Various (Loewinsohn, Ron (Editor); Kyger, Joanne; Welch, Lew et al.)

Sum No. 6 (April 1965)

Buffalo, NY: SUM / Fred Wah, 1965. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. Signed by Robin Eichele (b. 1941), noted Mimeograph Revolutionary & co-founder (with John Sinclair) of the Detroit Artists’ Workshop. “the plants on the back porch / have been getting a lot of rain / the variegated ivy under the roof / has begun to turn with the cold, the young leaves red / The marigolds and zinnias are practically gone / Worrying about them all the time and the house plants / and their needs of food and water, dropping leaves” (from “12.27.64,” by Joanne Kyger). Fred Wah’s “SUM” was published in Buffalo, NY just before that city began to be known for its (now-longstanding) associations with what the great editor-anthologist Don Allen termed “The New American Poetry.” Wah grew up in Saskatchewan (like Joni Mitchell, fans of mid-century music!) and grew up in British Columbia, earning a BA in English Literature from the university there, and transferring on to UNM, where he met Robert Creeley before earning an MA from SUNY Buffalo. Duncan, Creeley, and Olson loom largest in Wah’s poetic pantheon but numerous others influenced him similarly on the path to forging a distinctly original poetic voice, which he invariably and inarguably did achieve. Along the way, he published more than one literary magazine, but the early efforts represented by the seven issues of SUM Magazine Wah published from 1963-1965 show an ear-&-eye for talent far beyond what the masses are capable of: the talent in evidence from the first-risen checkered flag. Oblong, large-format unpaginated softcover in stapled wrappers: the first and only printing of this sixth (of seven) issues of Fred Wah’s “SUM. From the collection of Robin Eichele (b. 1941), noted Mimeograph Revolutionary & co-founder (with John Sinclair) of the Detroit Artists’ Workshop, who has hand-written (in thin black fountain pen ink) his name [“Robin Eichele”] in a calligraphy-adjacent script near topmost fine-edge of first-facing leaf. Eichele’s signature, in [what we believe to be] black ink that the cover leaf’s color faded to purple, reads: “Robin Eichele / VI: 65." In Fair condition with pronounced-to-significant shelf-wear, staining, browning & mild horizontal, as well as vertical creasing & bumping, bump-corners & open & closed tears to, at & near fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; age-toning, yellowing & artifacts similar to these occurring throughout in low-impact clusters; minor-to-enunciated constellations of rubbing, sunning, to front, back covers throughout; front cover leaf unattached but complete. Fair. [Item #6177]

Price: $40.00