BLACK MOUNTAIN REVIEW
Complete seven-issue run of this landmark postwar literary journal.
Very good overall.
Price: $7,000.00
BLACK MOUNTAIN REVIEW
"It is difficult [...] to appreciate the excitement (in certain very limited circles, of course) produced by the appearance of the Review. Today [...] it's hard to recall the lack of reputation and lack of publishing opportunities characteristic of the literary scene during those damp, encased, mid-fifties McCarthyite years." — Martin Duberman
One of the most important small magazines of the 20th century, Creeley's BLACK MOUNTAIN REVIEW served as a bridge between the various avant-guard poetries of the 1950's: from the Beats to the San Francisco Renaissance. Print runs for the BMR were typically small: 500 to 750, with many now in institutions and many others not surviving (indeed, Robert Creeley has written that only "about 200 of which ever got distributed").
Includes the final issue, arguably the strongest Creeley and company produced, dedicated to the Beats and noted for the first appearance of William S. Burroughs' NAKED LUNCH (writing as "William Lee," only his third appearance in print overall). Also includes Ginsberg's "America," Kerouac's "From October in the Railroad Earth," an early and important review of Ginsberg's "Howl," William Carlos Williams on Ginsberg, as well as the first appearance of Kerouac's much-reprinted Beat manifesto "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose."
Other contributors across the run include: Denise Levertov, Charles Olson, Paul Carroll, Joel Oppenheimer, Jess Collins, Robert Duncan, Kenneth Rexroth, Paul Blackburn, Larry Eigner, Franz Kline, William Bronk, and many others.
Individual issues are increasingly uncommon, runs rare.
Read more: Elliott Anderson and Mary Kinzie, The Little Magazine in America, 248-61; Martin Duberman, Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community; Clay & Phillips, From A Secret Location, 106-109.
The Object
First edition. (Black Mountain, N.C.): (Black Mountain College), 1954-57. 8.5'' x 6.5'' (issues 1-4) and 6.5'' x 5'' (5-7). Original pictorial wrappers all, with cover designs by Katue Kitasono (issues one through four), John Altoon (five), Dan Rice (six) and Edward Corbett (final). Various paginations. Signature (ownership?) of contributor Charles Tomlinson to first page of issue six. Underlining to one page of issue five. Mild toning, soiling, creasing throughout. Else sound.
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