The Jargon Society

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The Jargon Society is now a part of the BMC Museum + Arts Center. The BMCM+AC is honored to announce that the Jargon Society, the highly significant small-press publisher founded in 1951 by Jonathan Williams (Asheville native, Black Mountain College alumnus, poet, publisher and photographer) is now under the museum’s auspices.

The Story of Jargon

Enthused by a visit with Henry Miller on Big Sur, over lunch a day later in June 1951, at a Chinese restaurant back in San Francisco, Jonathan Williams and the artist David Ruff decided to do something. That something, a small folded pamphlet with a Patchenesque poem by Williams and a Blakean etching by Ruff, was the first Jargon publication. There were 50 copies. Right from the start, Jargon has been about collaboration and it remained its genius: the eye and the ear. Since its inceptions each of the press’s titles has been given a serial number. Jargon 2 was called The Dancer and consisted of a poem by Joel Oppenheimer and a drawing by Robert Rauschenberg. It was published at Black Mountain College soon after Williams’ arrival there later in the summer of 1951. Other Jargon publications included The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson, The Neugents by David M. Spear and many others.

Williams died in 2008 and is survived by his partner Thomas Meyer. It was Meyer who made the decision to give The Jargon Society inventory and rights to the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.

Meyer had this to say about the new arrangement: “The Jargon Society has always championed outsiders, mavericks and the neglected, itself no stranger to same. Yet with the death of its founder, it seemed to me the time had come for the foundation to make some changes. The BMCM+AC struck me as a perfect compass to provide new directions. Shared histories, shared aesthetics, and shared missions. In short, a perfect shelter, a perfect match.”

Jonathan Williams’ publishing philosophy was to seek out writers, poets and photographers who pursued a singular path in their work and were under-recognized, outside of the mainstream, but deeply deserving of attention. Jargon books and publications were always beautifully designed and printed, expressing Williams’ unique aesthetic sensibility. He often paired artists, photographers and writers in a way previously unseen. There are 115 Jargon Society titles in the original series. A number of these are rare, valuable and highly sought after by collectors. Of the 115 original titles in the Jargon catalogue, approximately 85 are books and another 30 are broadsides, pamphlets and other publications.

Jonathan Williams provided early appreciation and an important publication outlet for now-celebrated writers such as Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, Robert Duncan, Mina Loy, Lorraine Niedecker, Kenneth Patchen and many others. One of Jargon’s most noteworthy titles was the publishing phenomenon White Trash Cooking by Ernest Matthew Mickler. Now celebrating its 25th year in publication with a special edition, White Trash Cooking has received rave reviews by a diverse roster of fans including the governor of North Carolina, the New York Times Book Review, cookbook authors and actress Helen Hayes. It continues to be Jargon’s top-selling title even now.

Aptly characterized by Hugh Kenner as a “custodian of snowflakes,” Williams championed the outsider in art and literature. The Jargon Society provided a vehicle for Williams, a man of wide-ranging interests and talents, to pursue the writers and artists he valued and to encourage collaboration between them when appropriate. Poet William Carlos Williams wrote to Jonathan, “It’s a strange thing about the ‘new,’ in which category I place what you do. At first it shocks, even repels, such a man as myself, but in a few days, or a month, or a year, we rush to it drooling at the mouth, as if it were a fruit, an apple in winter.”

As a publisher, Williams’ goal was to give the artist and/or the poet “the book that they wanted” if it was at all possible. This approach, while unusual in the publishing world, was consistent with William’s belief in democracy and consistent with a philosophy that championed the underdog.

Brian Butler, Board Member of the BMC Museum + Arts Center states, “We are greatly honored to carry on the singular and extraordinary legacy of The Jargon Society. There is nothing quite like it in publishing history, and Jonathan’s and Jargon’s connection to Black Mountain College makes this an absolutely perfect fit for our organization. We look forward to the possibilities. While not by any means unsung, the importance of the Jargon Society’s publications is certainly not given near its proper canonical place in American publishing, in poetry, nor in its highly significant, indeed central, place in regards to the history of Black Mountain College. The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center is extremely proud to be the recipient of Jargon’s great tradition and thanks Thomas Meyer deeply for his confidence in our Museum.  We consider this gift a great sign of trust in the Museum’s mission and will treat the gift with the deep respect it deserves.”

