JUNE 2020

JUNE

Tally: 56 Books – 29 Poetry/Poetics; 2 History; 4 Memoir/Autobiography/Biography; 5 Fiction/Play; 9 Non-Fiction; 1 Religion; 2 Art/Graphic Art; and 4 Children’s Literature

TWO 1940s Flip Books entitled Action Movie. Graphic fiction. Read/viewed June 13.

Four color format, the way old comic books were colored. Movies include sword fight, a diver, rodeo and boxing match. 8 pages. 

The Collected Poems of Ai (Norton, New York, 2010). Poetry. Read June 24-29. Outstanding. Good Introduction by Yusef Kumonyakaa, as excerpted below.

Fireflies: A Collection of Haiku by Frank Ankenbrand, Jr. (The Schori Press, Evanston, IL, 1965. 11/500 Bible Paper). Size: 1-7/8” x 2”

Haiku Calendar 1970 by Frank Ankenbrand, Jr. & curated by Robert E. Massman (signed. Miniature book with a fold-out annual calendar with haiku on one side and accordion-fold intro and colophon on the oter. REM Miniatures, New Britain, CT, 1970. 141/150. BR, REM 35). Size 2-3/8” x 2-5/16”. Poetry. Read June 27.

Blue Beads and Garlic by Jane Apostol & illustrated by Howard Goldstein (Permanent Press, Pasadena, 1975. 19/200). Size: 1.5” x 2”. Nonfiction. Read June 2.

LOVE: A Book of Poetry (Ariel / Andrews and MacMeel, Kansas City, MO 1992). Size: 3.25" x 3.75". Poetry. Read June 5.

 The Man Who Didn’t Believe in Christmas by Mary Austin (signed. Ford Press, Hong Kong, 1969. 27/400). Size: 2” x 2.5”. Play. Read June 22.

Two Poems from Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire, Trans. By F.P. Sturm with watercolors by Carol Cunningham (accordion with original watercolors, Sunflower Press, Mill Valley, CA,  2000. C/20). Size: 2-1/8” x 2.5”. Poetry/Art. Read/viewed June 11.

Frosty the Snowman retold by Annie North Bedford (A Golden Book/Western Publishing Co., Racine Wisconsin, 1992). Children's Literature. Read June 28.

BUTTERFLIES: A Celebration of Beauty on the Wing (Nature Company / Running Press, Philadelphia, 1991) Size: 2.75” x 3.25”. Non-fiction. Read June 4.

Notes Toward a Pamphlet by Sergio Chejfec (Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, 2020). Poetry/poetics. Read June 18.

Translation is a Mode = Translation is an Anti-neocolonial Mode by Don Mee Choi (Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, 2020). Poetry/poetics. Read June 18.

The World of Gumby & Pokey by Joe Clokey (w/ figurines, Running Press, Philadelphia, 2007). Size: 2.5” x 3”. Children's Literature. Read June 3.

A Christmas Story by Dorlene Cardenas & illustrated by Drusilla Cottrell (Tabula Rasa Press, Pasadena, 1981. 46/300). Size: 1-7/8” x 2”. Fiction. Read June 1-2.

Maganda Magazine #33: babae(x) edited by Sofia Cruz and Maddy Malicdem. Poetry/Literature/Arts. Read June 5.

Silverpearl Plums by Carol Cunningham (Signed. Sunflower Press, 1986.  41/85). Size: 1.75” x 2.25”. Poetry. Read June 9. Haiku.

The World has Been Empty Since the Postcard by Simon Cutts (Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, 2020). Poetry/poetics. Read June 18.

Black Man’s Verse by Frank Marshall Davis (With Robert Massman’s Bookplate #265, Black Cat Press, Chicago, 1935). Size: 2.5” x 2-5/8”. Poetry. Read June 4. Powerful.

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson (Running Press, Philadelphia, 1990). Poetry. Read June 18.

Six Poems of MVTABILITIE by Divers Authors—Anonymous, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Waller, Ezra Pound and Saint Teresa d’Avila  (signed. Wind & Harlot Press, Shaker Heights OH. 7/44). Size: 1.75” x 2-1/8”. Poetry. Read June 17.

WILD METRICS by Ken Edwards (Grand Iota, U.K., 2019). Poetic memoir. Read June 1-23. A wonderful read--great balance between grasping the past while allowing for the ineffable. 

The Way I Am by Eminem (Melcher Media, 2008). Autobiography. Read June 25. Fabulous, energetic, charismatic, compelling … and as a book author I’m jealous of the book’s fine production values.

American Dolls from the Brooklyn Children’s Museum edited by Susan Feuer (Ariel Books / Andrews and MacMeel, Kansas City, MO, 1995). Size: 3.25” x 3.75”. History. Read June 1.

Dibdin’s Ghost by Eugene Field (Lorson’s Books and Prints, Fullerton, 1980. Edition 500). Size: 2.25” x 2-8/8”. Poetry. Read June 4.

The Lullaby Book of Poems by Eugene Field (Signed by Ward Schori, Ward Schori Press, 1963. 195/600). Size: 2.25” x 2”. Poetry. Read June 3. 

DINOSAURS: A Minature Guide to the Dinosaur Kingdom by Donald F. Glut (Nature Company / Running Press, Philadelphia, 1993) Size: 2.75” x 3.25”. History. Read June 3.

The Story of Christmas by Jennifer Greenway (Ariel Books / Andrews & MacMeel, Kansas City, 1994). Size: 3.25” x 4”. Religion. Read June 18.

SPUDS by Robert F. Hanson (Signed. Opuscula Press, Mattituck, New York, 1979,  49/300). Size: 2-1/8” x 2-7/8”. Non-fiction. Read June 2.

