ho! watchman of the night ho! by lee ver duft (1944)

ho! watchman of the night ho!
lee ver duft
Gemor Press
New York City
(c)1944

On a recent trip to Ocean City, Maryland along rt. 50 I had the pleasure of spending a good 45 minutes at Unicorn Bookshop in the small "town" of Trappe. There really isn't a town as I think of such places but a number of buildings lining the main road (rt. 50) in a mostly rural region of the state but boy - this was a bookstore to make sellers and collectors salivate. Tens of thousands, if I could guess, of books and maps and all sort of ephemera. I found 4 items (had to limit myself) and one of them was this beat up copy of ho! watchman of the night ho! which was written by someone I never heard of and published by a press I never heard of. It turns out that the Press is the one that Anais Nin ran from 1942 - 1947. Now, I knew that name and vaguely was aware that she had a press since I recall a photo of her operating a printing press while wearing heels. (can't locate the image right now)

I also had no idea who this lee ver duft was until I started researching, and was surprised to find out that he was an artist who switched from paints to words. It was only after finding out more about him that I sat down and read the poems in this collection, and to be honest, some of the phrases he used in these pieces written during 1943 were VERY pre-Beat. I was like "wow". Serious WOW. I have to read the other books that I wrote. There's some great stuff here.

The book itself is in rough shape. Unlikely to ever sell it. Only 300 copies were printed by Anais Nin's press and the 'history' of ver duft on the page I have linked here is inaccurate as it pertains to this book. They have different dates for the release of it. But it clearly states 1944 in the Gemor book I am holding. There are only 30 pages in the book but it has a spine. So it is truly a chapbook or not?

It's a great read, and that's what matters in the end.

In the Beginning and the End by Siddharta Beth Pierce (2012)

In the Beginning and the End
Siddharta Beth Pierce
Writing Knights Press
Cleveland, OH
(c)2012

Trees were cut down and turned into paper to make this chapbook, and it was not worth it. Not at all worth it.

Her BMW and Other Poems by Neva Herrington (2008)

Her BMW and Other Poems
Neva Herrington
Pudding House Publications
Columbus, OH
(c)2008

Updated 2/17/24

I was too harsh. Mrs. Herrington  was an educator and a poet whose work was not well represented in this chapbook. Sadly, as happens all too often with people, particularly creative souls, her entire poetry library was donated to a local library - one I happen to be the book sale coordinator for - and I managed to secure three boxes of her personal library (I only managed to secure two boxes of Norman Pritchard's stuff but that was long ago and far away)

Diana Press / Lee Lally controversy

I was researching Lesbian presses of the early 1970s for a different subject and found this - 1971 ad promoting the sale of the bootlegged version of Lee Lally's book These Days. It still grinds my socks.

The Fish / The Virgin / and The Lion by Jennie Orvino (1972)

The Fish / The Virgin / and The Lion
Jennie Orvino
Milwaukee, WI
(c) 1972

IN the many years now that I have been writing about chapbooks I have never before seen on that spun on itself like a whirling top quite like this one from 1972. First of all, I never heard of the poet nor of the Press she and her husband were associated with in Milwaukee. Second of all, I never had an appreciation that Milwaukee HAD a literary community at all - let alone a small press community. Thirdly, I never held and read a book that changed as I read it in quite the same way as this before. It is a condensed history of a transformation from a heterosexual woman to a liberated gay woman - while also giving birth to a daughter and starting out as a dutiful wife. It's more like a bullet ride than a rollercoaster. The life that this condensed book covers in all likelihood doesn't do justice for what the poet was thinking/feeling for most of her life. I don't mean to read too much into her verse, but there are also 3 photographs in the book, one in the front and two at the end which emphasize the transformation that occurs through the book. It's just astounding.

It's all in a new year - 2019

So, how did that happen? Where did that time go? 13 years now since I started to blog about chapbooks. People, publishers, Presses, and the poetry itself. And I feel like I have only scratched the surface. Hardly gotten a handle on any of it. Every city of size had more than one small press operating and I don't have more than the tiniest percentage of any of those.

What has come of it mostly is the reenforcement of the idea that in this market economy that we live in in the United States, that art (however broadly defined) is a "commodity". People tend not to consider the work involved in creating the work, but just how much "it's worth". That's disheartening for the artist and for the publisher (or gallery; whomever else is involved in the artistic endeavor that is being measured strictly in monetary terms)

I have been working on a book dealing with what artists in this country have to deal with, and I will be spending a good deal of time with those practitioners of the chapbook form for their contribution to the overall "success" of certain poets and writers.