Thomas Meyer, Williams’ partner, worked with him on Jargon projects for many years and has several books of his own poetry published under the Jargon imprint. Additionally, Meyer’s work as a poet and translator has been widely published and acknowledged for its precision and depth of feeling. His recent book Kintsugi has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.

Future Jargon/Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center projects have yet to be identified, but the possibilities are exciting to contemplate.

The Jargon Society sign and Poetry Crown (made by artist James Harold Jennings) are now a part of the BMCM+AC Permanent Collection.

The Jargon Society Publications

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Bibliographic checklist

  1. Jonathan Williams. Garbage Litters the Iron Face of the Sun’s Child. Engraving by David Ruff. San Francisco, 1951. [150 copies.]
  2. Joel Oppenheimer. The Dancer. Drawing by Robert Rauschenberg. Black Mountain, 1951. [150 copies.]
  3. Jonathan Williams. Red / Gray. Drawings by Paul Ellsworth. Black Mountain, 1952. [100 copies in paper wrappers; 50 signed copies in boards with a photograph by Jonathan Williams.] Available by request in our library.
  4. Victor Kalos. The Double-Backed Beast. Drawings by Dan Rice. Black Mountain, 1952. [25 copies.] Available by request in our library.
  5. Jonathan Williams. Four Stoppages / A Configuration. Drawings by Charles Oscar. Stuttgart, 1953. [200 copies.] 
  6. Kenneth Patchen. Fables & Other Little Tales. Karlsruhe, 1953. [450 copies in wrappers and an author’s edition of 50 copies decorated and painted by Kenneth Patchen.]
  7. Charles Olson. The Maximus Poems / 1-10. Calligraphy by Jonathan Williams. Stuttgart, 1953. [300 copies and a donor’s edition of 50 copies, signed and boxed.] Available by request in our library. 
  8. Robert Creeley. The Immoral Proposition. Drawings by René Laubiès. Karlsruhe, 1953. [200 copies.]
  9. Charles Olson. The Maximus Poems / 11-22. Calligraphy by Jonathan Williams. Stuttgart, 1956. [350 copies and a patron’s edition of 25 copies, signed and boxed.] Available by request in our library. 
  10. Robert Creeley. All That Is Lovely In Men. Drawings by Dan Rice. Photograph by Jonathan Williams. Asheville, 1953. [200 copies.]
  11. Kenneth Patchen. Poemscapes. Highlands, 1958. [1500 copies in wrappers; 42 copies of a gold and gray edition, with an original holograph; and 75 copies prepared and painted by Kenneth Patchen.] Available by request in our library.  
  12. Louis Zukofsky. A Test of Poetry. New York, 1964. Published in association with Corinth Books. Available by request in our library.  
  13. Jonathan Williams. Poems, 1953-1955. In three volumes:
    1. 13a. Amen / Huzza / Selah. “A Preface?” by Louis Zukofsky. Photographs by Jonathan Williams. Black Mountain, 1960. [700 copies and 50 signed, special copies.] Available by request in our library. 
    2. 13b. Elegies and Celebrations. Preface by Robert Duncan. Photographs by Aaron Siskind and Jonathan Williams. Highlands, 1962. [700 copies and 50 signed, special copies.] Available by request in our library. 
    3. 13c. Jammin’ the Greek Scene. Note by Charles Olson. Drawings by Fielding Dawson. Karlsruhe, 1959.  [James Jaffe notes, “Approximately 4 proof copies were produced for a projected edition of 300 copies, but the book, with a cover designed by Fielding Dawson, was never published.”]
  14. Robert Duncan. Letters: Poems 1953-1956. Drawings by Robert Duncan. Highlands, 1958. [450 copies printed on Arches paper in wrappers and 60 copies printed on Shogun paper and bound in marbled paper over boards. These 60 copies contain drawings by the author on the endpapers; 15 of the 60 copies have colored drawings by the author pasted in.]
  15. Louis Zukofsky. Some Time. A song setting on the cover by Celia Zukofsky. Stutttgart, 1956. [300 copies and 50 copies of a signed author’s edition.]
  16. Joel Oppenheimer. The Dutiful Son. Frontispiece by Joseph Fiore. Highlands, 1957. [200 copies and an author’s edition of 30 copies with a lithographed cover by Fiore. Two variants of the regular issues: one in tan wrappers, the other in blue wrappers with a white label.]
