St. George's Castle published by The Lisbon City Council (1974)

St. George's Castle
Published by the Lisbon City Council
Lisbon, Portugal
(c)1974

Handy little history book of the castle complete with enclosed map. Originally printed in 1959. Printed in English for us tourist types. Staple-bound. 26 pages.

Houses by Joel Oppenheimer (1981)

Houses
Joel Oppenheimer
White Pine Press
Buffalo, NY
(c)1981

Joel Oppenheimer was, among other things, the first director of the St. Marks Poetry Project. He was associated with both the Black Mountain and New York School poets. This single poem chapbook was published in 1981 by White Pine Press. It had appeared in a different form in the Chicago Review. The existence of this chapbook does not appear on his wikipedia page. I suppose that makes this rare. It's worth having. Truly.

Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears T. Underwood with Amanda Crowe (1956)

Cherokee Legends and the Trails of Tears
Adapted by Thomas Bryan Underwood
Cover design and illustrations by Amanda Crowe
S. B. Newman Printing Co.
Knoxville, TN
(c)1956

Next to the deplorable history that the United States has with it's slave population (a history still being rewritten and re-fought) is the even more deplorable history that the United States does not accurately teach and all too quickly dismisses: how the Europeans stole the very land that makes the United States from the Natives who were here for hundreds if not thousands of years before. One of the most painful episodes of that long and terrible conflict was the "Trail of Tears", the forced relocation of entire tribes of Natives to what would eventually become Oklahoma by order of Andrew (the Indian Killer) Jackson.

This 32 pages booklet adds to the tears. Adapted by T. B. Underwood from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, this telling account of the Trail is based on the first-hand witness Private John G. Burnett, Captain Abraham McClellan's Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, Cherokee Indian Removal 1838-39. It is a damning accounting. I had to fight back tears reading of the senseless loss of lives. Manifest Destiny had many victims. Since Natives never really counted in the country from the very beginning (3/5 of a man in census taking)

It's an important document. It should be a MUST read for all students in the United States.

how dusk sweetens the meadows by Haniel Long (2013)

how dusk sweetens the meadows
Haniel Long
Rootdrinker Institute
Naples, NY
(c)2013

Such a tiny little chapbook provoking such a big ripple.

The ripple is not from the work itself. This unpaginated staple-bound collection is what it is: a decision by the publisher to bring this forward. Objectivity versus subjectivity. Did the publisher have a personal relationship with the author? Rootdrinker and Benevolent Bird Press are intertwined, and this is the grape of that binding.

What motivates a publisher? What criteria does one follow? This poet, Mr. Long, died in 1956. This tiny collection was published in 2013. Was it published because the work had to do with "place"? Which place then - he died in Sante Fe, New Mexico. The publisher is in upstate New York. Ah, there is a connection to place after all; Mr. Long wrote about the Finger Lakes. He came from the region. Some of his poetry sings of that earth - praises that land. The Finger Lakes. Okay, that makes sense.

That this tiny collection was published for a specific presentation also makes sense. Regional interest. One of their own. As such it is worth finding and reading. It is slight, though. Both is size and in scope. Tiny poems in a tiny book. All too easily overlooked.

Hill Farm by Kathleen M. Tenpas (1985)

Hill Farm
Kathleen M. Tenpas
Arachne, Inc.
Jamestown, NY
(c)1985

I have to admit that I like this collection very much. The work is solid. I had to remind myself that a woman wrote these poems. Her work has a no-nonsense air to them that is appealing and none of the poems deal with "women's issues" directly.

Arachne Inc. is/was a not-for-profit quarterly published in Jamestown, NY. This is the first awareness I have had of the publication or of the poet. Glad to mention them both.

russian folk music song book (1947)

The Thrift Press
Ithaca, NY
(c) 1947

So, once upon a time there was a press in Ithaca, NY which specialized in not only regional but ethnic chapbooks as well. And not only that, but songbooks. This one has music notation and table of contents in Russian and English language lyrics at the end. 1947 staple-bound. The publisher probably didn't think of it as a "chapbook" but as a cheap, sturdy music book for their distinctive cliental.

