Black Sparrow Press collection

MS 538
In a black and white image, writer Charles Bukowski has his arm around actor Mickey Rourke. The two are gesturing and smiling.

Photograph of Charles Bukowski and Mickey Rourke on the set of Barfly, 1987; box 189, folder 3.

Collection area: Literature

Collection dates: 1966-1994 bulk (bulk 1973-1993)

About this collection

The collection is arranged in chronological order, following the order of publication in Bradford Morrow and Seamus Cooney’s 1981 work, A Bibliography of the Black Sparrow Press, 1966-1978. John Martin sold his archive to several university libraries: the University of Alberta (Edmonton) has works one to fifty, Pennsylvania State University (Pittsburg) holds works fifty one to one hundred fifty, the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) acquired works one fifty one to one sixty two, one sixty four to one ninety eight, two hundred to two hundred seven, two hundred nine to two hundred twelve, two hundred twenty seven, two hundred thirty eight, and two hundred fifty. The University of Arizona owns works missing from New Mexico’s one hundred sixty three to two hundred forty nine sequence, as well as works two hundred fifty to five hundred nine. Martin sold the reminder files to the University of California Berkeley, who holds works published during 1992 to 2002, Black Sparrow Press’ last decade.

Files for each work in the collection include correspondence from authors and others involved in their production (very few instances of responses from John Martin or anyone else at Black Sparrow Press are included), layout materials and artwork, original manuscripts, revisions and proofs, and all hardcovers and softcover issues for each title.

Aside from correspondence directly related with each of the works, the collection includes general correspondence received by John Martin (again, with very few responses by the publisher) that deal with simple business transactions and that sometimes have attached manuscripts from authors hoping to catch Martin’s attention.

The Press produced two works, Paul Outerbridge’s Singular Aesthetic and Harvey Mudd’s The Plain of Smokes, as part of the Arabesque Books imprint, the trade name used by Black Sparrow Press to publish art books and catalogue resumes. Oversized materials include Robert Crumb’s Comics, Bukowski’s artwork for Septuagenarian Stew and Hollywood, original serigraph prints by Ken Price from Harvey Mudd’s The Plain of Smokes, and others.

Historical background

John Martin founded Black Sparrow Press in 1966, using proceeds from the sale of his personal book collection and with the goal of publishing the work of Charles Bukowski, whom Martin believed in and considered “the new Walt Whitman.” The Press, based out of California, started out as a side job for then office supply manager Martin. By 1972, Martin purchased a print shop in Santa Barbara and devoted himself full-time to the endeavor; in 1986, the Press moved north to Santa Rosa. The rest of the Black Sparrow Press staff included Barbara Martin, who designed over 700 of the book jackets, and typographer Graham Mackintosh, who remained in charge of printing for most of the 36 years that the independent publisher was in business.

Following the publication of its first broadsides by Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press focused on the publication of contemporary, avant-garde literature. Starting with Black Mountain Poets Robert Creeley, Edward Dorn, and Larry Eigner, it followed with young authors from the New York City area, including Diane Wakoski and Clayton Eshleman. There were also West Coast poets Michael McClure, David Bromige, and David Meltzer, and others like Gerard Malanga, James Tate, and Wanda Coleman. Among the prose authors published are Fielding Dawson, James Purdy, and Paul Goodman.

Martin’s business strategy was to issue expensive limited-edition letterpress hardbacks that would produce a profit, followed by economical and more popular paperbacks that faithful readers could purchase. Black Sparrow Press published on average 10 to12 books a year: first limited editions sported title pages in color and all printings afterwards were done in black and white. Refusing to fund himself through grants, Martin relied on sales to stay afloat and sold carefully maintained archives to university special collections when in need of funds. In the beginning, Black Sparrow Press sold its books to independent bookstores, and editions in those years reached around 3,000; over time, however, 80% of printings went to Barnes and #38; Noble, Borders, and Ingram, leading to editions of 15,000 per book. In 2002, Martin retired from publishing, selling the rights of 49 titles to HarperCollins’ imprint, Ecco Press. The remaining inventory went to Boston-based publisher, David R. Godine, who continues to sell reprints of the works under the name Black Sparrow Books.

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