IN LONDON

Creeley’s chapbook In London was printed by Andrew Hoyem and Robert Graborn in San Francisco in 1970. Edwin and Robert Grabhorn’s allusive typography (after Bruce Rogers) became a sensation in the Bay Area and beyond. When the elder brother retired from printing, the younger went into business with Hoyem, and for a few years produced books under the Grabhorn-Hoyem imprint. Creeley’s book was published by Anne Waldman and Lewis Warsh’s Angel Hair Books, which I usually associate with the mimeograph rather than the fancy deluxe editions that Hoyem went on to produce at his own Arion Press after he absorbed much of the Grabhorn Brothers' type, so to my mind, In London represents a fascinating moment where three generations (Grabhorn 70; Creeley 44; Hoyem 30; and Warsh & Waldman only in their mid-20s) of printers/publishers with very distinct values and approaches to publishing and design.

The format is large; nice big type with generous margins that accommodate the snapshot observations and thoughts of the poet:

“EAT ME”

The favorite delicious dates.

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Girls

Girls

Girls

Girls

2x2

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Some guy here inside wandering around with ladder and bucket. Meanwhile the scaffolding being built goes on and on, more secure.

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Like German’s poem I once translated, something about “when I kissed you, a beam came through the room. When I picked you flowers, they took the whole house away.” Sort of an ultimate hard-luck story.

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Lovely roofs outside.

Some of the best roofs in London.

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Surrounded

by bad art.

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In London later appeared in A Day Book, a temporal experiment in various journalistic forms. Thanks to Jed for generously sending a copy my way.

This would be a good time to mention that issue number 5 of Mimeo Mimeo will be out this summer and issue number 6, focusing exclusively on the life and work of Lewis Warsh, will appear in the winter. Copies of number 4 are running thin.

—KS