antonio Machado
translated by Robert Bly
Toothpaste Press
West Branch, Iowa
© 1980

What was it about Robert Bly? I mean, really? He seems to have been the translator of first approach. I love the books created by Allan Kornblum which is why I got this beautiful item. But I am ambivalent about Bly.

The work here is by Antonio Machado who published these poems in 1930 in a large collection entitled Nuevas Canciones which was published in Spanish.

Love the presentation of the work and yet, I can see how Allan was willing to transform Toothpaste into a different press making perfect bound books (Coffee House Press). A tiny item like this gets lost onto standard bookshelves. Slivers of nothing indeed.

Total Stranger by Terence Winch (1982)

Total Strangers
Terence Winch
The Toothpaste Press
West Branch, Iowa
(c)1982

Terence Winch was one of the linchpins of Some of Us Press. He and Michael Lally, and Ed Zahniser. The story of SOUP is an important story which I will be releasing like air bubbles from the deep archives. There are several books published by them that are rarer than hen's teeth. Toothpaste Press is one of my favorite small presses. Their books are works of art. This one is a hand-sewn chapbook with illustrations by Gaylord Schanilec. This copy was numbered (259) and signed by Terence.

The writing is crisp. Here's the opening sentence of his piece Low Life : "The rock and roll jellyfish virgins, eating the socks off the commuters, licking the little black hairs off their shins, biting on their ankles till they start to smile, begin to dance." So does the language throughout; it begins to dance. Right off the page.

melissa & smith by Ntozake Shange (1976)

melissa & smith
Ntozake Shange
Bookslinger editions
Toothpaste Press
West Branch, Iowa
(c)1976

At it's best, Toothpaste Press brought out some of the most ideally crafted chapbooks. This is among those. Letter-pressed cover. Hand made paper. Hand sewn binding. #187 of 300 printed. Some of the copies were given to friends, others were donated to Mixed Blood Theatre which was just starting in 1976. I imagine that donation came from Ms. Shange's involvement with this project. Another 225 copies of this chapbook were put on sale at Bookslingers Editions in Minneapolis, MN. The copy I have is signed by Ms. Shange.

This is a beautiful chapbook. (I wish you were here to see it!)

Countries by Anne Waldman (1980)

Countries
Anne Waldman
Toothpaste Press
West Branch, Iowa
(c)1980

Anne Waldman had several of her early books published on Toothpaste/Coffee House Press. This tiny sized, 5 X 6.5 inches with linoleum blocks by Reed Bye, falls in the middle of their working collaboration. One of 1,000 printed. Short pieces. Tight, compact, ready for travel.

little mysteries by ken mikolowski (1979)

little mysteries
ken mikolowski
toothpaste press
West Branch, Iowa
(c)1979

With illustration by his artist/wife, ann mikolowski. Another beautiful like chap from Toothpaste Press. Designed by Allan Kornblum. This copy is part of the 2000 copy second run of this little gem. Ann Mikolowski went on to do a number of covers and internal illustrations from other Toothpaste Press.

Vodka and Roses by Michael Irene Welch (1978)

Vodka and Roses
Michael Irene Welch
Toothpaste Press
West Branch,Iowa
(c)1978

Uniquely sized chapbook. Pink cover. Linoleum block images by Cinda Kornblum. Staple-bound. The more I collect Toothpaste Press books, the more interesting it becomes to see the evolution of the Press over time. From thin well crafted chapbooks toward books with a spine. Of course, one could conclude, this Press would evolve into something else - and it did - Coffee House Press!

it bears repeating....

It bears repeating: I am not a cheerleader. I am a publisher as well as a poet. I write this blog to acknowledge the work of publishers and poets and "one-time" presses that bubble to the surface through the existence of the work. If someone thinks I should only focus on the poems, they miss my point. Or rather, they are not aware of the quote by El Lissitsky that is a guiding principle of mine:

The book must be the unified work of the author and the designer. As long as this is not the case, splendid exteriors will constantly be produced for unimportant contents, and visa-versa.
El Lissitzky
from Do Not Separate Form from Content!(1931)

If a chapbook visually sucks but the words are good, I will say so. If the chapbook is stunning but the words are god-awful, I will also say so. No tree should ever be felled for tripe or self-serving navel-worshipping. If you have a friend whose work you like a lot and it doesn't matter to you what their chapbook looks like: that fine, but that's not my "job". I respect the people who have taken the time and considerable effort to make a thing of beauty. Putting out a book on the cheapest photo-copy paper available with the grainiest picture imaginable and touting it as your "work of art", I will decline climbing on your bandwagon.

Certain publishers from the past, say from the late 1970s through today, deserve to be recognized as establishing the structure by which "the bar" is placed, let alone raised. The truth is that they publishers cared what their chapbooks LOOKED LIKE as much as the words or images, or both, were INSIDE. I have listed some of these presses before but it is worth mentioning again: Toothpaste Press (Allan Kornblum), Perishable Press Limited (Walter Hamady), The Fathom Press (Robie Liscomb), The Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs (Brenda Iljima), Pentagram Press (Michael Tarachow), and many others.

I would urge lovers of the chapbook form to image that there is a history to this all, that you are part of it, and that you haven't created the wheel. It's been done. Dozens of times over. Hundreds of times over and then some. There is a historical element to my blog that I perhaps haven't overtly presented but I think it's time that I did. We are all part of something that dates back to the 1940s. If you wish to consider the chap(ter) books that were published in England earlier, then we are talking about the 1600s.

My particular focus is poetry chapbooks of the second half of the 20th century and now into the 21st.

Later by Robert Creeley (1978)

Later
Robert Creeley
The Toothpaste Press
West Branch, Iowa
(c)1978


Unpaginated. Beautifully made chapbook. Cover and title page drawings by Louis Picek. Hand-made paper. Hand-bound with string. This is clearly The Toothpaste Press at full stride as a maker of unique chapbooks. Later in this form was the first printing of the single poem by this title. It was published as a full book by W.W. Norton in 1979 and by Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd (UK) in 1980. It was the first of two collaborations between Creeley and The Toothpaste Press; the second being Echoes in 1982.

rare - worthwhile - collectible.