Clayton Eshleman (editor) - A Sulfur Anthology

A Sulfur ANTHOLOGY

A Sulfur ANTHOLOGY

Edited by CLAYTON ESHLEMAN

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

Middletown, Connecticut

Wesleyan University Press

Middletown CT 06459

www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

2015 Wesleyan University Press

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Typeset in Arnhem by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

Publication of this book is funded by the

Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at

the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A Sulfur anthology / [edited by] Clayton Eshleman.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8195-7394-0 (cloth: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8195-7531-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8195-7532-6 (ebook)

1. Literature, Experimental. 2. LiteratureCollections.

I. Eshleman, Clayton, editor. II. Title.

PN6014. S7636 2015

808.8dc23

5 4 3 2 1

Cover illustration: The Melting Glacier, 1980-2000, Peru, oil on linen, 100x70 cm, 2006. Copyright Irving Petlin. Photo by Yves Langlois.

Publication of this book is funded by the

BEATRICE FOX AUERBACH FOUNDATION FUND

at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I had been talking with Jerry Rothenberg and Robert Kelly, among others, about the need for another Caterpillar-like magazine that would engage multiple aspects of innovative contemporary poetry in the context of international modernism. Because the California Institute of Technology is primarily dedicated to, and known for, research in science and engineering, I proposed in 1981, while Dreyfuss poet in residence and lecturer in creative writing, that a literary magazine, sponsored by the Humanities Division, would draw attention to the humanities at Cal Tech (I did this in somewhat the same spirit that Charles Olson, then rector, proposed to other faculty members at Black Mountain College in 1953 that a literary magazine might effectively advertise the nature of the colleges programs). Roger Noll, an economist who was then director of the Humanities Division at Cal Tech, liked my idea and arranged with President Goldberger for Sulfur to be supported initially for five years.

The word sulfur evokes the sulphur, a butterfly with black-bordered orange and yellow wings. On one level, the magazine is an evolution of Caterpillar. On other levels, the word denotes alchemical initiational combustion, and excited or inflamed language. The word was also attractive to me because it had not been used before as a literary magazine title. There is an extended note on the word at the beginning of Sulfur #24.

The magazine originally appeared three times a year but became a biannual in 1988. When Sulfur ended in 2000, its forty-six issues included more than eleven thousand pages of material with around eight hundred contributors, some two hundred of whom were foreign writers and artists. I began Sulfur with Robert Kelly as the sole contributing editor. Kelly disappeared due to a misunderstanding after the first issue appeared, and by the third issue, Michael Palmer, Jerry Rothenberg, and Eliot Weinberger had become contributing editors (they were joined by Rachel Blau DuPlessis in Sulfur #20; with issue #13 Jerry Rothenberg became a correspondent). The magazine was originally designed by Robin Palanker; with #8 Laurie Haycock took over design for six issues, followed by Barbara Martin. Throughout