Auerhahn Press was a publishing company in San Francisco between 1959 and 1965, founded by printer-poet Dave Haselwood. The company published many key poets of the

San Francisco Renaissance The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco, which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetry avant-garde in the 1950s. However, others (e.g., Alan Watt ...

. Stated in advertisements appearing in ''

Evergreen Review ''The Evergreen Review'' is a U.S.-based literary magazine. Its publisher is John Oakes and its editor-in-chief is Dale Peck. The ''Evergreen Review'' was founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 until ...

'', ''

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

'', ''City Lights Journal'' and ''Big Table'' magazines, the press's goal was “to re-marry good printing and writing,” and to this end the Auerhahn published 28 letterpress-printed titles between 1958 and 1964. Most were chapbooks handset by Haselwood, later with

Andrew Hoyem Andrew Lewison Hoyem (born 1 December 1935) is a typographer, letterpress printer, publisher, poet, and preservationist. He is the founder (in 1974) and was the director of Arion Press in San Francisco until his retirement in October 2018. Arion ...

, in a creative and subtle variety of fonts. Its first title was ''The Hotel Wentley Poems'' by John Wieners. The press was based in San Francisco and published the first books of many emerging and soon-to-be influential poets, including Wieners and

Lew Welch Lewis Barrett Welch Jr. (August 16, 1926 – May 23, 1971) was an American poet associated with the Beat generation literary movement. Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s. He taught a poetry workshop as part of the University o ...

. Its catalogue, uniformly out of print, included works by

Jack Spicer Jack Spicer (January 30, 1925 – August 17, 1965) was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'' won the American Book Award for poetry. ...

; Diane DiPrima;

Philip Lamantia Philip Lamantia (October 23, 1927 – March 7, 2005) was an American poet, writer and lecturer. His poetry incorporated stylistic experimentation and transgressive themes, and has been regarded as surrealist and visionary, contributing to the ...

;

Michael McClure Michael McClure (October 20, 1932 – May 4, 2020) was an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famo ...

;

Philip Whalen Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dalles f ...

; David Meltzer; William Everson (Brother Antoninus);

Charles Olson Charles John Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modernist United States poetry, American poet who was a link between earlier Literary modernism, modernist figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams an ...

; and the first edition of Exterminator, an early collaboration using the cut-up technique by

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major Postmodern literature, postmodern author who influen ...

and

Brion Gysin Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices. He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the ...

. These among others, were the “insurgent American writers” that the press detected in its search for the “bold, free and courageous in modern writing”. Thanks to the printer's touch as much as to the collaborative energies of artists like

Bruce Conner Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography. Biography Bruce Conner was born November 18, 1933, in McPherson, Kansas. His w ...

Ray Johnson Raymond Edward "Ray" Johnson (October 16, 1927 – January 13, 1995) was an American artist. Known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, he was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art and was described as < ...

, Robert LaVigne, Robert Ronnie Branaman and

Wallace Berman Wallace "Wally" Berman (February 18, 1926 – February 18, 1976) was an American experimental filmmaker, assemblage, and collage artist and a crucial figure in postwar California art. Personal life and education Wallace Berman was born in Stat ...

, the Auerhahn's books — and its ephemera — seemed to float in the shadows between high art and faded handbill. “The first & final consideration in printing poetry is the poetry itself,” Haselwood wrote in 1960. “If the poems are great they create their own space; the publisher is just a midwife during the final operation & if he has to do a lot of dirty work that’s the way it should be. Contrary to what a lot of people including publishers think, publishing is not a gentleman’s profession, it is the profession of a crook or a madman.” As the press grew influential, if not solvent, artistic conflict followed, most notably with DiPrima, Robert Duncan (who canceled his book in mid-production), early collaborator Jonathan Williams, and Spicer, who in an occasional poem dated October 1, 1962, wrote: “This is an ode to John Wieners and the Auerhahn Press / Who have driven me away from poetry like a fast car”. In 1964, Haselwood turned production and last rites of the Auerhahn Press over to his partner Andrew Hoyem and started Dave Haselwood Books.

Publications

* John Wieners, ''The Hotel Wentley Poems'', 1958. *

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and ...

and

, ''The Exterminator'', 1959. *

, ''Ekstasis'', 1959. *

, ''Self-Portrait, From Another Direction'', 1959. *

, ''Hymns to St. Geryon and Other Poems'', 1959 *

, ''Wobbly Rock'', 1960. *

, ''Memoirs of an Interglacial Age'', 1960. * Edward Marshall, ''Hellan, Hellan'', 1960. * David Page, ''Babywhipland'', 1961. *

, ''Dark Brown'', 1961. *

, ''Maximus, From Dogtown I'', 1961. * Paul Reps, ''Gold/Fish Signatures'', 1962. *

, ''Destroyed Works'', 1962. * David Meltzer, ''We All Have Something To Say To Each Other'', 1962. * Jonathan Williams, ''In England's Green & (A Garland and a Clyster)'', 1962. *

, ''The Wake'', 1963. *

Robin Blaser Robin Francis Blaser (May 18, 1925 – May 7, 2009) was an American-born Canadian playwright, poet, and translator. Personal background Born in Denver, Colorado, Blaser grew up in Idaho, and came to Berkeley, California, in 1944. There he met Ja ...

, ''Apparitors'', 1963. * Roxie Powell, ''Dreams of Straw'', 1963. * Bill Deemer, ''Poems'', 1964 * Jonathan Williams, ''Lines About Hills Above Lakes'', 1964. * David Meltzer, ''The Blackest Rose'', 1964. *

, ''Goddess'', 1964. *

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than 60 books. He is associated with the Black Mountain poets, although his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. Creeley was close with Charle ...

, ''Two Poems (Broadside)'', 1964. *

, ''Two for Bruce Connor'', 1964. * Josephine Miles, ''In Identity'', 1964. * Brother Antoninus, ''The Poet Is Dead'', 1964. *

, ''Human Universe and Other Essays'', 1965.

Publications

References

Further reading