No indication who transcript the Russian into English nor the name of the printer. But it's very interesting, and if you like Balalaika music, you probably need this book!

road/house 7 (1979)

road/house #7
todd moore, editor
Belvidere, IL
(c) 1979

20 pages stapled journal. Irregularly published. 9 of these pages were dedicated to one poem, The Farmer's Manifesto by Tom Montag. Cover illustration of man next to a tracker, sort of visually sets the tone here.

Found Gil Williams (in upstate NY)

A simultaneous thing happened when I took a chance and contacted the poet Steve Lewandowski: it opened up the entire upper half of New York State to me. I had not thought that there was much regional poetics happening outside of "the apple" and Buffalo, but further north toward the Lake and Canada were in fact many Presses and poets. As I have been learning.

I mentioned earlier that I had a chapbook from Bellevue Press by Al Glover entitled Paradise Valley. I hadn't thought to try and contact the publisher of that chapbook until my interest in Upstate New York was piqued. I also mentioned that I had bought some photo postcards from a seller on ABE who turned out to be the Williams'. Deborah and Gil. They have since responded. Not surprisingly, the Press did not make them any money. Chapbook/small presses are supposed to make money? No, I didn't think so.

There is now something called Bellevue Literary Press which has nothing to do with the Williams' operation. I have yet to ask for the history of the Press so I don't know their start and stop dates. I am interested in what they might have left from their inventory. I am, after all, a collector as well as a publisher on hiatus.

If you are interested in learning more or seeing their books, you should contact them : Gil's Book Loft/PO Box 365/Binghamton, NY 13905-0365. Gil likes mail, you know, the kind with actual writing and stamps and that? Send him something. Oh, Bellevue Press did several series of poetry postcards - so send him a postcard!

Apple: An Anthology of Upstate New York Poets (1979)

Apple:An Anthology of Upstate New York Poets
Judith Kitchen,editor
State Street Press
Pittsford, NY
(c)1979

This is a very concise anthology of 22 poets in 26 pages ably (or perhaps, "appley") assembled by Judith Kitchen and published by State Street Press. Pittsford, NY is in the extreme northern section of NY close to Lake Ontario. There is a loose network of poets and other regional presses located up there. I came to know even this little bit from my on-going correspondence with poet Steve Lewandowski. Along with Lewandowski, this collection is graced with work by Joseph Bruchac, Carl Dennis, and Carol Frost (among others).

I notice that the printer of this collection was The Geryon Press in Tunnel, NY which printed a number of books of this region and that's really what this collection embodies; place. Also, apples. At least in this collection. Apples. Everywhere. No need for Johnny Appleseed, this book has a bushel full.

Not the Same Tramp You Dumped by Andy Doyle (2011)

Not the Same Tramp You Dumped
Andy Doyle
self published
(c)2011

I am sad that trees were felled for this chapbook. Yuck.

pack rat sieve by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge (1983)

pack rat sieve
Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge
Contact II
Bowling Green
NYC, NY
(c)1983

There once a small press in a city of Publishing Megatrons, and this tiny little PO Box location press brought out some stellar little bits - like this one. Mei-Mei's Wikipedia page lists the publisher of this 17 page chapbook as "Cambridge Graphic Arts".

Her work is generally associated with both the New York School and LANGUAGE poets. A shadow across both fields. The work in this chapbook had previously appeared as a special supplement for Contact II issue No. 27/28/29.

Barbaric Yawp vol. 10 #1 (2006)

Barbaric Yawp
Volume 10 number 1
May 2006
BoneWorld Publishing
Russell, NY

This staple-bound journal is from a Press I didn't know about before, a town I never heard of before, and publishers I was completely unfamiliar with. New York up-State. 53 pages. Published by John and Nancy Berbrich in Russell, NY. Disclaimer: one of the poets in the journal is Kenneth DiMaggio, who Plan B Press published in 2007. The interesting thing for me is that John Berbrich wrote a column in the journal called "Book Beat" and some of the books he reviewed I have also received that year. Ah, 2006. Yes. Klyd Watkins, t kilgore splake. The column provides me with names and chapbooks all new to me. Within a journal, fresh nuggets.