  17. Stuart Z. Perkoff. The Suicide Room. Drawing by Fielding Dawson. Photograph by Charles Kessler. Karlsruhe, 1956. [200 copies in wrappers and 25 hardcover copies, numbered and signed.]
  18. Irving Layton. The Improved Binoculars. Introduction by William Carlos Williams. Highlands, 1956. [500 copies.] Second edition, with thirty additional poems. [1000 copies.]
  19. Denise Levertov. Overland to the Islands. Drawings by Al Kresch. Calligraphy by Jonathan Williams. Highlands, 1958. [450 copies and an author’s edition of 50 signed copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  20. Michael McClure. Passage. Calligraphy by Jonathan Williams. Big Sur, 1956. [200 copies.]
  21. Kenneth Patchen. Hurrah for Anything. Drawings by Kenneth Patchen. Highlands, 1957. [2500 copies and 100 copies prepared and painted by Kenneth Patchen.] Available by request in our library. 
  22. Henry Miller. The Red Notebook. Drawings by Henry Miller. Photograph by Wynn Bullock. Highlands, 1958. [2000 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  23. Mina Loy. Lunar Baedeker and Time-Tables. Introductions by William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth and Denise Levertov. Drawings by Emerson Woelffer. Highlands, 1958. [450 copies and an author’s edition of 50 signed copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  24. Charles Olson. The Maximus Poems. Photograph by Frederick Sommer. Published in association with Corinth Books. New York, 1960. [2000 copies in wrappers and 101 bound copies, of which 75 copies are numbered, and 26 copies are lettered and signed.] Available by request in our library. 
  25. Paul C. Metcalf. Will West. Asheville, 1956. [500 copies.]
  26. Robert Creeley. The Whip. Cover design by René Laubiès. Drawings by Kirsten Hoeck. Highlands, 1957. [500 copies in wrappers and 100 hardbound copies.]
  27. Peyton Houston. Sonnet Variations. Photograph by Henry Holmes Smith. Highlands, 1962. [1000 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  28. Irving Layton. A Laughter in the Mind. Photograph by Frederick Sommer. Highlands, 1958. [2000 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  29. Bob Brown. 1450-1950. Photograph by Jonathan Williams. Published in association with Corinth Books. New York, 1959. [2000 copies.] A facsimile reproduction of the book which was first published by The Black Sun Press of Harry and Caresse Crosby in Paris, 1929. Available by request in our library. 
  30. Jonathan Williams. The Empire Finals at Verona. Drawings and collage by Fielding Dawson. Highlands, 1959. [1000 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  31. 14 Poets, 1 Artist. Poems by Paul Blackburn, Bob Brown, Edward Dahlberg, Max Finstein, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Goodman, Denise Levertov, Walter Lowenfels, Edward Marshall, E.A. Navaretta, Joel Oppenheimer, Gilbert Sorrentino, Jonathan Williams and Louis Zukofsky. Drawings by Fielding Dawson. New York, 1958. [1000 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  32. Walter Lowenfels. Some Deaths. Introduction by Jonathan Williams. Photographs by Robert Schiller. Highlands, 1964. [1500 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  33. Robert Creeley. A Form of Women. Photograph by Robert Schiller. Published in association with Corinth Books. New York, 1959. [2000 copies.]
  34. Bob Brown. The Selected Poems. Introduction by Kay Boyle. Drawing by Reuben Nakian. Jargon 34 was projected but never published. 
  35. Irving Layton. A Red Carpet for the Sun. Photograph by Harry Callahan. Highlands, 1959. [1000 copies.]
  36. Larry Eigner. On My Eyes. Introduction by Denise Levertov. Photographs by Harry Callahan. Highlands, 1960. [500 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  37. Russell Edson. What a Man Can See. Drawings by Ray Johnson. Highlands, 1969. [1000 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  38. Giuseppe Gioachino Belli. The Roman Sonnets. Translated by Harold Norse. Preface by William Carlos Williams. Introduction by Alberto Moravia. Cover by Ray Johnson. Collage by Jean-Jacques Lebel. Highlands, 1960. [2000 copies and 100 copies of the Roma edition in cloth, boxed, and signed by the translator and writers of the preface and introduction.] Available by request in our library. 
