The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer

294 Pages·1998·7.8 MB·English

by  Jack Spicer

THE HOUS E THAT JACK BUILT

THE HOUS E
THAT JAC K BUIL T
The Collected Lectures
of Jack Spicer
Edited and with an Afterword by
Peter Gizzi
Published by
W E S T, F , Y A N U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
Middletown, Connecticut
Published by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, OT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wesprcss
'£ 1998 by Peter Ci//i and the Estate of Jaek Spieer
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2
CIP data appear at the end of the book
Acknowledgment of (Copyrighted Material
"'I wo Presentations," by Robert Duncan, from Roofs and branches. Copyright © 1964 by Robert Dun-
can. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Cor]').
Excerpts are reprinted from The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, Volum e Three, 1939—
1962, edited by I'm i Hunt, with the permission of the publishers, Stanford Universit y Press.
Copyright £) 1995 by the Board of Trustees of the I,eland Stanford Junior University.
"O Taste and See," by Denise Eevertov, from Poems 1960—1967. Copyright !£) 1964 by Dei use Ecver-
to\r. Reprinted b\ permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Excerpts from The Collected Books of Jack Spieer, edited by Robin Blaser, copyright ® 1975
by the Estate of Jack Spieer, arc reprinted with the permission of Black Sparrow Press.
Excerpts from One /Y/gfc / Stand C ? Other Poems, copyright: CO 1980 by the Estat e of Jack
Spieer, are reprinted by permission of Grey Eox Press.
Uneolleeted and unpublished material s by Jack Spieer arc printed with the permission of
Robin Blaser, literary executor of the Estate oi Jack Spieer.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to The American Poetry Review and Boxkite, in which parts
of this book first appeared.
Frontispiece photo of Jack Spieer courtesy of the I lelcn Adam Collection, State University of
New York at Buffalo.
This is the melancholy Dane
That built all the houses that lived in the lane
Across from the house that Jack built.
This is the maiden all forlorn, a
crumpled cow and a crumpled horn
Who lived in the house that Jack built.
This is the crab-god shiny and bright
who sunned by clay and wrote by night
And lived in the house that Jack built.
This is the end of it, very dear friend, this
is the end of us.
— JACK SPICE R
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for Robin Blaser
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CONTENTS
Preface Acknowledgments x i
A Note on the Text xii i
Key xvi i
Introduction xi x
VANCOUVER LECTUR E 1 1
Dictation and "A Textbook of Poetry"
VANCOUVER LECTUR E 2 4 9
The Serial Poem and The Holy Grail
VANCOUVER LECTUR E 3 9 7
Poetry in Process and Book of Magazine Verse
C A L I E O R N I A LECTUR E 14 9
Poetrv and Politics
AFTERWORD 17 3
Jack Spicer and the Practice of Reading
APPENDIX
Uncollected Prose and Final Interview 22 7
Bibliography and Works Cited 24 5
Index 25 1