Colophon Collection of Moderns
Selections from the Colophon Collection of Moderns
In Black and White: Photographs of the 30's and 40's
Northridge: Lord John Press, 1985
Best known for her successful writing career, Welty worked as a publicity agent for the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. During this time she took many photographs around Mississippi documenting the ways of life in the South. A collection of her photographs is included in this limited edition, one of 100 deluxe copies in The Colophon Collection signed by Welty and Anne Tyler, who wrote the foreword.
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The Pumpkin Pie, or Reassurances Are Always False, tho We Love Them, Only Physics Counts...
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1972
This small sized autographed publication of Wakoski's poem is typical of her work often written in first person and confessional, full of digressions and personal expression. Copy no. 54 of an edition of 126 is in the collection.
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Me and your sometimes love poems
Los Angeles: Kisskill Press, 1973
This self-published mimeographed publication by Bukowski and former girlfriend Linda King, includes cover design and illustrations by Bukowski. Originally priced $1, rare copies such as this, can now fetch over $2000.
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Questions They Never Asked Me
Northridge: Lord John Press, 1979
Written as a self interview, Walker embarks on a cheeky discourse with himself addressing the South, religion, his life and his work. Autographed copy no. 275 of 300 is in the collection.
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Greed, Parts 3 and 4
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1969
Wakoski, an accomplished poet who has received a Fulbright fellowship and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts, is one of six women in the original Colophon Canon of 65 writers. This publication, Greed, is parts 3 and 4 of an evolving sequence culminating with The Collected Greed, Parts 1-13, published in 1984.
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Black Dream Ditty For Billy "The Kid" M Seen In Dr. Generosity's Bar Recruiting For Hell's Angels and Black Mafia
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1970
"Poetry is the art of saying what you mean but disguising it." --Diane Wakoski, Michigan State University Distinguished Professor.
Wakoski's poems are personal, but not autobiographical and reveal layers of meaning. Library has copy no. Y, sewn and bound in full cloth and published in an edition of 426 copies, 126 of which have been numbered & signed by the author.
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Fast Speaking Woman
Detroit: Red Hanrahan Press, 1974
Waldman is known for being one of the leading figures in the poetics and performance poetry field. This piece, the author writes in her foreword, is a "poem-chant indebted to the Mazatec Indian Shamaness in Mexico" and is intended to be read aloud. Only 500 copies of this first edition, first printing which include a drawing by Ann Wilson, were made. No. 369 is in the Colophon collection as are subsequent editions.
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Holy City
New York: [s.n.], 1971
Anne Waldman says, "I want [my poetry] to be the experience...a sustained experience, a voyage, a magnificent dream, something that would take you in myriad directions simultaneously." Featuring cover art by George Schneeman, Waldman self-published this work early on in her career. A few years later, in 1974, she and Allen Ginsberg founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in Boulder, Colorado where she remains a Distinguished Professor of Poetics and the Director of Naropa's famous Summer Writing Program.
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Scenes of Life at the Capital
Berkeley: Maya Quarto10, 1970
Written while Whalen lived in Kyoto, Japan during the years of 1969 - 71, this book length, ruminative text with a cut and paste like quality, is written from the standpoint of an American trying to make sense of his cultural origins in an Eastern setting, during the height of the Vietnam War. It is dedicated to Allen Ginsberg. Library has copy no. 24 of 50 signed copies.
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Chicago
Bolinas: Angel Hair Books, 1969
Lewis Warsh and Tom Clark collaborated on this poetry piece while both were living in Bolinas in Marin County, California. This edition, signed by the authors, was designed and printed by Andrew Hoyem, at Grabhorn-Hoyem printers in San Francisco, and was published in an edition of 200 by Angel Hair Books, and independent publishing company founded by Anne Waldman and Lewis Warsh in New York in 1966. In 2001, an anthology including all the Angel Hair publications including Chicago, called The Angel Hair Anthology, was published by Granary Books.
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Conjure
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1972
Ishmael Reed, a poet, novelist and essayist, began his work in the late 1960s and examined race relations. He now publishes an online magazine called, "Konch," continuing to examine the African-American experience, unafraid of controversy. The magazine provides a platform for voices ignored by the American media and proudly proclaims, "A publication for the rest of us."
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A Dialogue
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1973
This transcript of two famous black writers talking about race, is at turns, provocative, insightful, searing, and incendiary as the two authors--one young, one older --one man, one woman—speak from the heart. It was originally aired on "Soul," a program shown on WNET television.
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The Literature of Exhaustion and The Literature of Replenishment
Northridge: Lord John Press, 1982
Barth's famous meditations on postmodernism, "The Literature of Exhaustion" and "The Literature of Replenishment," originally appeared in The Atlantic. They were republished together in an edition of 300 numbered copies and 100 deluxe copies specially bound. The Colophon Collection has copy no. 19 of 100, signed by the author. The two essays are also compiled within his book of essays: The Friday Book.
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People One Knows, Interviews with Insufficiently Famous Americans
Northridge: Lord John Press, 1980
Several of Updike's stories and essays which offer satirical examinations of the interview form, first appeared in the Transatlantic review, Esquire, and the Ontario review. Featured is this copy no. 67 of 100 deluxe copies specially bound and signed by the author.
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The Emerald
Los Angeles : Sylvester & Orphanos, 1980
A surreal work of fiction, Barthelme's short story takes on an experimental style written as dialogue. Also illustrated and signed by the author, this edition of The Emerald is one of 330 copies in the Colophon Collection of Moderns.
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Take care of my ghost, ghost
[s.l.] : Ghost Press, 1977
The Colophon Collection includes many first or limited edition, rare works by the Beat writers. Most of the renown writers of the genre - Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, William Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Anne Waldman make use of an unstructured style and unconventional language to convey their opposition to traditional establishment.
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Jargon 31. 14 poets, 1 artist : December 12-14, 1958, New York
[s.l.] : J. Williams, 1958
Jargon 31 refers to the 31st publication produced by The Jargon Society, an independent press founded by the American poet Jonathan Williams. The folder includes 14 separate sheets of holograph poems by fourteen contributors, including Paul Blackburn, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Goodman, Denise Levertov, Edward Dahlberg, Louis Zukofsky, Franz Klein, and Jonathan Williams, with each poem featuring an illustration by Fielding Dawson.
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