You Gave Me Your Shadow by David Iribarne (2013)

You Gave Me Your Shadow
David Iribarne
self published
(c)2013

Unpaginated self published book of poetry. The cover image is the strongest thing about this book. It's a deeply personal collection which feels like a missive from the author to one specific person and not really meant for public consumption. That's probably how it should have been handled.

Ghost Soldiers of Volcano and other poems by Arthur Webb (1968)

Ghost Soldiers of Volcano and other poems
Arthur Webb
Mother Lode Publishing Co.
Fresno, CA
(c)1968

I like the cover stock.

Three Grange Halls by Jordan Smith (2002)

Three Grange Halls
Jordan Smith
Swan Scythe Press
Davis, CA
(c) 2002

There are reproductions of sketches from Edward Hopper's notebook sprinkled around this chapbook, very handsomely presented. In fact, I think the poems are sprinkled about as well. Tumbleweed. Milkweed in autumn breeze. Dandelion "helicopters" floating on a summer's day.

And I think that's my problem with poetry like this. The breeziness. The lack of depth. It's 2002 and the poetry in this collection like so many other collections anticipate the surface emptiness of "Instagram Poetry" perfectly. It's singy-songy nothingness. I read the whole book feeling like my hand was out of a window on a hot summer day, feeling air. Feeling air because there was nothing there. Nothing I would remember tomorrow. Chinese food for the soul.

Rattlesnake Press

a full house of Rattlesnake Press books, all of them defanged.

Spiral by Kate Wells (2007)

Spiral
Kate Wells
Rattlesnake Press
Pollock Pines, CA
(c)2007

Chapbooks like this one become journies into new and different threads that are the tapestry of small press history in this country. This chapbook was part of a lot that I found & bought online and I mostly got it because I didn't know any of the poets nor any of the publishers. Like Rattlesnake, which seems to be a big-deal West Coast regional press. Poetry with fangs, or something. That's what the website says. "Poetry with fangs."

Kate Wells' poetry is fangless. But it exists and I am acknowledging it. So, there. Next!

Julia Vinograd 1943-2018

Sometimes it's worth noting.

You should read her, now that she has left our dimension.

Pit Stop by Pat Parker (1975)

Pit Stop
Pat Parker, editor
the women's press collective
Oakland, CA
(c)1975

I bought a small press lot of books from a seller in California who was highlighting this book in particular, but I bought the lot anyway because of the variety of authors and presses I have never heard of before. It wasn't until it arrived and I looked through the books that I started to feel uneasy about this one - this Pit Stop left me a bit cold and it took me a few extra minutes to work through my brain why that might be and it wasn't until after I read over the publisher information that it dawned on me that I had seen "the women's press collective" before, and that it was in an unsavory context.

I quickly looked through my own blog and also typed in "Lesbian Poetry" for the name of this publisher and found that it was linked to Diana Press out of Baltimore. Ah, that's right - Diana Press out of Baltimore. Lee Lally's book that they stole. Lee Lally's book that they published without permission and never gave a dime to the original publisher, Some Of Us Press. Yes, scumbags. Yes, dirtballs. Yes, uprooting themselves from Baltimore to merge with/become the women's press collective. And that name : Pat Parker. Her name was involved with both Diana and the Oakland re-grouping.

Lee Lally passed away years ago now and my own involved with any of this was a stillborn effort on my part to publish an inclusive "Some of Us Press" anthology. While it didn't come to bear, it did enlighten me about this unethical action by Diana Press. I found it interesting that in the Lesbian Poetry Archives listing of the books published BY Diana Press that there was no mention of the pirated publication, These Days, but I just looked through my copy of the book and it clearly states that it was printed BY Diana Press. Someone is attempting to airbrush history a bit.

Since this is now the second time this incident has come across my screen, I will now have to research a bit more. I do want to get to the bottom of this sorted affair simply because whoever made this underhanded decision should not go unpunished.

