Various (Jenkins, Joyce (Editor); Duncan, Robert; Creeley, Robert; di Prima, Diane; Everson, William; McClure, Michael et al.)

Poetry Flash: The Bay Area's Poetry Review & Literary Calendar No. 180 (March 1988)

Berkeley, CA: Joyce Jenkins, 1988. First Printing. Folded Sheets. “Robert Duncan was everything we believed him to be. The savant and soul-maker of recent years who so many of us saw in poetry readings and his lectures at the New College was the flowering of an earlier Duncan. But Duncan’s flowering was continual, and as long ago as 1954 Duncan had an enormous body of energy and genius that he exerted. As the students of his first workshop at San Francisco State listened to his insights and projections regarding their poems and looked in wonder at his restructuring of their work on the blackboard, they knew something big was happening. Duncan was one of the pantheon that was pre-Beat and pre-San Francisco Renaissance and one of the heroes who walked the earth with Rexroth, Everson, Madeleine Gleason, Broughton, Jack Spicer and Robin Blaser. Those were not the good old days, but the sinister cold Fifties. Duncan had been part of the World War II anarchist circles; he’d edited outspoken magazines and published a book-length poem; he’d dressed in peasant blouses and workman’s boots – he rubbed shoulders with Anais Nin and Henry Miller and Kenneth Patchen. He had announced his homosexuality – in defiance of the wall of silence…” (Michael McClure, front page) This issue of the venerable literary journal & calendar edited & published by Joyce Jenkins came out a month after the death of Robert Duncan (1919-1988) - the great American poet & author of the Black Mountain School- San Francisco Renaissance-&-Beyond – and his passing dominates the coverage. There are frontpage tributes from McClure, Robert Creeley, and Michael Davidson, and additional pieces about or by Duncan throughout, showcasing how revered he was within the San Francisco scene. Also included are other articles, poetry, reviews and the journal’s extensive calendar of California literary events. Broadsheet-format journal in loose sheets folded horizontally & vertically. From the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who is the foremost living authority on Charles Olson(1910-1970), Duncan’s & so many others’ Black Mountain mentor-inspiration, and our favorite Maximus Obscurantist. First-&-only printing. In fine condition with mild age-toning to covers and pages; slight wear, irregularities & some tiny bumps, creases, chips & occasional short, closed tears at edges, corners & folds. Fine. [Item #8143]

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