The Purchase Poetry Review, Vol. 4 (1980)

Purchase, New York: Purchase College, SUNY, 1980. Stapled Wraps. Very Good. 5.5" x 8.25. Purchase College, State University of New York - early 1970s brainchild of Nelson Rockefeller, designed as the perfect "menage a trois" of arts, liberal arts, and sciences - hip, intense, an isolated oasis, an honors/pass/no-credit grading system. Then came the budget cuts and the insidious letter-grade quantification of achievement, along with Albany's increasingly conservative answers to the question: "What is higher education?" The campus has always been fertile soil for poetry, blossoming as "art", self-therapy, protest, confession, or escapism. Here is another annual selection of works, mostly by students, but with an occasional contribution from professors and staff, as well as "outsiders" (also including Joseph A. Chamberlain, Ian Ganassi, Daniela Gioseffi, Cynthia Grisolia, Ron Janoff, Linda Levitz, Harry Lewis, Louis Phillips, Natale S. Polly, Norman Rosten, Robin Schoen, Susan Schwartz, Geri Solomon, Michelle Somerville, Amy Smiley, Paul Spillinger, Gayle Stants, Terry Stokes, and Frances Whyatt). 52 pages. CONDITION: a tight, unmarked copy with light shelf-wear and some sunning to its covers, with only one tiny faint crease - on a back cover corner. This attractive copy is now in a clear, protective polypropylene bag with archival backing board.