EPHEMERIS (COMPLETE RUN, ISSUES 1-3) by SCHAFF, David (Editor) - [1960s]

San Francisco: Ephemeris, Cranium Press (Issue 2), no date [ca. 1960s]. First edition, original wrappers. Corner left staple for 1 and 2; issue three in newspaper format. Not in Clay & Phillips; Hart; or Butterick. Some fading to the cover of issue 1, minute chip to the back cover corner of issue 2, else all issues very good.

Ephemeris provides some insight into the magazine scene that developed in and around Jack Spicer's San Francisco. Throughout all three issues, poems are dedicated to Spicer and written in the Spicerian manner. Poets who played in Spicer's shadows, like Ellingham, Persky and Stanley, are represented throughout its pages, as is Frank O'Hara, Ebbe Borregaard, Joanne Kyger, and Charles Olson.

Ephemeris II features a map on the cover and Issue one has an astrological chart. The magazine is truly a chart and a map of late 1960s San Francisco and the vestiges of the Spicer Circle (Birmingham).

For example, Ephemeris features several advertisements for what is now a lost book culture: Serendipity and Dave Haselwood Books for example. This is why Ephemeris is so important: it documents an ephemeral scene that is fading away. The third issue switches to a newspaper format with pieces on Merlin, the Birth of Venus and the Apocalypse accompanied by numerous illustrations and drawings by Robert LaVigne and Daniel Moore.