The Maser buy was in fact very good. Next day I went out to GH's and picked up some
of his books. GH is a retired bookbuyer with excellent taste. Eight boxes. Maser's books
are of the small press variety. Poets that you'd see in the mimeo/xerox years, from Padgett
to Eileen Myles, beats, d.a. levy if we're lucky. GH is more Larkin, Geoffrey Hill, with some
social theory, some philosophy, some high-minded poetics.

Boxes of books! If the store doesn't fill up with pointy-headed-intellectuals from out of town
this could be a depressing summer. But it usually does.

Ran into James Meetzle of Tougher Disguises Press, passing through Berkeley on his way from San Diego (home) to the Pac. No-West. He has in his possesion many unpublished poems by James Schuyler, & will be editing a collection at some point. Asked him to come to the store sometime (soon!) to give a talk on Schuyler and read some of the poems.

Pimmie (more on Pimmie later) is writing an oral history of the (dying?) bay area (esp. East Bay) used book culture. She's interviewing all the stars of the "industry". I've had my say (check out her blog, incububula). She's also interviewed Old Dan, Robert E. and Bruno (more later). With the death of nearly every new indy bookstore in the bay area (& the used bookstores struggling) this could be a major work about a dead culture.

People who had the good taste to come to my reading Monday with Amy Spade:

Micah Ballard, Jeff Butler, Patrick Donagan....and of course skads more.

Amy has amazing chops. A great reading.

An email from JM: he has 4 boxes of the best used poetry he's eveer offered the
store. His books are usually very good, this could be fun. He'll be in tonight.

The people from the west West Coast Print Center are leaving the East Bay. Over the years they've printed books for lots of small presses, including a couple of my books. My favorite library call partner is A the punk. He picked me up in the Moe's van (I hate to do the driving. That van is a death trap!) and, after a couple of wrong turns, we arrived at the storage space, out near Jack London Square.

Mostly fodder (footnote: fodder--useful, sellable books with no collector's value. Examples: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Marx, Joy of Cooking...). A bit of a slog, lots of boxes. I could take a nap and do the buy at the same time. A the punk is thinking hard about lunch, I can tell. It's getting late, too.

Long about the 13th box I hit on a stack of Kelsey Street Press books (take note, poetry fans). Barbara Guest, Dale Going, Mei-Mei Brussenbrugge ( I love typing her name), illustrations by Kiki Smith. I'm not a Kiki Smith fan, think of her the same way that I think of Anaheim, California. Why the fuck is there an Anaheim, anyway? The world doesn't need one. Kiki, though, has a big following, and I'm not paid to be an art critic. These books will be of interest to legions of small press fans. Tomorrow night I'll put them on the poetry cart, second floor.

Pam is interviewing used book people for her blog (and a possible book). My interview is the first one up. I sound pretty articulate. Good editing, I guess.

The Poetry Buyer

I buy small press books, mostly poetry, for Moe's in Berkeley. This blog will mostly
concern that ,with some small reviews and a little gossip thrown in.