CHANGES Vol. 1 Number 1. July 1963

NY: Change Publications, 1963. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Near Fine. CHANGES, about which little information is available aside from its contributors, was apparently a short-lived literary journal of the avant-garde printed in the lower East Side community in the early 1960s, which featured the early work of poets, philosophers and composers some of whom went on to have long and influential careers. This copy is Volume 1, Number 1 July 1963; we could find no record of subsequent editions. Paper covers with a graphic design in black and red, 20 pages, unpaginated, measures approx 7 x 8.5", reproduced from typewriter pages with spacing arranged in a graphic style. We presume the poems and compositions make their first (in some cases only) appearance here. A Bibliography of Contributors in the rear of the booklet describes the contributors. The most well-known is poet Jerome Rothenberg, who has a 4-page poem called "Preliminaries / From a Journal" which is not recorded in Harry Polkinhorn's 1988 descriptive bibliography of Rothenberg's writings. Rothenberg (1931 - 2024) had a long career as poet, anthropologist and translator, perhaps best known for his 1967 work "Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries From Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania." According to his obituary in The New York Times, Rothenberg brought "English-language readers into contact with creative traditions far outside the Western establishment - a field he called ethnopoetics - (and) had an enormous impact on world literature and made him a hero to rock musicians like Nick Cave, Jim Morrison and Warren Zevon." Angus MacLise (1938 - 1979) was a percussionist, composer, poet, occultist and calligrapher, known as the first drummer for the Velvet Underground. He contributed a 5-line "poem" which is a stanza from "Orfeo" MacLise had been a member of La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music in the Lower East Side. In this publication, Young publishes a brief composition; Young (b 1935), composer, musician, and performance artist, is recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best known for his exploration of sustained tones, beginning with his 1958 composition Trio for Strings. CVJ Anderson (described as a "deadbeat" in the list of contributors), was part of the cadre of performance artists, composers and artists who performed at Yoko Ono's Chamber Street apartment in the early 60s. Anderson has two poems (although the table of contents says three): "Tropical Poem" and "Jacksonville in August". Louis Gallo, we presume, is Professor at Radford University where he teaches creative writing and modern and contemporary literature. Four volumes of his poetry, "Archaeology, Scherzo Furiant, Crash and Clearing the Attic" are in print. Clauss Stamm, described as living in Japan in the bios, is apparently the author of juvenile books on Japanese culture and mythology. One of his poems here is "Girl in Kimono". Peter Pllafian was published here for the first time; we could find no record that he was published again. We speculate Charles Ponceis likely the author of books on I Ching and Kabbalah. As for editor Tracy McCallum he is self described in the bio list as "unknown & not published'; indeed. So uncommon is this avant-garde pamphlet we could find no listing for it in OCLC.