Kirby Congdon

Kirby Congdon was raised in rural Connecticut and drafted into the Army during World War II. After serving three years in Europe in the 16th Armored Division, Congdon moved to New York City, where he attended Columbia University on the G.I. Bill and worked as a typesetter for encyclopedic houses and the Brooklyn Heights Press.

In New York in the post-war years, Congdon became active in the grass-roots literary world of avant-garde and small-press poetry. With Jay Socin, he co-founded Interim Books and published Jack Micheline's I Kiss Angels. Also at Interim, Congdon was the editor of Magazine (a storehouse for ammunition), which received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and published works by Gregory Corso and Charles Bukowski among numerous other writers. A volume of Congdon's opinions, Crank Letters, was published by Harry Smith's press, The Smith. Altogether, Congdon has authored or published several dozens of editions of poetry and plays, as well as essays, reviews, and letters in various small-press periodicals. Many of Congdon's limited-edition books, pamphlets, and broadsides are collected in the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays at Brown University Library. Other of Congdon's ephemera, including book reviews, letters, and essays, are held in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library's New American Poetry Collection at the University of Kansas. Presa Press brought out Congdon's Selected Poems & Prose Poems in 2005, along with a collection of one-act plays funded by the Arts Council of Florida, God is Dead (Again).

Since the early 1970's Congdon and his partner Ralph Simmons have lived in Fire Island Pines, N.Y., and in Key West, where they operate Cycle Press.

Online Resources:

Magazine 5
"Brief Encounter" from Grist Magazine
Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays at Brown University Library
New American Poetry Collection at the University of Kansas
Presa Press

Selected Bibliography:

War Poems (Cycle Press 2003)

Poems from Fire Island Pines and Key West (Cycle Press 1999)

Fundamentals (Cycle Press 1997)

Totem (Cycle Press 1992)

Motorcycle books: a critical survey and checklist (Scarecrow Press 1987)

Fantoccini: a little book of memories (Little Caesar Press 1981)

The Arrivistes (Interim Books 1980)

Animals (Kastle Press 1978)

Miss Right (Bellevue Press 1977)

Shirt Poem (Cycle Press 1974)

Black Sun (Pilot Press Books 1973)

When young, I quickly grew (Coronado Press 1964)

Iron Ark: A Bestiary (Interim Books 1962)

Manifesto (Crank Books (broadside) 1962)