Jonathan Williams - Unoriginal Sins

STRAWBERRY HILL IN 5 VISUAL POEMS. 1986.

paul robertson — Tue, 24 Jun 1986 14:12:38 +0000

Minneapolis : Phil Gallo at the Hermetic Press, 1986
28 x 40cm, yellow printed folder in the form of an envelope content of 5 "visual poems" on various papers:

1) A Discrete Sign on the Steinway., by Jonathan Williams. One of 130 copies.

2) My Lipstick.from His Lips.To Your Teeth, by Phil Gallo, edition limited to 100 copies.

3) EMPO POEM, by Karl Kempton, edition limited to 100 copies

4) Language, by Scott Helmes, edition limited to 100 copies

and Finlay's contribution:

5) Strawberry Hill "Precipices, Mountains.," by Ian Hamilton Finlay, edition limited to 140 copies. 35.5 x 17cm, 1pp. The print is a letterpress on deckled paper - which quotes Horace Walpole on his intent to create a "little Gothic Castle at Strawberry Hill". Below that quotation is a further quotation from Walpole (the son of the then British Prime Minister) describing the environment on Strawberry Hill namely "Precipices, mountains, torrents, wolves, rumblings" and the below that a final pairing of "Wild cats, Corsairs..." which are the names of carrier-borne aircraft from the Second World War. Finlay seems to be comparing the wilds of Walpoles imaginings to the fires of the weapons of an aircraft carrier. A carrier after all is a wild hill on the sea.

This is one of two colour variants of the outer envelope - there was also a light green version.

Wikipedia explains that "Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is the Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London by Horace Walpole from 1749 onward. It is the type example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture, and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival." Walpole was also the author of ‘The Castle of Otranto’, the world’s first Gothic novel. Finlay's work might be seen as a word picture of Gothic landscape.

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THE MAGPIE’S BAGPIPE. 1982

paul robertson — Sun, 19 Sep 1982 15:55:15 +0000

San Francisco North Point Press, 1982

22.5 x 15cm, 186pp plus card covers. First edition of this Jonathan Williams' selected essays on poet which include Charles Olson, Mina Loy, Lorine Neidecker, Bucky Fuller, Lyle Borge, Aaron Siskind and Ian Hamilton Finlay "Being a wee introduction to the Scot's Poet". VG+.

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POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 25 ONE WORD POEMS. 1967.

paul robertson — Sun, 15 Oct 1967 15:35:25 +0000

Stoneypath; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1967

26 x 21cm, 8pp. The final number of Finlay’s poetry publication. Design and calligraphy by Jim Nicholson. Contributions from Ronald Johnson, Edwin Morgan, George Mackay Brown, Eli Siegel, Jerome Rothenberg, Alkman (translated by Guy Davenport), Hugh Creighton Hill, Stuart Mills, Pedro Xista, Alan Riddell, Martin Seymour-Smith, Kenelm Cox, Giles Gordon, Douglas Young, Edward Lucie-Smith, Stephen Bann, Dick Sheeler, Astrid Gillis, Oswald de Andrade, Ernst Jandl, Gael Turnbull, Aram Saroyan, Jonathan Williams and Ian Hamilton Finlay. VG+.

Finlay whilst not inventing the One Word Poem format certainly helped popularise it - he uses the format in a number of his artist's books. The last poems in this publication are by Finlay and include some of his best known works reformatted in to such a form.

A SEE-SAW

_________

SEA

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POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 16. STICKS STONES NAMES BONES. 1965.

paul robertson — Sat, 20 Mar 1965 13:55:04 +0000

Ardgay, Ross-shire; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1965

26 x 21cm, 8pp. The sixteenth number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Pierre Albert-Birot (translated by Barbara Wright), Enrique Uribe, Francis Ponge (translated by D.M. Black), Ernst Jandl, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Eli Siegel, Tristan Tzara (translated by John Adlard), Herman Hesse (translated by Lesley Lendrum), Barry Cole, Jonathan Williams, Edward Wright and Spike Hawkins. The entire number was designed by hand with woodcuts and hand-written typography by Edward Wright. VG+ condition Scarce.

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POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 8. 1963. WITH ONE OF FINLAY’S EARLIEST CONCRETE POEMS.

paul robertson — Thu, 15 Aug 1963 10:18:40 +0000

Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1963
30 x 21cm, 4pp. The eighth number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Ian Hamilton Finlay, Peter Stitt, Yury Pankratov (translated by Edwin Morgan), Andrei Voznesensky (translated by Edwin Morgan and Anselm Hollo), El Lissitsky, A. Khlebnikov (translated by J.F. Hendry and Edwin Morgan), Spike Hawkins, Jonathan Williams, Alexander Tvardovskii (translated by J.F. Hendry), and Mary Ellen Solt.

This was the first number of POTH to publish Finlay’s own concrete poems – the work is Homage to Malevich – where a text block made up of combinations of the words LACK BLOCK and BLACK create a rectangle which is reflected in a drawing below (by Peter Stitt from Finlay’s instructions). This work is published in other books by Finlay including Rapel. A significant section of the pages in this number are dedicated to Russian avant garde writers – mostly translated in part by Edwin Morgan and the number is dedicated to the memory of those writers including Malevich.

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POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 3. 1962.

paul robertson — Sat, 03 Feb 1962 09:29:05 +0000

Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1962

30 x 21cm, 4pp. The third number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Robert Garioch, Jonathan Williams, Guillaume Apollinaire (translated by Dave Ball), César Lopez Nunez (translated by Jim Haynes); Larry Eigner, R. Crombie Saunders, Libby Houston, Edwin Morgan; Giacomo Leopardi (translated by Edwin Morgan); and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. As usual bits of Scots find themselves near more modern American poems. This is an extremely hard to find early number of this international review - hardly any exist on the open market. This example has been folded once for storage but is overall VG.

Batterday comes roun at last,

tairget of the five-day week,

jist in time to dip your wick;

whitna wey of life is this?

Robert Garioch: Scunner.

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