If you look to the right you’ll see a new title under “Pages,” “Bob Grumman’s First Piece in SPR.” I no longer remember how I happened to get it onto the pages of Small Press Review, but I suspect it had to do with the openness to visual and related forms of poetry of SPR publisher, Len Fulton, because of his admiration for d. a. levy, and acquaintance with Karl Kempton. (Note to all you grad students of 2055 research this, the diary I was keeping at the time probably has much more to say about it, but I’m too lazy now to try to find it.)
I’m eternally grateful to Len for accepting my piece, though. Despite the fact that it didn’t do nearly as much for me as I thought it would. I thought it was a terrific piece about a fascinating subject. I further thought that being in Small Press Review, a much more recognized publication than any other I’d gotten (or would get) published in, would get me noticed by someone connected with an upscale magazine like The Atlantic, who–charmed by my style, and the subject of my essay–would persuade an editor of such a magazine to solicit me for a similar piece, which he thought would expand his readers’ horizons and give them a good deal of fun. What a laugh.
One good did come from my piece: Len accepted a short review of mine for his next issue, and not too long afterward, took me on as a contributing editor of a new venture he’d begun, Small Magazine Review. That didn’t get anywhere, so a year or so later he merged it with Small Press Review, keeping me on as a contributing editor, soon with a column in every issue (six a year). My next column will be my hundredth.
Note: I’m pleased to say that although I’d change five or six of the words in my piece, I still consider it one of my best, and certainly of greater value than anything by Vendler, Perloff, Bloom or any other certified critic of poetry our our time. (That may be why I’ve re-used huge chunks of it at least three times.)