Trace, No. 51 (Winter 1963) – Extremes

Journal Issue

Published in Winter 1963, no. 51 of Trace gives readers several clear ways into the magazine. It contains 108 named pieces or sections, beginning with Metrics Revisited by Barney Childs, Prophecy and the Art of Language by Marvin Bell, and Towards Print by A. Fredric Franklyn. That opening offers a direct path through the issue, but it is not the only one. A reader can follow the printed order, pause over a familiar contributor, or start with a title that catches the eye. No special background is needed. The magazine explains itself gradually through the choices it makes and through the company each piece keeps.

Metrics Revisited by Barney Childs gives Trace no. 51 its clearest point of entry, while Prophecy and the Art of Language by Marvin Bell and Towards Print by A. Fredric Franklyn widen the issue’s field. Dated Winter 1963, this expansive number contains 111 pieces or named sections, moving between writing about literature, creative work, reviews, correspondence, and the everyday work of a little magazine. The order matters: recurring editorial features sit beside contributions with their own aims, so the magazine feels like an exchange among writers rather than a stack of unrelated pages. The reader’s edition makes that sequence easy to follow; the private source facsimile preserves the cover, page design, advertisements, visual material, and directory information that locate the writing in its first publication. Together, the reading edition and private source record show James Boyer May keeping a place for new writing while also showing how independent magazines found one another.

The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, A Student changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Complete Current Address List. The works differ in length, subject, and manner, yet their placement creates connections that a simple list of names cannot show. The pleasure comes from those changes. A short piece can clear the air after a longer one, a new voice can redirect the mood, and an unexpected title can make an earlier page look different when the reader thinks back to it.

The contributor list includes A. Fredric Franklyn, Alberta Turner, Alfred Dom, Alfred Dorn, Austin H Patty, Barney Childs, Barriss Mills, and Ben Tibbs, along with 81 additional contributors. Some readers will arrive looking for a particular name; others will meet these contributors here for the first time. Either approach works. The publication details add useful context: the issue was edited by James Boyer May, published by Villiers Publications Ltd., and issued from London, England; Hollywood, California (editorial office). A journal is also a made object, assembled by people deciding what to print, how to order it, and which voices should share a number. Reading from beginning to end lets those choices appear naturally.

The catalog subjects—Little magazines, Experimental literature, Poetry, Fiction, and Literary criticism—are useful starting points, especially for searching, but they do not set limits on what a reader may find. For a first visit, begin with Metrics Revisited by Barney Childs, turn next to A Student, and finish with Complete Current Address List. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 118 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 117 PDF pages. It keeps the contents in a stable, legible form and makes names and titles easier to find. A source facsimile remains part of the project’s private editorial record, but it is not included in the public upload. What appears here is the reading copy: a practical way to spend time with the issue and discover which pieces invite a return.

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Contributors

A. Fredric Franklyn — Essayist
Alberta Turner — Contributor
Alfred Dom — Correspondent
Alfred Dorn — Contributor
Austin H Patty — Contributor
Barney Childs — Essayist
Barriss Mills — Contributor
Ben Tibbs — Poet
Bertrand Mathieu — Poet
Carl Linder — Correspondent
Charles Edward Eaton — Poet
Charles R. Bums — Essayist
Charles Shaw — Poet
Christopher Waters — Contributor
Ciardi — Poet
Clarence Alva Powell — Poet
Curtis Zahn — Contributor
Darryl Ponicsan — Contributor
David A Munro — Contributor
David Clay Jenkins — Essayist
David Lee Pagari — Fiction writer
David Lyle — Correspondent
David Rafael Wang — Contributor
David Wade — Poet
Diane Wakoski — Contributor
Donald Davidson — Contributor
E. F Wells — Contributor
Easy I — Poet
Editor — JAMES BOYER MAY — Contributor
Eugene Jolas — Contributor
Eunice Martchenko — Contributor
Gerard Malanga — Contributor
Gil Orlovitz — Poet
Gregory Corso — Contributor
Guy Owen — Contributor
H. C Brashers — Contributor
Helen Luster — Poet
Helen Wolfert — Contributor
Henry Hatfield — Contributor
Hua-ling Nieh — Contributor
Hugh Kenner — Contributor
Isaac Rosenfeld — Contributor
J. G Bennett — Contributor
Jacob Korg — Contributor
James Boyer May — Editor
James Schevill — Contributor
John Ciardi — Contributor
John Sutherland — Contributor
John Tagliabue — Poet
Jory Sherman — Contributor
Joseph Martinek — Contributor
Judson Jerome — Contributor
Kenneth Patchen — Poet
Kirby Congdon — Correspondent
Margaret Randall — Contributor
Marilyn Jordan — Poet
Marion Montgomery — Contributor
Marshall McLuhan — Contributor
Marvin Bell — Poet
Marvin Mudrick — Contributor
May Swenson — Contributor
Milton VanSickle — Contributor
Muriel Rukeyser — Contributor
N. H Taylor — Contributor
Norbert Blei — Fiction writer
Norman Thomas — Contributor
Octavio Paz — Contributor
P.O.D — Correspondent
Padráig O Broin — Contributor
Pillin Polia — Contributor
Publ ALAN SWALLOW — Contributor
R. R Cusaden — Contributor
Ronald Firbank — Contributor
Ruby Cohn — Contributor
Ruth Forbes Sherry — Contributor
S. E Moray — Contributor
SFR Annual — Contributor
Thomas McEvilley — Contributor
Thomas Morley in A Plain — Poet
Thomas Morrill — Contributor
Tommaso Landolfi — Contributor
Wai-lim Yip — Poet
Wai-yee Yip — Contributor
William J Margolis — Contributor
Ying-feng Yang — Poet

