January 2, 2014 edited with additions
Paul Foreman (March 15, 1943 to December 21, 2012) was an American writer, publisher and visionary. Foreman is known for his poetry, novels, and as the publisher of Thorp Springs Press. Thorp Springs Press books, and the periodicals and anthologies Foreman edited, were incubators for many poets and writers of the southwest particularly. He was a literary activist and lobbied for writers in Texas, helping to save the J. Frank Dobie home and re-establish the post of poet laureate of Texas. He created a new hub for developing and established painters, photographers, and sculptors, as well as writers, in Berkeley and in Austin at the Brazos Bookstore and Bois d’Arc Gallery.<ref 1>
Contents 1 Biography 2 Publications
2.1 Literary works
2.2 Periodicals edited and co-edited
2.3 Thorp Springs Press
3 Notes 4 References
Biography
Born near Granbury, Texas, Paul Foreman grew up listening to small town stories, picking pecans on halves and exploring wild places along the Brazos River. He attended Pepperdine College on a scholarship in physics, and served in the US Navy (1962-64). As a police offer in Los Angeles (1964-68), he led community service programs for underprivileged youth.
He graduated in American History from the University of California in Berkeley in 1969, assisting his teacher Josephine Miles to publish Berkeley Street Poems, May 1969 in honor of the Peoples’ Park protest. In 1970, with Judy Hogan (see also Carolina Wren Press), Paul Foreman founded Hyperion, A Poetry Journal (1972-78). Using a Multilith 1250 off-set press, he printed by hand himself most of the volumes and broadsides he published for the remainder of his time in Berkeley (1971-78). He was a member of the board and chairman of the board of COSMEP, the Committee of Small Magazines Editors and Publishers, helping to stimulate national presence in ALA, the ABA, and San Francisco Bay Area small press conventions. With Utah Phillips and others he tried to revive an egalitarian IWW union in local shops.
Foreman developed Thorp Springs Press to publish literature, with an emphasis on poetry, local authors, and writers of the Southwest. Foster Robertson (Foster Foreman) served as art director, assistant publisher, and co-editor. Along with monographs, anthologies, and periodicals, Foreman also printed broadsides, lectures, art catalogs. With Joanie Whitebird he published the anthology of Texas writers and artists called Travois. With various co-editors he edited, published and printed TAWTE: Texas Artist , Writers, and Thinkers in Exile. All activities of Thorp Springs Press moved to Austin, TX in 1978. From 1978-2011, Thorp Springs Press books were no longer printed by hand.<ref 2>
Foreman developed the Brazos Book Shop and Bois d’Arc Gallery, (1979-88) in the historic stone building at 803 Red River, Austin, TX, a building now renown as the music venue Stubbs. <ref 3, 4> Foreman was active on the Austin Arts Commission and worked with Susan Bright to establish the Austin Writers League. He helped preserve the home of J. Frank Dobie (now the facility for the James Michener Center of Writers – The University of Texas at Austin), and he promoted local writers and artists (including providing office space for the first Austin Visual Arts Association) and to re-establish the Poet Laureate of Texas for William Barney in 1982.
Paul Foreman’s brother, Don, lived alone in the mountains of Alaska and the Sierra Nevada gold country for gold. He identified precious metals in the Sierra Nevada. After Don Foreman’s death in 1982, Paul Foreman consulted with Economic Geologists in California, Texas, Britain, South Africa, Australia, and Canada, andhe developed platinum prospects in California, Texas and Mexico. <ref 5>
Paul Foreman ran for Congress as a Democrat for the 10th District of Texas and entered a run-off with the much better financed Michael McCaul.
Publications
Foreman’s books of poetry include Redwing Blackbird, Texas Live Oak, The Unknown Law, and Feather River. His novels include Sugarland: A Novel of Texas Prisons, and Quanah, the Serpent Eagle. Periodicals he edited include Hyperion: A Poetry Journal, and TAWTE: Texas Artist , Writers, and Thinkers in Exile.
