Vort - Nos.1-8 [Nathaniel Tarn's Copies]
![Vort - Nos.1-8 [Nathaniel Tarn's Copies]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/794/889/1716889794.0.x.jpg)
- Silver Spring, MD: Barry Alpert, 1972-1975
Silver Spring, MD: Barry Alpert, 1972-1975. First Editions. Eight quarto issues (28cm); mimeographed and offset-printed sheets, alternately saddle-stiched, stapled, and prefectbound into decorative card wrappers. This set is from the library of noted poet, translator, and anthropologist Nathaniel Tarn (1928-2024), with his penciled name appearing on the contents leaf of No.1, and a few issues bearing his light penciled marks in the margins. Issue No.3 has been lengthily inscribed to Tarn by editor Barry Alpert, who has also inscribed Nos.5 and 7; issue No.6 has been inscribed by Alpert to Hugh Kenner on the inner front cover. No.6 shows some modest toning and dust-soil to spine and covers, though clean internally; Very Good+. Remaining issues show light wear to extremities, a few faint surface scratches to front cover of No.1; Near Fine overall.
A near-complete run (lacking only the final issue) of Barry Alpert's short-lived little magazine published out of Silver Spring, Maryland. "For all but one of its nine issues, Vort followed the same pattern in its plain, large-format issues, creating a little critical universe for each of two authors...Perhaps more of an encyclopedia in parts than a magazine or journal, the issues included a photograph of each author, a small collection of each author's work, three or four critical studies, homages, commentaries, and long and detailed interviews with each author by editor Alpert...Vort is an unfortunately unfinished encyclopedia of the New American Poetry, but is still very useful for the information it contains and still important "for those to whom criticism is a fine art" (Clay & Phillips, p.245). Contributors include Ed Dorn, Tom Raworth, Anselm Hollo, Ted Berrigan, David Bromige, Ken Irby, Fielding Dawson, Jonathan Williams, Robert Kelly, David Antin, Jerome Rothenberg, Jackson Mac Low, and Armand Schwerner.
A near-complete run (lacking only the final issue) of Barry Alpert's short-lived little magazine published out of Silver Spring, Maryland. "For all but one of its nine issues, Vort followed the same pattern in its plain, large-format issues, creating a little critical universe for each of two authors...Perhaps more of an encyclopedia in parts than a magazine or journal, the issues included a photograph of each author, a small collection of each author's work, three or four critical studies, homages, commentaries, and long and detailed interviews with each author by editor Alpert...Vort is an unfortunately unfinished encyclopedia of the New American Poetry, but is still very useful for the information it contains and still important "for those to whom criticism is a fine art" (Clay & Phillips, p.245). Contributors include Ed Dorn, Tom Raworth, Anselm Hollo, Ted Berrigan, David Bromige, Ken Irby, Fielding Dawson, Jonathan Williams, Robert Kelly, David Antin, Jerome Rothenberg, Jackson Mac Low, and Armand Schwerner.