I pretended that I was going to collect Jargon publications from 1951 to 1960 and then I ran up against the early Jargon titles. Not only are they beautiful and expensive, they are incredibly rare. Thankfully, the UB Poetry Collection has an incredible archive related to Jonathan Williams and Jargon Society. Years ago Rich Owens mined this rich vein for an issue of Jacket dedicated to Williams. Much more remains to be done.
Here is Jargon 5, Jonathan Williams' Four Stoppages. This particular copy is not only a Jargon stopper for its rarity (there were two hundred unnumbered copies), it is also a show stopper since in happens to be Robert Duncan and Jess's personal copy.
Four Stoppages is a single sheet that opens out accordion style into folio size pages . I could not manage to capture the full effect in a legible photograph. I also apparently cannot get the photo landscaped properly either. Deal with it. I totally did not expect to see it (although at UB I should have). With something this rare, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, photo documentation is going to be less than perfect.
JB
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