Circle Magazine

Circle Magazine was published from 1944 to 1948 by George Leite, initially with poet Bern Porter. Produced at Leite's Berkeley, California, bookstore daliel's (stylized with a lowercase 'd'), it featured poetry, prose, criticism and art from many of those whose creative works and their successors would later come to be called the San Francisco Renaissance.^[1] In addition to the magazine, Circle Editions published contemporary authors such as Albert Cossery and Henry Miller (a personal friend of Leite's).^[2]

Issue contents and covers[]

Number one, 1944

Cover of first issue, 1944

Henry Miller – Open Letter to Small Magazines
Philip Lamantia – Two Poems
Bern Porter – You're No Dope: Let Me Save You
Jeanne McGahey – Street With People
Rosalie Moore – Poem In 2 Scenes
George Elliott – The Red Battery
George Leite – Toward A Technique Of Rule
Josephine Miles – Four Poems
– Pirandello In Chains
Lawrence Hart (poet) – The Map Of The Country

Number two, 1944

Cover of second issue, 1944

Henry Miller – To Anaïs Nin Regarding One Of Her Books
Glen Coffield – Two Poems
William Everson – Two War Elegies
R. H. Barlow – Four Poems
Bern Porter – Letter To Gabene
– Four Line Prints
– Rilke And The Lost God
Dean Jeffries – Three Poems
William Carlos Williams – To The Dean
George Leite – To Henry Miller
Philip Lamantia – Two Poems
– Quinquin

Number three, 1944

Cover of third issue, 1944

– The Bulbul Birds
Kenneth Patchen – Four Poems
– The Father
Yvan Goll – Histoire De Parmenia L'Havanaise
Thomas Parkinson – Morning Passage
George Elliott – Two Poems
– Palimpsest
– Two Poems
– Mr. Eliot And Mr. Milton
Jackson Burke – Poem
– Poem
– First Impression Of College
– Two Poems
– Two Poems
Lawrence Hart (poet) – About Marie Wells
– Poem
– Poem
Kenneth Rexroth – Les Lauriers Sont Coupés

Number four, 1944

Cover of fourth issue, 1944

Anaïs Nin – The All-Seeing
Theodore Schroeder – Where Is Obscenity?
– Four
– The Two Creators
George Leite – Low Darkened Shelter
Henry Miller – Varda: The Master Builder
– Poems
– Marley And The Gemini
– Two Poems
Bern Porter – All Over The Place
– To John Wheelwright
Forrest Anderson – Sea Poems
– Deep Six For Danny
– Two poems
Kenneth Rexroth – Les Lauriers Sont Coupés

Number five, 1945

Cover of fifth issue, 1945

Weldon Kees – The Purcells
E.E. Cummings – Five Poems
Dane Rudhyar – Neptune, Evocator Extraordinary
– Three Portraits
Henri Hell – Max Jacob
– Clay Spohn's War Machines
Henry Miller – Preface For The Power Within Us
– Four Little Poems
– Rain
– Voltas For Fugues
George Leite & Bern Porter – Photo-poems
Frederic Ramsey, Jr. – Artist's Life
Nicholas Moore – A Poem & A Story
– First Pity
Paul Radin – Journey Of The Soul
Max Harris – Two Poems

Number six, 1945

Cover of sixth issue, 1945

Lawrence Hart (poet) – Some Elements Of Active Poetry
Rosalie Moore – Letter To Camp Orford, Poem In Two Scenes, text
R. H. Barlow – Framed Portent, Table Set For Sea Slime, text
– Death At Noon, Monody In One, text
Jeanne McGahey – Road To Chicago, text
Alfred Morang – Darling Sister And The Pound Of Liver
-Whirl
Henry Miller – Knud Merrild: A Holiday In Paint
Robert Barlow – Tepuzteca, Tepehua
James Laughlin – Poem In 38 Lines
Thomas Parkinson – John Works On A Figure Of Virginia, Carving It
– Return, The Expert
– A Gallery Of Americans
– Soliloquy At Dinner
Alex Comfort – The Soldiers
– My Reply As A Jew
Leonora Carrington – Flannel Night Shirt
Richard O. Moore – Villanelle 1, Villanelle 2
Kenneth Rexroth – Les Lauriers Sont Coupés

