FUCKING ANIMALS: A BOOK OF POEMS by Edmund Miller (First Edition)
The Poet's Press 1973. 65 pages. Softcover booklet. Edmund Miller, the author of scholarly books about seventeenth-century British literature, is also a poet, and this is his early and legendary small press underground collection. A selection of playful poetry on gay themes, it includes sestinas, sonnets, and haiku about truckers, quickies, and fraternity boys (among other joys). It caused a stir when it first "came out". He recently (2004) published The Go Go Boy Sonnets. He currently teaches at C.W. Post College.
CONDITION: Some dirt on front cover. Small brown splotch on back cover. Sunned along spine. First page has a light browned shadow, as if a card or something had been stored inside the cover. Other pages clean, white, crisp, no markings. $25

TAKE NO PRISONERS by RAY DUREM (First Edition)
Volume Seventeen in the Heritage Series, Paul Breman, London, 1971. Softcover booklet. Spanish Civil War veteran and militant poet Ramón Durem was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1915 of mixed heritage. Durem volunteered to join the Loyalist cause in Spain, was a member of the Communist party, and then broke with the party when he decided that "even the white radicals were not interested in a radical solution to the Negro Question.” Writing as “Ray Durem,” his poetry’s strident tone attracted the attention of prominent black nationalist Robert Williams and the prolific African American writer Langston Hughes. Published in several newspapers, literary journals, and poetry anthologies, he is known especially for the volume Take No Prisoners released posthumously in 1971. Ramón Durem’s work was very important to the Black Power movement, serving as a both a political compass and cultural inspiration." (This info from www.blackpast.org)
CONDITION: Some dirt and wear to cover. A bit of sunning to spine. Some pencil markings re "first edition" and etc. upper right front cover. Interior like new.$15

HEAVENSGATE by CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO (First Edition)
Mbari Publications Ibadan 1962. Drawings by Demas Nwoko. Extremely scarce! Essential reading for anyone interested in African poetry and literature. Christopher Okigbo is considered one of the foremost African poets. He died in the Nigerian civil war, in 1967, when he was only 35. "He left a slim collection of 72 pages of poetry, an exacting, burning and truthful work from beginning to end. Prophetic and visionary, his words were first heard by his equals. An outstanding personality, Christopher Okigbo tells everyone not to be confined by their cultural, political, artistic, creative and humane limits. Today there are a large number of intellectuals who recognize, in the prematurely deceased young Igbo, one of the founding figures in the development of modern literature in Africa." "Heavensgate marked his return to his sources and a deeply-felt personal rebirth with the mother-goddess. His maternal grandfather Ijejiofor of the Oto family has always provided the priesthood to the shrine of the deity Idoto. The Nigerian artist shared with T. S. Eliot the vision of a spiritual quest, which led the poet to classical myths and pointed him towards his spiritual identity."
CONDITION: Some browning to edges of cover. Pencilled date upper right corner of cover (probably could be erased but I will leave it for you to do.) Interior is like new. $40

KAYAK 19 Edited by GEORGE HITCHCOCK (First Edition)
San Francisco: Kayak Press, 1969. An important issue with poems by Anne Sexton, Philip Levine, Mark Strand, Charles Simic, et al. Also W. S. Merwin (trans.) and correspondence from Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Bly. Cover printed in two colors on yellow stock. Stamped "printed on rifle and small-arms target paper rejected as substandard by the U. S. Defense Department." George Hitchcock was editor of this influential poetry magazine from 1964 to 1984. He published both obscure and famous writers. He was also known for his amusing testimony before the the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the late 50s. His response to the question "What is your profession?" was "My profession is a gardener. I do underground work on plants.'"
CONDITION: As this was produced on very cheap paper, interior pages have browned over years. Front cover is a bit dirty. Back cover has a large chip gone from lower left corner, some creases, a few smaller chips, dirt, discoloration. (This issue also has an inset announcing a "new" magazine called Stand.) $20

RILKE IN ENGLISH: A TENTATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY Compiled by Richard Von Mises (First Edition)
First Printing. The Cosmos Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of 300 copies. 40 pages. Von Mises was a scientist who worked on fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, aeronautics, statistics and probability theory. He was responsible for the Von Mises Yield Criterion. Yippee! Anyway, he also compiled this early list of Rilke-related articles, translations, and criticism in my native tongue. The two men were friends and Von Mises was an international authority on the melancholic and lyrical Austrian poet, who might or might not have ultimately died of an infection contracted when he pricked his finger on a rose thorn.
CONDITION: Some browning to edges of soft grey cover. Some creases at corners. Interior pages clean and crisp. Former owners name in ink top right of title page, along with some pencil markings. $20