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.

Chapbooks 24

Artemis’ Bow
Leslie Palmer
Red Lion Chapbook
Denton, TX
©1993

Last year I bought a lot of chapbooks on ebay and this was among them. All the books in the lot were from Denton, Texas which is a town I ate Chinese food in during a blur of a cross country trip I was part of back in early 2001.

Leslie Palmer taught Bible and Classics at the University of North Texas for 25 years. This is her third chapbook. It’s handsome and well made. 17 pages. Signed and numbered. I didn’t know that there were poets in north Texas. Well there are. It’s a nice little collection.



How I Love
Jeremy Robinson
A Quixote-Thoth Magazine Supplement

There is no information about this supplement in the supplement. 7 poems by Jeremy Robinson with a photo on back by Carl Dobkin. There are woodcuts throughout the text by Judith Deibig-Lacaria. Nice paper. Well made.


The Worchester Poems
A Triobite Poetry Chapbook
University of North Texas Press
Denton, TX
©1991

Apparently the English Department at the University of North Texas ran a poetry series in the early 1990’s where they would invite a poet to read, then publish a small chapbook of work that was read and/or representative of the poet’s work. This thin chapbook of unnumbered pages is one of those in the series. Signed and numbered in front. These are prose poems. Interesting work. Cover a bit generic but it’s the thought that counts here.

Life: still under construction
Wilson L Buchert III
Self published
1997

This book is dedicated to the memory of the author’s recently deceased wife. 30 pages. Clip-art cover. Heartfelt and touching. It’s important to remember everyone who has gone to the trouble of creating a book. Here my heart goes out to Buchert and hope that the years have been kind to him

Object 1:4
Zero Degree Press
Lancaster, PA
©1997

This journal was created by the sponsoring organization, the Poetry Continuum, which existed in Lancaster from 1988-1998. It was a clique of writers whose work and language seem interchangeable. Hearing one was like hearing all. This is the first issue. 23 pages. Blue cover with yellow numbers on front. Featuring the work of 9 poets. A nice capsule for that place in time.