  39. Jonathan Williams. Lord! Lord! Lord!: Traditional Funeral Music. Hors de commerce, handset and printed “for the friends of the Jargon Press” by Igal Roodenko. Highlands, 1959. 
  40. Gilbert Sorrentino. The Darkness Surrounds Us. Introduction by Joel Oppenheimer. Collage and drawings by Fielding Dawson. Highlands, 1960. [1000 copies.]
  41. Lou Harrison. Three Choruses from Opera Libretti: Jargon’s Christmas in 1960. Highlands, 1960. Hors de commerce and dedicated to Robert Duncan. [200 copies.]
  42. Ronald Johnson. A Line of Poetry, A Row of Trees. Drawings by Thomas George. Printed by the Auerhahn Press, San Francisco. Errata sheet laid in. Highlands, 1964. [500 copies and 50 copies of an author’s edition, handbound and signed by poet and artist.]
  43. Paul C. Metcalf. Genoa: A Telling of Wonders. Iconography by Jonathan Williams. Highlands, 1965. Available by request in our library. 
  44. Buckminster Fuller. Untitled Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization. Introduction by Russell Davenport. Highlands, 1962. Available by request in our library. 
  45. Sherwood Anderson. Six Mid-American Chants. Photographs by Art Sinsabaugh. Preface by Edward Dahlberg. Postface by Frederick Eckman. Highlands, 1964. [1550 copies.]
  46. Guy Davenport. Flowers and Leaves. Photograph by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Highlands, 1966.
  47. Merle Hoyleman. Letters to Christopher. Introduction by George Marion O’Donnell. Jargon 47 was projected but never published.
  48. Lorine Niedecker. Tenderness & Gristle: The Collected Poems (1936-1966). Plant prints by A. Doyle Moore. Penland, 1968. [2000 copies.]
  49. Alfred Starr Hamilton. Poems. Introduction by Geof Hewitt. Drawings by Philip Van Aver. Photograph by Simpson Kalisher. Penland, 1970. Available by request in our library. 
  50. Doris Ulmann. The Appalachian Photographs of Doris Ulmann. Introduction by John Jacob Nies. Preface by Jonathan Williams. Penland, 1971. Available by request in our library. 
  51. Thomas Meyer. A Valentine for L.Z. Highlands, 1979. [300 copies.]
  52. Peyton Houston. Occasions in a World. Drawings by Bob Nash. Penland, 1969. 
  53. Mina Loy. The Last Lunar Baedeker. Edited and introduced by Roger Conover. Designed by Herbert Bayer. Highlands, 1982. Available by request in our library. 
  54. Mason Jordan Mason. The Selected Poems. Introduction by Judson Crews. Photographs by Ron Nameth. Jargon 54 was projected but never published.
  55. James Broughton. A Long Undressing: Collected Poems, 1949-1969. Photograph by Imogen Cunningham. New York, 1971. [In addition to the trade issue, there were 100 copies specially bound and signed by the author.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  56. James Broughton. High Kukus. Preface by Alan Watts. Drawings by Hak Vogrin. New York, 1968. “Rainbow Edition” printed on multicolored, accordion-folded pages. Available by request in our library. 
  57. Joel Oppenheimer. Just Friends / Friends and Lovers (Poems 1959-1962). Photograph by Bob Adelman. Highlands, 1980. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  58. Paul C. Metcalf. Patagoni. Iconography by Jonathan Williams. Penland, 1971. Available by request in our library. 
  59. Joel Oppenheimer. Names & Local Habitations (Selected Earlier Poems, 1951-1972). Accolade by Hayden Carruth. Introduction by William Corbett. Illustrated by Philip Guston. Winston-Salem, 1988. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. A regular copy and a proof copy are available by request in our library. 
  60. James Broughton. 75 Life Lines. Designed and produced at the Arion Press, San Francisco. Winston-Salem, 1988. [1500 copies in wrappers and 75 in boards.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  61. Jonathan Williams. Lullabies Twisters Gibbers Drags. Cover by R.B. Kitaj. Highlands, 1963. Available by request in our library. 
