Detroit, MI: Third Man Books, 2023. First Edition. “My affection for the lyrics of Jack White, renewed in the text here, stem from his ability to create that symphony while also relying on what some might foolishly consider "plain" language, but what I mean, here, is an admiration of a writer who does their best work turning away from metaphor—which is, in some ways, turning away from softening the harder..... More

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 2023. First Edition Thus. Softcover. “In the summer of 1982, Clark Coolidge received an unexpected gift of a crystal. Small, clear, entirely unexceptional, the crystal nonetheless provoked the poet into writing what has long been considered his masterpiece, The Crystal Text. Composed over the course of 10 months, in daybook-like entries of varying length, The Crystal Text is multifaceted and elusive, constantly interrogating itself..... More

Long Beach, CA: Pearl Editions, 2002. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. This second issue of the short-lived Bukowski Review followed the first posthumous homage (see item #5801) a full year later. Joan Jobe Smith (b. 1940) was not sure about continuing the project, but an annual review of the impact Charles Bukowski had on the literary underground was deemed a worthwhile endeavor. After the introductory essays and interviews of the first..... More

Homeland, CA: Edward L. Smith, 1991. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. “You don’t see the punch until you’re on the floor—writing that is a surrealism of the everyday—firmly in the American tradition of the maverick—relies on emotion—painter—living proof of the healing and redemptive powers of art…unequivocal, unafraid, the poems transcend—writes for the people hardest to fool—full of zest, humor and fire…the courageous account of a human heart” (from “A Letter from..... More

London, England: Tangerine Press, 2017. Limited First Edition. Sheets in Envelope. "Dante, baby, the Inferno / is here now. / I wish you could see / it. For some time / we've had the power to / blow up the earth / and now we're finding / the power to leave / it. but most will have to / stay and / die..." (first ten+ lines) A broadside (appx. 6..... More

Orange County, CA: Rancho Santiago College; Black Sparrow Press; Lee Mallory, 1994. Limited First Edition. Single Sheet. "if we take what we can see- / the engines driving us mad, / lovers finally hating; / this fish in the market / staring upward into our minds; / flowers rotting, flies web-caught; / riots, roars of caged lions, / clowns in love with dollar bills, / nations moving people like pawns;..... More

Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1998-1999. First Printings. Single Sheets. “there’s a bluebird in my heart / that wants to get out / but I’m too tough for him, / I say, stay in there, I’m not going / to let anybody see / you. / there’s a bluebird in my heart that / wants to get out / but I pour whiskey on him and inhale / cigarette..... More

London, England: Fulcrum Press, 1969. First Edition. Hardcover. "In making this selection from the first decade of my work I have sought not only to include certain poems which have been particularly admired by those who admire my poetry at all, but, more important, to provide those texts which at this time I see as essential for a serious reading of evolving themes and forms; and, back of those formal..... More

New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2009. First Printing. Hardcover. “The soul is silent. If it speaks at all it speaks in dreams.”-- Louise Gluck, “It Is Daylight”. the author of 12 books of poetry, including the recent collections Faithful and Virtuous Night (2014), winner of the National Book Award, and Poems 1962-2012 (2012), which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, as well as the essay collection American Originality..... More

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1964. First Printing. Softcover. (Cook 50, pg. 54). “If I rest for a moment near The Equestrian, / pausing for a liver sausage sandwich in the Mayflower Shoppe, / that angel seems to be leading the horse into Bergdorf’s / and I am naked as a tablecloth, my nerves humming. / Close to the fear of war and the stars which have disappeared. /..... More

San Francisco, CA: Stolen Paper Review Editions, 1966. First Edition Thus. Stapled Wrappers. A lesser-known legend of the San Francisco scene in the ‘60s, Lenore Kandel (1932-2009) was the only female writer to be involved in an obscenity trial for published writing. Following the publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in 1956, police seized copies of the book from City Lights and other booksellers instigating the obscenity trial that brought the..... More

Long Beach, CA: Pearl Editions, 2001. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. “Charles Bukowski has described himself as the common man, and he has acquired an international readership, but within his lifetime and, to a large extent, today as well, his work has been relegated to the margins of Otherness by the forces of literary politics. He might be said to occupy a ‘counter-canon’ or an ‘alternative canon’ alongside such as Henry..... More

New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. First Edition. Softcover. Inscribed & Signed by William Meredith. William Meredith (1919-2007) held several highly respected positions in the poetry industry such as the Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (1964-1987) and the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1978-1980). Meredith began writing in his college years, and his first collection of poems was published just four years..... More