Spicer, Jack

Language

San Francisco, CA: White Rabbit Press, 1965. First Edition. Softcover. “Thanatos, the death-plant in the skull / Grows wings and grows enormous. / The herb of the whole system. / Systematically blotting out the anise weed / and the trap-door spider of the vacant lot. / Worse than static or crabgrass. / Thanatos, bone at the bottom, Saint / Francis, that botanist in Santa Rosa / (Bless me now, for I am a plant and an animal) / Called him Brother Death.”--Jack Spicer, pg. 12. Jack Spicer (1925-1965) was an American poet known primarily among a coterie of poets in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time of his death in 1965, over time, Jack Spicer has become a towering figure in American poetry. His numerous poetry collections include the posthumously published The Collected Books of Jack Spicer (1975), edited by Robin Blaser (1925-2005), A Book of Music (1969), The Holy Grail, (1964) and After Lorca (1957). In 1998, Wesleyan University Press published The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer, edited by Peter Gizziand (b. 1959), and Kevin Killian (1952-2019). My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, also edited by Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian, appeared in 2010. Spicer was born in Los Angeles, California in 1925 to Midwestern parents and raised in a Calvinist home. While attending college at the University of California, Berkeley, Spicer met fellow poets Robin Blaser and Robert Duncan (1919-1988). The friendship among these three poets would develop into what they referred to as “The Berkeley Renaissance,” which would in turn become the San Francisco Renaissance after Spicer, Blaser, and Duncan moved to San Francisco in the 1950s. Spicer also helped to form the 6 Gallery with five painter friends in 1954. It was at the Six Gallery during Spicer’s sojourn east--teaching at the University of Minnesota, then working in the Boston Public Library--that Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) first read Howl. As a native Californian, Spicer tended to view the Beats as usurpers and criticized the poetry and self-promotion of poets like Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), as well as the Beat ethos in general. Always weary of labels and definitions, Spicer tended to associate with small, intimate groups of poets who lived in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Spicer acted as a mentor and teacher to these young poets by running poetry workshops and providing (sometimes caustic) advice for young poets. Offered today is the 1965 collection Language. The last book published before the poet shuffled off his mortal coil, Language is a collection that is the culmination of Spicer’s life’s work. Experimental, wildly imaginative, vivid, and masterfully composed, Language is arguably Spicer’s masterpiece, and its literary value is rivaled only by its scarcity. From the collection of Albert Glover (1942-2026), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who was the foremost remaining authority on literary giant Charles Olson (our favorite Maximus Obscurantist), with whom we’re honored to have been acquainted. Trade-format Softcover original. First edition, first & only printing though neither specified at copyright page. Book in relatively very fine condition with moderate wear to fine edges, slight tearing at spine near top, moderate discoloration due to age-toning to interior and exterior, and slight scratching to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #8647]

Price: $200.00