Numbers seven and eight, 1946

Cover of seventh and eighth issue, 1946

Robert Duncan (poet) – The Years As Catches
Ian Hugo – Two Block Prints
Anaïs Nin – Hedja
– Finnegan Epic
Bern Porter – Map Of Joyce's Life
Lindley Williams Hubbell Jacques Vache
Kenneth Patchen – Sleepers Awake
– Tattooed Sailor
Kenneth O. Hanson – Falstaff And The Chinese Poet
– Without Horizon
James McCray – Four Paintings
Yvan Goll – The Magic Circle
Brewster Ghiselin – Concert In Dorse
– Oblique Epitome
A.M. Klein – In Memoriam
Thomas Parkinson – Letter To A Young Lady
Howard O'Hagan – The Colony
– The Poem Of The Two Oscars
Robert Barlow – Angel Hernandez, Artist
George Leite & Bern Porter – Two Photo-poems
– A Line Drawing And A Story, The Tryst
– Flamenco
– Easter Bells
Roger Pryor Dodge – A Non-esthetic Basis For The Dance
Alex Austin – Civilization
Oscar Williams – The Lemmings
Paul Radin – Three Conversions
– Fire Sale
– Blue Peter
Darius Milhaud – French Music Between Two Wars
George Barrows – Creative Photography
W.S. Graham – Three Poems
– Two Poems
Jack Jones – A Story, A Poem
Samuel Holmes – The Death Of An Innocent
– Murder And Complacency
Georges Henein – There Are No Pointless Jests
– It All Depends On How You Want It
– Three Poems
Henry Miller – Three Books Tangent To Circle

Number nine, 1946

Cover of ninth issue, 1946

Lawrence Durrell – Eight Aspects Of Melissa
Gerald Burke – Essay On Children
Richard O. Moore – A History Primer
Jim Fitzsimmons – Four Experimental Nudes
David Stuart – The Inflammable Angel Kezia
– The Ars Poetica Of Paul Valery
William Everson – The Release
– Ellwood Graham
George Leite – The Wing: The Mirror
– Taras And The Snowfield
– NP Ward
Hilaire Hiler – Manifesto Of Psychromatic Design
Harold Norse – Three Poems
– The Man In The Cape
Robert Stock – Triumphal Arch
– Oath Of The Tennis Court
Max Harris (poet) – Revolutionary Poem
Mary Fabilli – The Memorable Hospital
Will Gibson – Poem For Three
– Four Poems
Ernst Kaiser – The Development From Surrealism
Richard Lyons (writer) – A Note To Kenneth Patchen
Byron Vazakas – Two Poems
Henry Miller – Rimbaud Opus (Part Two)
– PR, The Portable Review

Number ten, 1948

Cover of tenth issue, 1948

John Whitney & James Whitney – Audio-Visual Music
– Logistics
Mary Fabilli – The Boss
Giuseppe Ungaretti – Eight Poems
– The Great Refusal
– A Margin Of Chaos
Charles Howard – The Bride
Harry Partch – Show-horses In The Concert Ring
Robert Barlow – The Malinche Of Acacingo
Alex Comfort – Two Enemies Of Society
– Forward
– Two Poems
– Poet In Hungary
George Elliott – Story
– Eight Inches Of Snow
Kendrick Smithyman – Legends Of The Gunner And His Girl
– Shuttle
Robert Duncan – Toward An African Elegy
& George Leite- Admission of Fission

References[]

^ Davidson, Michael (1991). The San Francisco Renaissance: Poetics and Community at Mid-Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-521-42304-5.
^ Brady, Mildred (April 1947). "The New Cult of Sex and Anarchy". Harper's Magazine.

External links[]

Circle History, from Jean Varda's ferryboat's website

[1] Davidson, Michael (1991). The San Francisco Renaissance: Poetics and Community at Mid-Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-521-42304-5.

[2] Brady, Mildred (April 1947). "The New Cult of Sex and Anarchy". Harper's Magazine.

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