Great stuff. Great, great, good and so-so. The rainbow of criticism. I will focus on the new stuff. There's even a writer in here from the tiny town of Adelanto, California where I was stationed in the USAF from 1975-1977. High Desert.

No matter - more for me to learn about!

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.

Vital Steps to Chastity (1954)

Vital Steps to Chastity
Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart
Towson, MD
(c)1954

120 pages of fear and loathing by a nameless Catholic front organization that wants little Catholics to love God more than the opposite sex, that's for sure. I was not raised Catholic. This staple-bound chapbook (it's not really a chapbook at 120 pages. It's a staple-bound anti-sex tract) is a complete waste of paper. It's fear of sexuality. It's hatred of one's own body. It's remarkable in its "group-think" collectively written by women who love God more than their own bodies, as you should to, horrible child. It's designed to brain-wash the student of Catholic school against loving their own bodies and from loving the opposite sex for their own bodies. Afterall, what good will come of this? SEX ! BABIES ! ABORTIONS !

One should love God and God alone. Can't say that's a successful strategy for procreating future generations but - ah - get married to someone who God has deemed you should, even if the two people end up loathing each other. Ah, yes, the loathing again. The Catholic Church's position here is circular and not really open to independent thought. Do as you are told and don't think about it. Don't listen to that girl or boy you love. Listen to your Priest or Nun, who as we know, neither of whom has experienced sex or childbirth or any of THAT. (This is 1954, no pedophilia yet - we are to believe) I am tired about it already. This chapbook. The recycling bin awaits.

SHOULD HAVE SAVED A TREE!!!!!!

[anti-eratio] by Christina Strong (2005)

[anti-eratio]
Christina Strong
Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs
Brooklyn, NY
(c)2005

2005 - endless war - Bush Presidency. Christina Strong is not having it. She sees Ronald Reagan resumed and revived. Cult of dis/misinformation and disjointed text. Text Luther. Bald evil. Majestic surprises. Muted opposition. Limp language can not shield us from the brutality of naked Nationalism. Truth lingers in the shadow of words. Words quiver in fear of discovery. Librarians protecting their patrons from the NSA. Illegal phone call taping, a government spying on its citizens. Protecting itself from its citizens. END THIS WAR CALL slip-in with #s for the President, for Senators, a prayer against waking.

a smaller trove from Steve Lewandowski

a secondary second trove has arrived from Upstate New York. Even more to consume. Fantastic!

These Days by Lee Lally (1972)

These Days
Lee Lally
Some of Us Press
Washington, DC
(c)1972

I wrote this about this 'infamous' chapbook in July 2013 on my chapbook Facebook page: "Publishing pettifoggery: not everyone is on the level.

Back in 1972 Lee Lally published "These Days" with Some of Us Press, a press that she was personally involved with. The way that SOUP worked was that any profit from one book might earn would be used to publish the next book. Pay it forward.

Unfortunately, Lee's book became the best seller that SOUP would ever have and the Diana Press of Baltimore decided, without contacting Lally or anyone AT Some of Us Press, that IT would bring out ITS OWN version of the chapbook with the discreet proviso "Diana Press FOR Some of Us Press" on the publisher's page. However, no money was ever sent to SOUP nor to Lally.

All this happened 40 years ago - still, pretty underhanded, if you ask me."

Here is the cover image of that pirated copy. Some of Us Press was a collective. The proceeds from one book went toward publishing the next book. This chapbook was their best seller. Their best known. Their own pirated one as well. One of the people to whom this collection was dedicated to is Tina Darragh and Tina told me about the strife that the pirated copy caused within SOUP (the press's working initialized title). Lee was upset to the point of crying over this sorted affair. Diana Press did not pay Lally or SOUP a dime in compensation. How nice of you, Diana Press, may you sit on a poisoned quiver.