  62. Jonathan Williams. Emblems for the Little Dells, and Nooks and Corners of Paradise. Highlands, 1962. [300 signed and numbered copies.]
  63. Simon Cutts. Seepages (Poems 1981-1987). Winston-Salem, 1988. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  64. Tom Patterson. St. EOM in the Land of Pasaquan (The Life and Times of Eddie Owens Martin). Photography by Jonathan Williams, Roger Manley and Guy Mendes. Foreword by John Russell. Highlands, 1987. [4000 copies, plus 100 numbered copies of a Patrons’ Edition, signed by Tom Patterson, Jonathan Williams, Roger Manley, and Guy Mendes, issued in four-flap portfolio case. While the colophon states that the Patrons’ Edition was bound in full leather, it was not.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio (standard edition or Patrons’ Edition). Available by request in our library. 
  65. Edwin Morgan. The Siesta of the Hungarian Snake. Several mockup formats were designed and printed by students of A. Doyle Moore at his Finial Press in 1971 but never officially published. One version is available by request in our library. 
  66. Jonathan Williams, editor. Madeira & Toasts for Basil Bunting’s 75th Birthday. Designed by A. Doyle Moore. Cover portrait by R.B. Kitaj. Highlands, 1977. [1250 copies.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  67. Guy Davenport. Do You Have a Poem Book on E.E. Cummings? Drawings by Guy Davenport. Penland, 1969. [1000 copies.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  68. Ian Hamilton Finlay. The Blue and the Brown Poems. Prefaces by Michael Weaver and Jonathan Williams. Notes by Stephen Bann. Calendar design by Herbert M. Rosenthal. Published in association with the Atlantic Richfield Company and Graphic Arts Typographers, Inc. Aspen, 1968. Large format 1968-69 calendar of twelve concrete poems. [5000 copies.] Available by request in our library. 
  69. Thomas Meyer. The Bang Book. Drawings by John Furnival. Highlands, 1971. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  70. Richard Emil Braun. Bad Land. Photograph by Fredrick Sommer. Penland, 1971. [Published in wrappers and in cloth.] Available by request in our library. 
  71. Ross Field. Plum Poems. Drawings by Dan Rice. Accolade by Gilbert Sorrentino. New York, 1972. [Published in wrappers and in cloth.] Available by request in our library. 
  72. Ronald Johnson. The Spirit Walks, The Rocks Will Talk. Drawings by Guy Davenport. Penland, 1969. [500 copies, signed by the poet and the artist.]  Available by request in our library. 
  73. Douglas Woolf. Spring of the Lamb. “Broken Field Runner: A Douglas Woolf Notebook” by Paul Metcalf appended at back. Photographs by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Highlands, 1972. Available by request in our library. 
  74. Jonathan Williams, editor. Epitaphs for Lorine. Frontispiece by A. Doyle Moore. Back cover by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Photograph by Diane Tammes. Penland, 1973. [1000 copies.]
  75. Thomas A. Clark. Some Particulars. Photograph by Bart Parker. Highlands, 1971. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  76. Ralph Eugene Meatyard. The Family Album of Lucybelle Carter. Texts by Jonathan Greene, Ronald Johnson, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Guy Mendes, Thomas Meyer and Jonathan Williams. Highlands, 1974. Available by request in our library. 
  77. Lyle Bongé. The Sleep of Reason: Lyle Bongé’s Ultimate Ash-Hauling Mardi Gras Photographs. Texts by James Leo Herlihy and Jonathan Williams. Highlands, 1974. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  78. Paul C. Metcalf. The Middle Passage (A Triptych of Commodities). Highlands, 1976. Available by request in our library. 
  79. Jonathan Williams and Thomas Meyer. EPitaph. Corn Close, 1972. Available by request in our library. 
  80. Jonathan Williams. Pairidaeza. Lithographs by Ian Gardner. Dentdale, 1975. [75 copies signed by poet and artist and 10 author’s copies.] Xerox of typed working copy available by request in our library. 