Drinking the Light by Laverne Frith (2007)

Drinking the Light
Laverne Frith
Finishing Line Press
Georgetown, KY
(c)2007

Laverne Frith is a widely published, award-winning poet and a nationally published reviewer of literary journals and magazines. Laverne is on the reviewer panel of the New York Journal of Books. He is the proprietor of Frith Press and co-editor of Ekphrasis. He is the author of a handful of chapbooks including this one. However, this one is from Finishing Line Press and I do not much like Finishing Line Press. At all.

Black Sparrow chapbooks?

I have been writing this blog for a number of years now (12) and admittedly several of the postings have been pretty "surface". I haven't dug into either the subject nor the work terribly hard. But then - well : I have a new query – I bought a chapbook printed in 1967 by BLACK SPARROW PRESS. Now I always thought that Black Sparrow only did full books with spines and that it started out to publish Bukowski but this chapbook undercuts that narrative. Because it’s a chapbook of James Purdy’s work and it’s a signed copy. So, if the Press WAS formed in 1966, as the history on Wikipedia states, then this is a first year project that predates Bukowski (?). The evidence I have so far found online suggests that the Press was created for Martin, the publisher, to promote Bukowski, “the new Whitman“ (Martin’s words – not mine). And here is a chapbook that is an outlier. Purdy is as underappreciated as Bukowski once was. So Black Sparrow worked with other unknown authors before striking the chord with Charles.

In later interviews Martin does seem to gloss over his own history a bit and told people what they wanted to hear or what made them cream their jeans : that in fact the Press was formed to promote Bukowski and while it’s true that he wasn’t the only successful relationship that Black Sparrow formed with authors, they also brought out work by Paul Bowles and John Fante, in our media culture narrative we associate Black Sparrow SOLELY with Bukowski. So, what am I to make with this chapbook I am holding?

That Bird Your Heart by Tasha Cotter (2013)

That Bird Your Heart
Tasha Cotter
Finishing Line Press
Georgetown, KY
(c)2013

Tasha Cotter has been quite productive since 2013. In addition to this book, there 4 other books published in the same time frame and one of them, Some Churches takes its name from the first poem in this collection. The poetry itself is quite good. My only issue with it is that I am not a fan of Finishing Line Press.

Tracing Silver by Deborah Ryder (1999)

Tracing Silver
Deborah Ryder
Cross-Town Publishing
Harrisburg, PA
(c)1999

Another time capsule from the Central PA environs. Ryder has been a poet in the area for a number of years and this is one of her earlier chapbooks. One of the poems was published previously in Experimental Forest which was a mid-state journal that I loved reading back in the day. Mid-1990s. The poetry is good. Worth collecting.

Fledgling Rag #4 (2007)

Fledgling Rag
Le Hinton
Featuring Jack Veasey
Issue Four
Iris G. Press
Wrightsville, PA
(c)2007

Iris G Press & Fledgling Rag are the brainchildren of Le Hinton who has become a regional poetry superstar. This issue features many of the region's finer poets and that region is Central PA to Washington DC but that came later. In the beginning and this is closer to the beginning as FR only began in 2006, Le asked poets he knew or heard while visiting the Harrisburg to Allentown area. I contributed to one of his issues as well, but not this one. Susan Norris acted as his technical assistant and layout specialist. They worked together for many issues. It's a Heroic effort that deserves attention for both of them.

Standing in the Chaos by Steven G. Concert (2006)

Standing in the Chaos
Steven G. Concert
self published
Harveys Lake, PA
(c) 2006

Concert is a mover and shaker in the poetic world of NE Pennsylvania. He has been actively involved in the Pennsylvania Poetry Society for a number of years and have at least one other book out. This one is thin. A mere 13 pages of verse. I am mentioning the book to talk more about the poet and the fact that poetry thrives all across the state. I am glad to have gotten to know or read a good number of poets from all over PA and hope to spread the wildfire of poetry wherever I roam. They have all inspired me. So, thanks, Steven. Thanks!

Third Book of Poetry by Noah J. Augarten (2006)

Third Book of Poetry
Noah J. Augarten
self published
© 2006


Spiral bound chapbook. Plain paper. Unpaginated and yet there’s a table of contents with page count. I mean, unpaginated means no page numbers and there’s a TOC with numbers. Um, yeah, okay: I give up.

It is way too often true that just because someone can doesn’t mean someone should and that’s is especially true of self-publishing books. To friends and family this might be welcomed. But to someone reading it who doesn’t know the writer except for the words on the page, this effort really should have been suppressed.