Black Sparrow Press (1 Viewer)

[justin grimbol]

I just started collecting Black Sparrow Press books. So far, most of them are bad. Or just not what I am into. I mean, I love all the Bukowski, Mrabet, and Fante. But I cant seem to get into anything else in the BSP library I can get into. The books look beautiful. But...I dont know...
Do any of you know of any good Black Sparrow Press books that are not by Bukowski or Fante?
Also, does anyone have any they are interested in selling?

 

[Purple Stickpin]

I have a few by Tom Clark and Michael Lally that I consider to be good stuff, but certainly Buk and Fante were the big guns.

 

[mjp]

Black Sparrow put its faith into a lot of authors, few of them comparable to Bukowski or Fante (whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your taste). So I think you may be in for disappointment if you are looking for more Black Sparrow authors similar to them.

Of course the myth around Black Sparrow is that Martin started the press to publish Bukowski, and while that could be true in spirit, in actual practice (looking at the first 100 Black Sparrow publications), Black Sparrow published broadsides, pamphlets or books by 47 different authors:

12 by Charles Bukowski
6 by Robert Kelly
5 by Diane Wakoski
5 by Robert Duncan
4 by Ron Loewinsohn
3 by David Bromige
3 by Fielding Dawson
3 by James Purdy
3 by Kenneth Koch
3 by Larry Eigner
3 by Michael McClure
3 by Robert Creely
2 by Armand Schwerner
2 by Bernard Forrest
2 by Clayton Eshleman
2 by David Meltzer
2 by Denise Levertov
2 by Edward Dorn
2 by George Economou
2 by Gerard Malanga
2 by Jerome Rothenberg
2 by Michael Forrest
2 by Paul Goodman
2 by Stephen Stepanchev
1 by Carol Berge
1 by Celia Zukofsky
1 by Daphne Marlatt
1 by David Antin
1 by David Posner
1 by Eugenio Montale
1 by Jackson Mac Low
1 by James Tate
1 by Jess
1 by Joanne Kyger
1 by John Ashbery
1 by Jonathan Greene
1 by Jose Emilio Pacheco
1 by Kenneth Gangemi
1 by Kenneth Irby
1 by Kenward Elmslie
1 by Lewis Zukofsky
1 by Paul Bowles
1 by Richard Grossinger
1 by Rochelle Owens
1 by Sanford Dorbin
1 by Wallace Berman
1 by Wright Morris

Those 12 publications by Bukowski are a lot more - in number - than any of the other authors, but most of those publications were broadsides and little booklets of only a few pages. If you look at how many pages Black Sparrow published by author:

You could get the idea that Martin believed in Robert Kelly as much as he did Bukowski...

 

[skiroomalum]

Lucia Berlin is really good. Also Wanda Coleman, a good L.A. poet.

 

[justin grimbol]

If you look at how many pages Black Sparrow published by author:

You could get the idea that Martin believed in Robert Kelly as much as he did Bukowski...

I gotta check out Robert Kelly.