I don't know if Joan Hanor was part of SOUP or of Diana. She is credited with the back cover image which I have seen on other SOUP chapbooks. This is a 36 page, staple-bound chapbook. Chronically, it was one of the earliest chapbooks published by SOUP. As the chapbooks were brought out, they listed those previously published ones as well as those forthcoming.

This is an important collection in feminist writing. I will share with you one of the poems in this collection:


Absolution

The woman will miss the typewriter.
The fence will miss the cold of steel and cash.
The junkie is on the street again
and the poems are harder
like a bad vein
every minute.

Max by Ray DiPalma (1974)

Max : A Sequel
Ray DiPalma
Burning Deck
(c)1974

(I love it when I am right.) Staple-bound chapbook. Unpaginated. Burning Deck, 10 years in.

What on earth am I talking about? Burning Deck started in 1964. This is actually a sequel to his first published chapbook, MAX, which was published in 1969 by the Body Press. (Okay, so how are you right?) Well, I was getting ready to write about this chapbook and Ray DiPalma and I noticed that on neither his Wikipedia page nor his Poets & Writers biography page is there a mention of him as a publisher, yet I know I remembered that he was.

Indeed so, A few years ago I found a chapbook of Asa Benveniste, which really was more of a mimeo sized book than a more familiar sized "chapbook" but the listing had misspelled his last name so I bought the chapbook for $0.99 and later traded it to Kyle Schlesinger for a box of poetry bumper stickers (okay, ask him about them). That mimeo/chapbook was published by Doones. Doones was Ray DiPalma's press.

Yet either he has decided not to mention it in his current bio or those bio-creators have not done their homework all that well. In either case, Doones Press did exist from 1969-1976 and published some of the voices which became L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry as well as short run magazines, including 'Shelter'.

Sorting Facts; or, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Marker by Susan Howe (1996, 2013)

Sorting Facts; or, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Marker
Susan Howe
New Directions Poetry Pamphlet #1
(c)1996, 2013

New Directions made poetry pamphlets? I didn't know. Of course, this isn't one. Not really. It's an essay about the films of the French director Chris Marker. One of his films was reimagined by Terry Gilliam as the 12 Monkeys. This essay was written BY a poet, a poet whose work has been published by New Direction fairly often and whom I admire greatly, Susan Howe. But it's not a collection of poetry although the language is lucid enough to pass as poetry.

63 page, staple-bound chapbook. Using Marker's two critically acclaimed films, Le Jetee and Sans Soleil as her baselines, Howe weaves a mental tapestry as only she could. It's excellent writing. The production of this item, as a chapbook, is more in the "shrug-who-cares" category (if such a title existed). After all, New Directions did not start as a chapbook publisher so the finer points are missing here. But since the substance is what is important here, I am willing to overlook the generic presentation. But only this once. (Did I mention I am a big Susan Howe fan?)

a treasure trove from poet Steve Lewandowski

This particular episode began a few years ago when I found, and bought, a chapbook entitled Visitor by a poet named Steve Lewandowski on a press called White Pine that I never heard of before.

Fast forward to March 2015 and a different poet whom I know was boasting a bit (deservedly) for winning an award and having a reading at State College, PA. I like this guy's work and while I wasn't going to be able to attend, I wanted to see where it was that he was reading. I went to the website of the location and looked over their upcoming events and there was going to be a reading by a Steve Lewandowski and I thought "there can't be two poets with that name" so I looked around a bit online and found him, and wrote him; he wrote back. A conversation began. He liked this blog and asked me if I was a librarian. I am an archivist who will be getting my ever growing chapbook collection to an academic institution, I said, which is true.

He said he would some me some stuff.

He did. Jaw dropping. I have so much new material to investigate and write about, and archive! The first thing I have discovered is that Steve has opened up the entire State of New York out of city small press publishing world to me with this trove. As well as small presses from New England and one from Canada as well. My ever expanding universe of knowledge!