C: A Journal of Poetry, complete run includes vol. 1, no. 1–vol. 2, no. 14 (May 1963–1967).
Item #510
Side-stapled, 13 issues (no. 12 was not produced). C, a mimeographed magazine from Ted Berrigan’s C Press, borrowed the production example of the recently published one-off magazine, The Censored Review, and featured the work of the editor and his Tulsa friends, now based in New York: Dick Gallup, Ron Padgett, and Joe Brainard. Berrigan wrote in 1964:
“… the first issue of ‘C’ was deliberately put together by me to reflect the SIMILARITY of the poetry, since I felt the differences to be obvious, and the NEWNESS of such a point of view as we (I) had…(Where I got the title is a secret, but it really isn’t). (I wanted a name without connotations and so, while thinking about Marcel Duchamp, one day said to myself, ‘A’ ‘B’ ‘C’ ‘Voila!’ and there is was. ‘C’ ‘SEE’ ‘SEA’ ‘C# #(AD INFINITUM)’.).”
C, no. 4 was the Edwin Denby issue, which features a silk-screened cover (front and back) by Andy Warhol. The process of making the cover for this issue signifies an important moment in the history of Warhol’s craft; it was the first time the artist used Polaroid photographs as the basis for his silkscreen portraits. (For a detailed discussion on this matter see Reva Wolf, Andy Warhol, Poetry, and Gossip in the 1960s.) Berrigan continues:
“Andy made a silkscreen of two of the photos, and supervised its application on to the paper, while it was applied in turn by me, Gerry [Malanga], Pat Padgett, Sandy [Berrigan], most of the covers being done by Pat. The idea was for every cover to be different, to utilize inexperience to produce ‘happenings.’ ” (Ted Berrigan. "Some Notes about 'C.'" Unpublished manuscript, May 1964.)
Contributors to the magazine include John Ashbery, Joseph Ceravolo, John Wieners, Lorenzo Thomas, Barbara Guest, Kenward Elmslie, Frank O’Hara, LeRoi Jones, Harry Fainlight, Ruth Krauss, Gerard Malanga, Harry Mathews, James Schuyler, Edwin Denby, Frank Lima, Tom Veitch, Tony Towle, John Perrault, Ed Sanders, Peter Orlovsky, David Shapiro, Kenneth Koch, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, John Stanton, Jerome Rothenberg, Aram Saroyan, John Giorno, Gregory Corso, and Ken Weaver, among others.
Vol. 1, no. 7 features a cover and a five-page suite of mimeographed prints by Joe Brainard, who provided covers for many other issues. Ron Padgett edited vol. 2, no. 13, which includes a number of translations of Reverdy, Soupault, Apollinaire, and Jacob, and a cover by Joe Brainard. Vol. 2, no. 12 was not produced. Vol. 2, no. 14 is titled Behind the Wheel by Michael Brownstein and has a cover by Alex Katz.
This set was compiled by Ron Padgett; most issues are signed by him. C is very rare as a complete run and this set, overall, is in near fine condition. Details available upon request.
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