The Collected Books of Jack Spicer first appeared in 1975, ten years after the death of
Jack Spicer. It was "edited & with a commentary by
Robin Blaser" and published in
Santa Rosa, California by
Black Sparrow Press. A primary document of the
San Francisco Renaissance, The Collected Books of Jack Spicer has arguably reached the status of a twentieth century "classic" and helped to define an emerging countertradition to the prevailing literary establishment.[citation needed] Since this edition has gone out of print, it has been updated, revised and republished as My Vocabulary Did This To Me. The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, Edited by
Peter Gizzi and
Kevin Killian (Wesleyan University Press, 2008).
Contents of The Collected Books of Jack Spicer
The contents page of The Collected Books of Jack Spicer (Fifth Printing, 1996) is divided into four sections:
First (1) section
Reprints twelve books of poetry composed between 1957-1965 and in (for the most part) chronological order.
(Only the title is listed on the contents page. However, each title page itself lists a date and, in some cases, a subtitle. These are shown below)
Book of Magazine Verse, (Poems: "for The Nation", "for Poetry Chicago",
"for Tish", "for Ramparts", "for The St. Louis Sporting News",
"for the Vancouver Festival", "for Downbeat"), (no date follows)
Second (2) section
"The Practice of Outside", an essay by Robin Blaser.
Third (3) section
"Poems & Documents" which lists the following:
Imaginary Elegies I-VI
The Unvert Manifesto
Song for Bird and Myself
Poem to the Reader of the Poem
"Poetry as Magic" Workshop Questionnaire
The Trojan Wars Reviewed: A Capitulation
Troy Poem
Fourth (4) section
"Bibliography of First Editions"
Further reading
A Book Of Correspondences For Jack Spicer. Edited By David Levi Strauss and Benjamin Hollander. San Francisco: A Journal of Acts (#6) (1987) (this is a collection of essays, poetry and documents celebrating Spicer).
The Collected Books of Jack Spicer. Edited and with commentary by Robin Blaser. Santa Rosa, Calif.: Black Sparrow Press, 1975.
The House that Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer, ed. Peter Gizzi - Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.
My vocabulary did this to me. The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, Edited by Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian, Wesleyan University Press, 2008.
Ellingham, Lew, and Kevin Killian. Poet Be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1998.
Foster, Edward Halsey. Jack Spicer, Boise, Idaho : Boise State University, c1991