chapbooks 27

The Alley Cat on the Page
Kevin Corn (ed.)
Writers’ Center Press
Indianapolis, IN
©1980

Having been influenced by Michael Dirda, Jack Matthew (author of Booking Pleasure) , and Umberto Eco as well as writers of a relatively new genre of bibilomystery, I now look at each of my little mentions or reviews as something like detective notes. Each book telling the story of not only the author, or in the case of an anthology like this, of the authors but also the publisher and the city it was printed in and the time period that it was printed in.

Here’s a 38 page anthology of poets who were part of a reading series in Indianapolis at the end of the 1970’s with brief bios in the back as well as an intro by editor Kevin Corn. The amazing thing about this is how some of the poets who are in this chapbook have become well known poets, like Alice Friman, Elizabeth Cohen, and Marcia Blumenthal Lewton among others. Others have disappeared but had this precise moment of recognition for themselves – back in 1980.

Still
Deborah Burnham
Seven Kitchens Press
Lewisburg, PA
©2008

New publisher, new series. 7” x 5” book, well designed and beautifully made. 24 pages. Poetry is very good. Worth checking out – go to their website, http://sevenkitchens.blogspot.com

The Hound of Heaven
Francis Thompson
Morehouse-Barlow Co.
Wilton, Connecticut
©1947

Tiny book, 5 1/2” x 4”, illustrated by Jean Young. A rare and classic early post-war chapbook. 29 pages. Interesting little book indeed.


Love Among the Mad
Giles Mitchell
University of North Texas Press
Denton, Texas
©1991

This is another in the Trilobite Poetry chapbook series of the University of North Texas which I mentioned in a previous posting. Pages unnumbered. Signed by poet, Giles Mitchell. #78 of 400 printed. Described as a poem sequence.

I Googled Dr. Mitchell and found that he died in 2003. He had been at North Texas for 40 years and was the co-chair of their English department. He was 74 years old at the time of his death. Glad to have this chapbook in my collection now.