In the Mail Today

In my mail today: the last two Burning Deck titles: Elke Erb's The Up and Down of Feet  and Paol Keineg's Triste Tristan, and a letter hand-signed by Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop explaining that even the nonpareil thing must come to an end.

"Begun in 1961, Burning Deck has had a long and, at least to us, interesting life. Now after 56 years, our own  high-end birthdays and illnesses make us end the press."

I think one could easily make a strong argument that Burning Deck was the most important American publisher of avant-garde poetry in the half century it operated, and it certainly built strong bridges between the European (particularly, the French and German) and American vanguards. 

Here's a by-no-means-comprehensive list of notable titles the press published (from Burning Deck's Wiki article):

99: The New Meaning, by Walter Abish

A Geometry by Anne-Marie Albiach

Why Write? by Paul Auster

The Heat Bird, by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge

Utterances, by William Bronk

The Grand Hotels (of Joseph Cornell), by Robert Coover

Striking Resemblance by Tina Darragh

Species of Intoxication: Extracts from the Leaves of the Doctor Ordinaire by Michael Gizzi

Artificial Heart, by Peter Gizzi

The Countess from Minneapolis, by Barbara Guest

Innocence in extremis by John Hawkes

My Life, by Lyn Hejinian

A Test of Solitude by Emmanuel Hocquard

Some Other Kind of Mission by Lisa Jarnot

Trial Impressions by Harry Mathews

i.e. by Claude Royet-Journoud

Numen, by Cole Swensen

The Windows Flew Open, by Marjorie Welish

Turneresque, by Elizabeth Willis

The Heat Bird is just a fantastic book. It's impossible not to see how that book influenced Rosmarie Waldrop's own evolution as a poet. I would recommend readers enjoy the Berssenbrugge title alongside Rosmarie's equally stellar The Reproduction of Profiles (New Directions). Both of these books hold up wonderfully.

There are so many more titles worth recommending in their back catalog. For example, the authors of the two final books published by the press have both been published by Burning Deck before, and I would recommend both of those earlier books. (I reviewed Keineg's earlier title for the American Book Review, back in the old papery, pre-internet days.)

I hope this means Keith and Rosmarie will be able to concentrate on their own poetry without distraction now. They've more than earned that. And I also have this (perhaps quixotic?) hope and wish that the powers-that-be might grant either deserving poet a MacArthur so we can set a new record, age-wise. I have no doubt the funds would not go to waste. And both poets are "fully empowered" now, to speak in the Nerudesque idiom. Age be damned.