My wife insists that I do something more expansive than merely acknowledging chapbooks as I come across them. She is aware of how much info and knowledge I have acquired along the way and she keeps telling me to "do more".
So in addition to this blog I have been formulating "A history of poetry chapbooks" (it's actually the subtitle of the work, the actual title will be revealed a bit later on). The focus will be American, because I am an American but more to the point : it's what I know and what I find. I have found and written about chapbooks produced in other countries occasionally but with some exceptions for British-based poetry booklets, I am looking at this endeavor through an American lens.
I do now and have appreciated the interest of those who have endured my often thumbnail summations of a number of the books that I have written about. But therein lays the rub about this subject : often the books are "one-offs", self produced or through a vanity press that disappeared before the ink was dry. The authors of the books might also not get recognization between the one chapbook that I have found of theirs. And I mention the book, the author, and the press that produced it in case it's true that my writing about them means they will not be forever lost to time.
And off we go again, chasing wild geese
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