Various (Smith, Lawrence R. (Editor); Carver, Raymond; Chuang, Che; Chuang, Mary; Coolidge, Clark; Eshleman, Clayton; Ford, Charles Henri; Ignatow, David; Rothenberg, Jerome; Wakoski, Diane et al.)

Caliban 1

ISBN: (ISSN)08907289
Ann Arbor, MI: Caliban, 1986. First Printing. Softcover. Signed by Clayton Eshleman. "Caliban is calling the tribes together. Those who consider themselves avant-garde or progressive (and even those who don't, but who are serious) need to come together to help pull the culture out of the sink it's slipped into...Caliban wants to liberate all islands everywhere from the rational Prosperos, those fraudulent magicians, who think they own and understand art, but who only suffocate it." (from "Caliban Refuses to Collect His Thoughts," pgs. 143,144) The first number of the literary journal published here in Ann Arbor during 1986-1995, revived online in 2010, edited & with contributions by Lawrence R. Smith. Featuring mostly poetry, as well as a few prose-poems & commentaries, by Raymond Carver, Clark Coolidge, Clayton Eshleman, Charles Henri Ford, David Ignatow, Jerome Rothenberg, Diane Wakoski & many other most distinguished literary figures. Eshleman, who moved near Ann Arbor right around the time this issue was produced, where he still resides & is our friend & mentor, hand-signed his name next to his printed name on the fourth page of the Table of Contents (pg. vi). Eshleman contributed the prose-poem "A Visit From Hart Crane" & the poem "Apotheosis" to this first issue. Also a "Fifth Moon Group Portfolio" of artworks by Chuang Che & Mary Chuang; color reproduction of artwork by the former on front cover; a section of manifesto-aphorisms by "Caliban" (the journals' channeling of the spirit of Prospero's feral sidekick in Shakespeare's The Tempest); another section of "Contributors' Advice, or Free Speech Corner, or the Blind Assemblage (being the unedited comments of contributors on almost anything)"; contemporary ads for Sulfur literary journal (of which Eshleman was editor) & Shaman Drum Bookshop (the long-gone Ann Arbor institution of our late, lamented Third Mind Mentor Karl Pohrt) etc. Trade format softcover. An outstanding collectible among literary journals, especially with the signature of one of its most distinguished contributors. In very fine condition with only very slight rubbing to front, back covers & spine; very light wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same; mild rubbing, browning & spotting to upper & lower edges of text block; one short, faint scratch-mark at upper area of text block side edge. Interior very fine with only tiny bumps, creases at upper corners of some page leaves. Very Fine. [Item #3375]

Price: $30.00