Publication details

Journal: Trace
Volume: Not recorded
Issue number: 51
Issue date: Winter 1963
Editor: James Boyer May
Publisher: Villiers Publications Ltd.
Place of publication: London, England; Hollywood, California (editorial office)
Language: English
Pagination: Original scan: 118 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 117 PDF pages.
Record ID: ttj-trace-51-1963

Full contents

Metrics Revisited — Barney Childs [Essay, p. 9]
Prophecy and the Art of Language — Marvin Bell [Poem, p. 25]
Towards Print — A. Fredric Franklyn [Essay, p. 26]
(Excerpts from a Journal of the U. of British Columbia Seminar) — A. Fredric Franklyn [Contribution, p. 26]
Charles Olson in the morning session, today. And Bob, Allen Duncan, and also Philip Whalen. It’s a poser, just seeing all five of them around the desk together! [Contribution, p. 30]
Friday, August 2nd ; Morning Session (Creeley, Duncan, & Ginsberg — Whalen again in the audience) [Contribution, p. 34]
The Chronicle [Reference, p. 38]
Editors (and others) Write [Correspondence, p. 39]
The Problem of Poetic Form — Alfred Dom [Correspondence, p. 41]
Damning . . . Without Bitterness — Carl Linder [Correspondence, p. 42]
The Fascist Critic [Contribution, p. 43]
Ideas ‘Sold’ for Commercial Prestige ? — Kirby Congdon [Correspondence, p. 43]
Identity in Relation to Community — P.O.D [Correspondence, p. 45]
An Hour with Audiberti* [Contribution, p. 47]
The Two Worlds of Wallace Stevens — Charles R. Bums [Essay, p. 54]
A Quiet — Norbert Blei [Fiction, p. 57]
Norbert Blei [Contribution, p. 60]
Norbert Blei [Contribution, p. 62]
The Decoy — David Lee Pagari [Fiction, p. 75]
Plates — David Clay Jenkins [Contribution, p. 82]
Dylan Thomas’ under Milk Wood: the American Element — David Clay Jenkins [Contribution, p. 83]
Meaning/s & the Word : 20th Century Assay [Contribution, p. 102]
Gissing: Preview of Modern Individualism [Review, p. 106]
A Solid American Critic: Davidson [Contribution, p. 108]
Firbank: Growing in Prestige [Contribution, p. 111]
A Stubbornly-random Iconoclast [Contribution, p. 113]
Indexed Contents — Trace 1963 [Reference, p. 117]
Rainy Bus-boy [Contribution, p. 120]
Arrangement from Paterson from Working — ‘constructs,’ 1963 [Contribution, p. 120]
Waiting for You [Contribution, p. 121]
Ye Childe Wilyam Barbe [Contribution, p. 122]
(Table of Contents art) [Contribution, p. 122]
American Poetries in Foreign Tongues [Contribution, p. 123]
Odysseus Unrepentant — Bertrand Mathieu [Poem, p. 124]
From the Notes [Contribution, p. 125]
Ivy Compton-burnett [Contribution, p. 125]
Last Words of Whom? [Contribution, p. 125]
Meaning/s the Word [Contribution, p. 125]
NOT in Passing [Contribution, p. 125]
Now the Pudding [Contribution, p. 125]
Right Turn: Left [Contribution, p. 125]
When Summer Had Ended [Contribution, p. 126]
The Author Seeks Clarification [Contribution, p. 127]
AND/OR [Contribution, p. 127]
IN THE SKY, PI [Contribution, p. 127]
Portions of an Unpublished Essay [Essay, p. 128]
Esther [Contribution, p. 129]
A Case? — for ‘semi-fiction’ [Contribution, p. 130]
Art of the Sonnet: 167 [Poem, p. 131]