Lists of more than 100 Thorp Springs Press publications can be found in the archive of The Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin2 and more than 30 in the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, among other libraries. A partial list by title is included below and can be provided listed by year or by author. http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00038.xml -
Notes and References
<ref 1> Christensen, Paul, West of the American Dream, 2011, passim, e.g. p.143, "Paul Foreman…a country boy from North Texas" who has schooled himself in Chinese literature and reads Plato for pleasure” . http://www.chron.com/life/article/West-of-the-American-Dream-by-Paul-Christensen-2060155.php
<ref 2> Harry Ransom Center page on Paul, Press and bookstore provided up until 1982.
http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00038.xml
<ref 3> Thomas Zigal BIOGRAPHY tab talks about Paul, Press and bookstore several paragraphs down.
< ref 4> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooM-RKIkA5I
Pecans and a Dutchman posted on YouTube
· YouTube - Videos from this email
<ref 5> http://silkworms-silkworm.blogspot.com/ day: December 21, 2012 Paul Foreman On this last day of the Maya Long Count cycle 13.0.0.0.0., our calendar of December 21, 2012, I am indeed losing a precious friend and family member, Paul Foreman.
Paul is a poet, writer, idealist, intelligent and knowledgeable intellect, optimistic and nice person, and a good friend of my family. We came to know him through his wife Foster who first became my close friend with common love of art. I remember when we first visited their home for our first Thanksgiving in Texas, Paul recited several poems by Li Bo and Du Fu, and also talked about Mao Zedong’s poems “Snow” ( • ) and “Kunlun” ( • ), … some good lines. We were very impressed by his memory and understanding.
Paul and Foster both went to UC-Berkeley in the 1960s studying literature and art history. While Foster focused on Asian art, Paul wrote beautiful poems about China, and they were introduced to each other by a common Chinese friend. Paul loves mountains a lot and knows a great deal of prospecting. He liked to show us his collected rocks containing rare metals.....
Paul once wrote a poem to a friend of his, but I think it is just perfect for himself.
Poem for a Mountain Man
(for Frank Waters)
It is not I But the mountain in me that lifts me to these heights.
I, I must go down; mountain will stay.
…..
<ref 6>. Thorp Springs Press Publications
3 Pinball Pome [poems]. Thomas Head Caputo. A Little Kiss of the Nettle [poems]. William Barney. A Shaman’s Songbook : Songs, Poems, and Tales of Norman Moser. Norman Moser. A Vulgar Elegance [poems]. Gary Elder. Adventures of Achilles Jones [fiction]. John Bennett. After a Cremation [poems]. Edward McCrorie. After the Ifaluk And Other Poems [after poems from Caroline Islands]. Virginia L. Rudder [Virginia Love Long]. American Rambler [poems]. Dale Smith. An Old Guy Who Feels Good [autobiography, memoir]. Worden McDonald. Angkor Vat : Parama Vishnu Loka Pura [broadside poem]. Foster Robertson. As If the Street Could Die [poems]. Julia Vinograd. Avenida Juarez [a novel]. Sam Pendergrast.