  81. Simon Cutts. Quelques Pianos. Accolade by Ian Gardner. Highlands, 1976. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available y request in our library. 
  82. Jonathan Williams. Who Is Little Enis? Photograph by Guy Mendes. Corn Close, 1974. [500 signed copies.]
  83. Thomas Meyer. The Umbrella of Aesculapius. Introduction by Robert Kelly. Drawings by Paul Sinodhinos. Highlands, 1975. [900 copies in paper, 50 paper over boards, 50 bound in linen.] Available by request in our library. 
  84. Ronald Johnson. Eyes & Objects (Catalogue for an Exhibition: 1970-1972. Foreword by John Russell. Highlands, 1976. [1000 copies.] 
  85. William Anthony. Bible Stories. Drawings and texts by William Anthony. Introduction by Gilbert Sorrentino. Highlands, 1978. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  86. Thomas A. Clark. A Still Life. With Six Variations on a Chrysanthemum of William Morris by Ian Gardner. Dentdale, 1977. [950 copies in wrappers and 50 signed and numbered copies in boards.] Purchase at Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  87. Peter Yates. The Garden Prospect: Selected Poems. Introduction by Peyton Houston. Silverpoint illustrations by Susan Moore. Highlands, 1980. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio (paperback or hardcover). Available by request in our library. 
  88. Thomas Meyer. Staves Calends Legends. Emblem by John Furnival. Highlands, 1979. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  89. Lyle Bongé. The Photographs of Lyle Bongé. Introduction by A.D. Coleman. Afterword by Jonathan Williams. Text by Lyle Bongé. Highlands, 1982. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  90. William Anthony. Bill Anthony’s Greatest Hits. Foreword by Robert Rosenblum. “Flapdoodle” text by Jonathan Williams. Highlands, 1988. [2000 copies in cloth, with a Patrons’ Edition of 100 copies with an original drawing included.] [James Jaffe notes that Jargon 90 was originally (in the 1970s) planned to be Eyes in Leaves: A Tribute to Guy Davenport, but this was never published.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio.
  91. Jonathan Williams. Elite / Elate Poems (1971-1975). Photographs by Guy Mendes. Highlands, 1979. Available by request in our library. 
  92. Paul C. Metcalf. BOTH. Highlands, 1982. Available by request in our library. 
  93. Thomas A. Clark. Ways Through Bracken. Kendal, Cumbria, England, 1980. Available by request in our library. 
  94. Simon Cutts. Pianostool Footnotes. Kendal, Cumbria, England, 1982. [Edition of 1000 copies with 950 bound in paper wrappers, and the remaining 50 hardbound in paper over boards, signed by the author, and numbered 1-50.] Available by request in our library. 
  95. William Innes Homer, editor. Heart’s Gate (Letters Between Marsden Hartley and Horace Traubel 1906-1915). Edited and introduced by William Innes Homer. Highlands, 1982. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. 
  96. Peyton Houston. Arguments of Idea. Highlands, 1980. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  97. John Menapace. Letter in a Klein Bottle: Photographs by John Menapace. Introduction by Donald B. Kuspit. Afterword by Jonathan Williams. Highlands, 1984. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  98. Richard C. (a.k.a. Richard Craven or Richard Canard). Notches Along the Bible Belt. Jargon 98 was projected but never published. It was intended to be “a collage of found material, mostly from Baptist bookstores down South.” -Jonathan Williams, interviewed by Robert Dana in Against the Grain: Interviews with Maverick American Publishers (University of Iowa Press, 2009)
  99. Thomas Meyer. Sappho’s Raft. Frontispiece drawing by David Hockney. Designed by Ken Carls. Highlands, 1982. [Edition of 1500 copies, of which 1000 copies are bound in paper; 450 in cloth over boards; and 50 hand bound, signed by the author, and numbered 1-50.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  100. Lorine Niedecker. From This Condensery: The Complete Writings of Lorine Niedecker. Edited by Robert J. Bertholf. Highlands, 1985. [2500 copies in cloth, plus 100 copies of a Patrons’ Edition, bound in full leather, signed by the editor and publisher.] Available by request in our library. 
