Bass, Ellen; Brewer, William; Dove, Rita; Emanuel, Lynn; Gander, Forrest; Hillman, Brenda; Howe, Marie; Jollimore, Troy; Laux, Dorianne; Natchez, Meryl; Rafferty, Larry; St. John, David; Shepler, MIchael; Simic, Charles; Simon, Maurya; Snyder, Gary; Wright, Charles

Hit and Run Press Broadsides, Second Series

Mendocino, CA: Hit and Run Press, 1987-2021. First Edition. Broadsides in Box. In 1974, poet and publisher Larry Rafferty founded the Hit and Run press in northern California as a pet project after becoming interested in and studying bookbinding and letterpress during his college years. As a poet himself, he was connected with the community of poets in the area, and he would print poems for his friends as project opportunities presented themselves. Meryl Natchez is one of these poets and also his wife, and her career at the Marin Poetry Center proved to be a strong source of up-and-coming and well-know poets from the events hosted there. Rafferty’s retirement in 2008 proved to be an opportune moment to blow the dust off of his printings, and he put together two series of broadsides with the prints from Hit and Run over the years, seventeen in each with signed and unsigned versions, five sets of each, unnumbered. The broadsides in the set of Series Two offered here are signed by their respective poets and have one uncut edge each. Prints of an introduction and a list of contents are also included in the gray clamshell box containing it all. This writer spoke with Mr. Rafferty over the phone to confirm details about the two series, and he sent over a photo of the gravestone he had designed and etched for the press as a joke years ago, originally with no ending year, which was recently added after it officially shut down in 2021. This truly unique and rare set of poetry broadsides includes: “Bringing Flowers to Salinas Valley State Prison” by Ellen Bass (2021); “Early Oxyana” by William Brewer (2018); “Above the Mountaintops” by Rita Dove (2018); “Blonde Bombshell” by Lynn Emanuel (2019); “Son" by Forrest Gander” (2018); “Winter Daybreak Stanzas for Our Daughter” by Brenda Hillman (2018); “The Boy” by Marie Howe (2019); “On the Origins of Things” by Troy Jollimore (2020); “The Crossing” by Dorianne Laux (2020); “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Meryl Natchez (2020); “The Brown Bomber” by Larry Rafferty (1987); “The Color of Salvation” by David St. John (2019); “Berlin, 1930” by Michael Shepler (2012); “Cameo Appearance” by Charles Simic (2018);”Meditation at Twilight” by Maurya Simon (2020); “Where” by Gary Snyder (2019); “The Silent Generation” by Charles Wright (2018). 19 Single Sheets in Clamshell Box: Limited Edition, one of five signed versions of Series Two. Broadsides and clamshell box in Very Fine condition, pristine. Very Fine. [Item #6171]

Price: $1,050.00