Back into My Body [poems]. Glenna Luschei. Back Into My Body [poems]. Glenna Luschei. Barbara Smith [essays and photos of the performance artist] published with University of San Diego Art Gallery. Moira Roth, Barbara Smith, Allan Kaprow, Melinda Wortz, Pat Baxter, essays. Beyond The Rivers : An Anthology of Twentieth Century Paraguayan Poetry. Charles R Carlisle. Bezerkley Sun and Rain Dance Poems. Paul Sawyer. Blind Man’s Bluff [a novel]. Michael Adams. Boomer’s Gold [a novel]. Jack Walker. Boots : about some of the ribald excuses of one Quintilian Xavier Malone. Cape Seventy [poems]. Lynn Strongin. Cassandra Speaking [poems]. Judy Hogan. Chenian Booklet [Buddhist Lectures, Images, Chinese Poems, Index] no 58, 59,61, 62, 63, 64, 69,74,75, 76, 78,77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94. Chien-min Chen. Chrome Grass. Amon Liner. Circular Poems. Barry Gabay. Collected Stories of Amado Muro. Amado Muro [Chester Selzer]. Confrontation [poems]. Max Westbrook. Country Boy [poems]. Max Westbrook. Crab Orchard Cemetery : Jo Hanson : [exhibition] University of California, San Diego, Mandeville Art Gallery, September 25 – October 26, 1975. Moira Roth. Dark Water [poems]. Thomas Head. Dwarf Cycle [poems]. Lynn Strongin. El Sueño, The Dream [translation. poem]. Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz; John Campion. Eve Grown Wise [poems]. Sharon Ramirez. Fifty Selected Poems 1970-1975. Thomas Head Caputo Fires [poems]. Gene Fowler. Fires: Selected Poems, 1963-76. Gene Fowler. Flies, Arrives [poem broadside]. Foster Robertson. Floating Face Up [poems *?]. Olive Hershey. Footprints in the Sand [poems]. Joe Lee Smith. Footprints, 1961-1978 [poems]. Dave Oliphant. For Kenneth Patchen. A D Winans. For My Grandchildren: a letter from Judith Ann Robertson Foster (1845-1924) concerning Chesterfield County, Virginia, in the 1860’s. [ memoir]. Judith Ann Robertson Foster. Goliah : a Utopian Essay, [reprint from 1910]. Jack London. Hard Country [poems]. Paul Christensen. Hyperion : a Poetry Journal : a special issue to remember Ezra Pound who died a year ago [Paul Foreman introduction]. Judy Hogan and Paul Foreman, editors. Hyperion : a Poetry Journal “volume 2”. Judy Hogan and Paul Foreman, editors. Hyperion : a Poetry Journal volume 1 “Noh Directions Press” [Paul Foreman essay, Judy Hogan, essay]. Judy Hogan and Paul Foreman, editors. Hyperion : a Poetry Journal, [note NEA grant received, CCLM grant declined, v.VI, issue 14”]. Judy Hogan, Paul Foreman, Foster Robertson Foreman, editors. Hyperion : a Poetry Journal, Translation Special [“v. 5, issue 13”, [Paul Foreman introduction]. Judy Hogan, Paul Foreman, Foster Robertson Foreman, editors. Hyperion : war anthology. Judy Hogan and Paul Foreman, editors. Hyperion: a Poetry Journal v. 3, n.1, issue 4. Judy Hogan and Paul Foreman, editors. I Didn’t Write This Poem. Carolyn Manning. I Have a Knowledge of Flowers [poems]. Carmen Fraser. In Rooms of Falling Rain [a novel]. Sheila B Nickerson. Indigo [poems]. Lynn Strongin. Kaddish for Martin Horowitz [poem]. Julia Vinograd. Karl Rove versus Karl Marx : a poem [broadside poem and DVD]. Paul Foreman. Leftovers [poems]. Julia Vinograd. Letter from Alaska and other poems. Sheila Nickerson. Letters from the Hill Country : the correspondence between Rebekah and Lyndon Baines Johnson. Philip Reed Rulon, editor. Lines and Mounds [poems]. Dave Oliphant. Naked. J Whitebird. Night Realm of the Pine-wife [broadside poem]. Now and Then : poems of Justice and Compassion. Terri Vaughn. Obsidian : a pilgrim’s processional [broadside poem]. Gene Fowler. Oregon or Bust [poems]. Max Westbrook. Original Sound [poems]. Marya Manfred. Paris