  101. Ernest Matthew Mickler. White Trash Cooking. Photographs by Ernest Matthew Mickler. Highlands, 1986. Purchase at BMC Books (Ten Speed Press 25th anniversary edition). Available by request in our library. 
  102. Thomas Meyer. At Dusk Iridescent: A Gathering of Poems, 1972-1997. Photograph by Reuben Cox. Winston-Salem, 1999. [900 copies in paper wrappers, plus 100 in paper over boards, signed and numbered.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  103. Jonathan Williams, editor. DBA at 70. Photographs by Jonathan Williams. Design by Jonathan Greene. Winston-Salem, 1989. [700 copies.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  104. Mark Steinmetz. Tuscan Trees: Photographs. Text by Janet Lembke. Winston-Salem, 2001. [Issued in paperback, plus 50 numbered and signed limited copies bound in cloth with original signed print laid in.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio (trade edition, signed trade, or limited special edition). 
  105. Reuben Cox. The Work of Joe Webb: Appalachian Master of Rustic Architecture. Text by Reuben Cox. In association with the University of Georgia Press. Highlands and Athens, 2009. Purchase at Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  106. Peyton Houston. The Changes Orders Becomings. Drawings by James McGarrell. Highlands, 1990. [1000 copies in cloth.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  107. Richard Emil Braun. Last Man In. Photograph by Ron Nameth. Highlands, 1990. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  108. Williams, Jonathan. A Hornet’s Nest. Quotes compiled by Jeffery Beam. Drawing by James McGarrell. Frontispiece by Sandra Reese. Photograph by Dobree Adams. Published in association with Green Finch Press (Green Finch Keening 71). Highlands and Chapel Hill, 2008. [300 copies.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  109. Paul C. Metcalf. Araminta and the Coyotes. Highlands, 1991. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  110. Lou Harrison. Joys & Perplexities: Selected Poems of Lou Harrison. Accolade by Ned Rorem. Winston-Salem, 1992. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  111. David M. Spear. The Neugents: “Close to Home.” Afterword by Jonathan Williams. Highlands, 1993. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  112. Elizabeth Matheson. Blithe Air: Photographs from England, Wales and Ireland. Illuminations and pyrotechnic display by Jonathan Williams. Accolade by Thomas Meyer. Winston-Salem, 1995. [1500 copies printed and bound by The Stinehour Press, of which 50 are a deluxe edition issued in slipcase, signed by the photographer, and accompanied by an original silver print.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  113. Jeffery Beam. Visions of Dame Kind. Accolade by Thomas Meyer. Designed by Jonathan Greene. Winston-Salem, 1995. [800 copies in paper, 200 in cloth, and a special handbound edition lettered A-Z, signed by Beam.] Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  114. Phillip March Jones. Points of Departure: Roadside Memorial Polaroids. Foreword by Thomas Meyer. Winston-Salem, 2011. Purchase at BMC Books or Biblio. Available by request in our library. 
  115. Blake G. Hobby, Joseph Bathanti, and Alessandra Porco, editors. The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry. Forthcoming.

The bibliographic checklist above is built from the following publications:

  • J.M. Edelstein’s A Jargon Society Checklist (Books & Company 1979) 
  • Additions by Michael Basinski in Jargon at Forty: 1951-1991 (The Poetry/Rare Books Collection, SUNY at Buffalo 1991) (Also available in our library and for purchase via Biblio)
  • Additions by Richard Owens and Jeffery Beam in Jonathan Williams: The Lord of Orchards (Prospecta Press, 2017) (Also available in our library and for purchase via our online bookstore or Biblio)

This list does not include Jargon Society postcards, broadsides, or billboards.