OF COLOR: POETS' WAYS OF MAKING edited by Amanda Galvan Huynh & Luisa A. Igloria (The Operating System, New York, 2019). Poetry/poetics. Read June 10. A wonderful, educational read.

THE DESERT by Robinson Jeffers (Dawson’s Book Shop, Los Angeles, 1976). Size: 2” x 2.75”. Poetry. Read June 10.

IF: A Special Poem by Rudyard Kipling (Great Pacific Book Co., Ventura, CA, 2005). Poetry. Read June 22.

Poetry for Children, facsimile reproduction of work bby Charles  and Mary Lamb (Dawson’s Book Shop, Los Angeles, 1982.  Ed 150). Size: 2” x 2-7/8”. Poetry. Read June 17.

DIPPA, KIPPA, LEEPA by John P. Lathourakis (Tabula Rasa Press, Pasadena, CA 1981). Size: 2” x 2”. Fiction. Read June 1.

The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (in slipcase Silver Thimble Books, Bexhill-on-Sea, England, 1985. 30/50. Signed by Gordon Murray). Size: 1-5/8” x 2-1/8”. Poetry. Read June 8.

Lying Like Presidents: New & Selected Poems 2001-2019 by Djelloul Marbrook (Leaky Boot Press, East Yorkshire, U.K., 2019). Poetry. Read June 22. Worthwhile reading from a seasoned poet.

COVENT GARDEN by Henry Mayhew  (in slipcase Silver Thimble Books, Bexhill-on-Sea, England, 1983). Size: 1-5/8” x 2”. Non-fiction. Read June 22.

Why Miniature Books (Dallas Public Library, Nov. 3, 1976. Published on the occasion of miniature books from the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Marcus). Non-Fiction/Exhibition Catalogue. Read June 21.

Golden Milk by Sheila E. Murphy (Luna Bisonte Productions, 2020). Poetry. Read June 18-21. Sheila E. Murphy is one of the most talented contemporary poets about. I read this book in manuscript in order to provide a "blurb" and here it is:

In many cases and as aided by an in-beat lyricism, the silk of Sheila E. Murphy’s poems offers transparency through a lack of punctuation especially ending punctuations like periods. How appropriate given how she carves out new doors for readers’ imaginations, e.g. “any time you walk vocabulary words down lanes the empty sidelines shepherd riverways where livestock and the sunlight chasten quietude”—as in quietude being the opposite of continued engagement by and with those “vocabulary words.” When “vocabulary” becomes an adjective of “words,” one notices how words don’t need to rest in static definitions but can point to new ways to engage—a basic purpose to poetry if expanding vocabulary is a means for acquiring knowledge. These turns to exploring, rather, re-exploring language as a haunting—“my window is a syllable at least one time”—are illuminating, steeped as they are by experience and maturity. Sheila Murphy is incandescent through a prolonged and “effervescent fealty” to poesis that melts previously-defined words into something ineffable but so discernibly sweet: “Memory differs from reasoning. Trees pruned allow in light I know by heart.”

NATURE: An Illustrated Book of Quotations (The Nature Company/Running Press, Philadelphia, 1992). Size: 2.75” x 3.25”. Quotations. Read June 3.

NATURE: An Illustrated Book of Quotations (The Nature Company/Running Press, Philadelphia, 1992). Size: 2.75” x 3.25”. Quotations. Read June 4.

Santa’s Surprises by Ernest Nister (pop-up book, Philomel Books, New York, 1992). Size: 3.25” x 3.25”. Children's Literature. Read June 28.

WITE OUT by Linda Norton (Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, 2020). Poetry/Memoir. Read 5-20-6/5. Outstanding work!

TURTLES In Fact, Folklore, and Myth by Richard E. Nicholls (Nature Company / Running Press, Philadelphia, 1993) Size: 2.75” x 3.25”. Non-fiction. Read June 4.

THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON (from the Diary of Samuel Pepys) (Poole Press, 1985. 2 copies. signed). Size: 2-1/8” x 2-7/8”. Memoir. Read June 9-12.

Golem Soveticus: Prigov as Brecht and Warhol in One Persona by Aleksandr Skidan (Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, 2020). Poetry/poetics. Read June 18.

Bark If You Love Santa based on book by Dodie Smith (A Golden Book / Western Publishing Co., Racine, Wisconsin, 1996). Children's Literature. Read June 18.

The Innocent Eye by Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Love Peacock (in slipcase. Silver Thimble Books, Bexhill-on-Sea, England, 1987. 21/32. Signed by Gordon Murray). Size: 2” x 2.5”. Poetry. Read June 8.

Alas, in Lilliput by Thomas Burnett Swann  (Achille J. St. Onge, Worcester, 1964). Size: 1-75” x 2.5”. Poetry. Read June 9.

A Piece of Straw attributed to Minamoto Takakuni (Tabula Rasa Press, Pasadena, 195. 42/400). Size: 1-3/8” x 2.75”. Fiction. Read June 2.

To the Bone by Angela Narciso Torres (Sundress Publications, 2019). Poetry. Read June 5.

Second Factory, Issue One (Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, 2020). Poetry/poetics. Read June 18.

The Little Red Schoolhouse by probably Josephine E. Watt (Homemade). Size: 2" x 2.75". Fiction. Read June 13. Contains the story "Mr. Phillips is Annoyed".

turpentine by Mark Young (Luna Bisonte Prods, 2020). Poetry. Read June 27. Outstanding work.

NATURE GAMES by Steven Zorn (Nature Company / Running Press, Philadelphia, 1993) Size: 2.75” x 3.25”. Non-fiction. Read June 4.

Thirty-Odd Functions of Voice in the Poetry of Alice Notley by Steven Zultanski (Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, 2020). Poetry/poetics. Read June 18.