Sketches [poems]. Jonathan Bracker. Phenologies [poems]. Richard Dauenhauer. Playland: a Novel. Thomas Zigal. Poem for New Orleans [broadside poem]. Paul Foreman. Poems. Julia Vinograd. Poetry is a Kind of Writing [poems]. Richard Morris. Prospector’s Gold [poems]. Don Foreman. Questions to Brecht [poems]. Thomas Strand. Redwing Blackbird [poems]. Paul Foreman. Rumors of no Law: poems from Berkeley 1968-1977. Peter Dale Scott. San Francisco Bark : a Gathering of Bay Area Poets. Thomas Head, Paul Foreman, editors. Shadows from the Wu-T’ung Tree : versions of Chinese poems. Hester G Storm. Shrift, a Winter Sequence [poems]. Lynn Strongin. Sketch of a Serpent : Ebauche d’un serpent [poem translation]. Paul Valery, Lynn Hoggard translation. Spring Water, Tea Leaves and Time [broadside poem]. Foster Robertson. Straws of Sanity [poems]. A D Winans. Street Feet [poems]. Julia Vinograd. Street Pieces [poems]. Julia Vinograd. Street Spices [poems]. Julia Vinograd. Sugarland [a novel]. Paul Foreman. TAWTÉ : a Journal of Texas Culture. [Texas Artists, Writers and Thinkers in Exile] [periodical, issue 1]. James Cody and Paul Foreman, editors. Texas Liveoak [poems]. Paul Foreman. Texas Liveoak. Paul Foreman. The Aziatic Hotel Paul Tate, Richard Turner. The Balanced Rock and other stories. Claude Stanush. The Blind Lion [poems]. Paula Gunn Allen. The Bracero: a novel. Eugene Nelson. The Calibrated Woman : poems. Margot Bollock. The Canters of Thomas Parkinson, chiefly concerning John Wayne and his horse and many incredibilities. Thomas Francis Parkinson. The Circus [poems]. Julia Vinograd. The Dwarf Cycle [poems]. Lynn Strongin. The Execution : a play. Miranda Panaretou-Cambanis. The Grassman : a novel [original- editions 1 and 2 for hardback. Then sold to Penguin, 1977]. Len Fulton. The Horse-cycle [poem broadside]. Thomas Head [Thomas Caputo]. The Likeness : poems out of India. Leonard Nathan. The Lizard Woman [a novel, version of Fever Pitch, 1930]. Frank Waters. The New Populism. [1 of several editions, by other publishers]. Fred R Harris. The Nightdream [a novel]. Paul Sedlock. The Planetary Romance [poems]. Lynn Strongin. The Road to Black Mountain [a novel]. Joseph Bruchac. The Shouting Head of Prophet John, a play. Bob Burleson. The Wood Path [poems]. Foster Robertson. The World in My Head [essays]. Claude Stanush. Think about it : thoughts and sayings. Noel Foreman. This Feeling Within. Thomas M Pyatt. This Life : a Salutation. Tom Huey. Time and Trouble [poems]. Julia Vinograd. To the Straying Aramaean [poems]. Morton Grinker. To the Waters and the Wild : poems of Alaska. Sheila B Nickerson. Tom Non-Stop [poems]. Anne Hedley. Trained Bears on Hoops [poems]. Robert Joe Stout. Travois : An Anthology of Texas Poetry [poems, photographs, drawings, and prints]. Joanie Whitebird and Paul Foreman, editors. Trotter Ross [a novel]. James Hoggard. Two Poems. William F Mack. Vivisection [poem]. Gene Fowler; Paul Foreman, afterword. Waiting for the Curtain to [poems]. Ved Prakash Vatuk. West of Fort Worth [a novel]. Jack Walker. What Price Paradise. Kendall McCook. What the Blindman Saw; or, Twenty-five Years of the Endless War [a play]. Thomas Francis Parkinson. Winesburg by the Sea [poems]. Harold Witt. Winter Count [poems, reprint, 1965]. Frederick Feikema Manfred. Winter Gardens [fictions]. Reed Harp. Winter Man [poems]. Ken McKeon. Wisdom of Heraclitus: Variations and Translations. Paul Foreman. Without Wishing: fifteen poems in memory of Chen Shih-Hsiang. Leonard Nathan. Yellow Squash Woman [poems]. Freya Manfred. Yevtushenko! [broadside poem]. Paul Foreman.
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Judy Hogan , author of this article