Various (LaVoie, Steven (Editor); Nolan, Pat (Editor); Padgett, Ron et al.)

La Vie en Crime Vol. Collage No. Cubiste, Dadaiste, Surrealiste (1987)

Monte Rio, CA: The Black Bart Poetry Society, 1987. First Printing. Stapled Sheets. "Eventually fame will find Ron Padgett in his New York City apartment. He is the simplest of poets, and often he appears the most strange. This contradiction will be easily explained when I say that the lyricism of M. Padgett is made potent by a style which is trenchant, rapid, brilliant, and often tenderly humorous which sometimes renders it inaccessible to those who consider rhetoric rather than poetry. Ron Padgett's sense of beauty and goodness does not succeed in bringing him in sympathy with those poets who seek a miserable eloquence, and who reproach him with allowing himself to be turned aside from lucidity by specious thoughts." ("Guiloume Apollinaire," unpaginated) What may be the final issue in the series of the late Mimeograph Revolution newsletter "Life of Crime" edited, published (& probably mostly written) by Steven LaVoie (b. 1953) & Pat Nolan (b. 1943). Satirical efforts in the vein of Tom Clark's "The Great Naropa Poetry Wars," these newsletters poked fun at the tempests-in-teapots between various poets & their schools of poetry during the fertile, contentious 1970s-1980s. This issue pulls out all the stops, self-consciously evoking Cubism, Dadaism & Surrealism as it holds forth in a parody of earnestness about the great New York School-&-Beyond poet Ron Padgett (b. 1942). Three stapled sheets forming six pages incl. covers, originally folded twice horizontally for mailing. From the collection of Albert Glover (1942-2026), the acclaimed American poet, bibliographer, editor, publisher & academician who was the foremost remaining authority on the Great Black Mountain-&-Beyond Poet's Poet Charles Olson (1910-1970), our favorite Maximus Obscurantist. Glover was a student of & anointed by the Maximus Master himself at SUNY Buffalo during the 1960s, & ever since had been the premiere Olsonian Torch-Bearer. We were privileged to know him, & are deeply saddened at his recent passing. This copy was mailed to & is addressed to Glover at the English Department of St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he was a professor at this time, & where he continued to reside for the rest of his life. A most-scarce literary collectible in its singularly rarest contemporary form, with the most distinguished & relevant association & provenance. In relatively quite fine-to-very-fine condition with only a bit of age-toning to all surfaces; slightest wear & some tiny bumps, creases at/from edges & corners of sheets; two mild horizontal creases at all sheets noted above from folding as mailed. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #8907]

Price: $200.00