The Cavorting Crevices — Gil Orlovitz [Poem, p. 131]
Index (2nd Series): 8 [Contribution, p. 131]
Lines [Contribution, p. 131]
Median 8 [Contribution, p. 131]
Median 16 [Contribution, p. 131]
Southern Poetry and the Magnolia Curtain [Contribution, p. 132]
The Decoy — David Lee Pagari [Fiction, p. 133]
A Student [Contribution, p. 134]
(Ceramic Art) [Contribution, p. 134]
A Gadangus Full of Dirt [Contribution, p. 135]
Bulwarks — Clarence Alva Powell [Poem, p. 136]
An Epic with Meaning for Now Breakfast Excerpts from a Working [Contribution, p. 136]
Editor’s Letters [Contribution, p. 137]
From October Letters — [Contribution, p. 137]
In the Wunderhorn World [Contribution, p. 138]
Poem for Mid-winter — Charles Shaw [Poem, p. 139]
Parodies of Spring [Contribution, p. 140]
(Woodcut) [Contribution, p. 140]
Falstaff Poems [Poem, p. 141]
Celia, Who Is She? — John Tagliabue [Poem, p. 142]
Bottlebroke on Books [Contribution, p. 143]
(Black and White) — Ben Tibbs [Poem, p. 143]
(Black and White) — Ben Tibbs [Poem, p. 143]
Village Street at Noon [Contribution, p. 144]
East Meets West [Contribution, p. 145]
Icon [Contribution, p. 146]
Theokritos Unbound [Contribution, p. 147]
My Father — David Wade [Poem, p. 148]
Ideogram [Contribution, p. 149]
(transl. d’Aubarède) [Contribution, p. 149]
An Open Letter to the Modern Writer [Contribution, p. 150]
Daybreak [Contribution, p. 151]
From Dreams to Image-Words [Contribution, p. 151]
(Sculpture) [Artwork, p. 151]
Are Such the Voices — Wai-lim Yip [Poem, p. 152]
Fragment I [Contribution, p. 153]
(Painting) [Artwork, p. 153]
Witness, the Story of a Search [Contribution, p. 154]
The Other Side of Love [Contribution, p. 155]
In Fact [Contribution, p. 156]
Samuel Beckett, the Comic Gamut [Contribution, p. 157]
Long Live Man [Contribution, p. 158]
Poem for a Ten Pound Sailfish & Other Sonnets [Poem, p. 159]
The Spyglass, Views & Reviews, 1924-1930 [Review, p. 160]
The New Rythum and Other Pieces [Contribution, p. 161]
Goethe, a Critical Introduction [Contribution, p. 162]
Light in the West [Contribution, p. 163]
OUR EXAGMINATION Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress [Contribution, p. 163]
Flaubert, Joyce & Beckett: the Stoic Comedians [Contribution, p. 164]
George Gissing, a Critical Biography [Contribution, p. 165]
Gogol’s Wife & Other Stories [Contribution, p. 166]
The Gutenberg Galaxy: the Making of Typographic Man [Contribution, p. 167]
The Idylls of Theokritos [Contribution, p. 168]
The Purse & Three Other Stories of Chinese Life [Contribution, p. 169]
Than Any Star [Contribution, p. 170]
An Age of Enormity [Contribution, p. 171]
Sun Stone, by Octavio Paz — Octavio Paz [Contribution, p. 172]
To Mix with Time [Contribution, p. 173]
Ask at the Unicorn [Contribution, p. 174]
Coins and Coffins [Contribution, p. 175]
American Contemporary [Contribution, p. 176]
Complete Current Address List [Reference, p. 177]

Rights and citation

Rights in the individual contributions and the periodical compilation have not been fully resolved.

Trace, no. 51 (Winter 1963). Text/Tech Journals reader’s edition, 2026.