Early Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1921)

An anthology of Edna St. Vincent Millay's first three books.

Poetry Review: Early Poems, a collection from Dover Thrift Editions of Edna St. Vincent Millay's first three books, shows it's still possible to get a lot for a little. The most famous photograph of Millay is on the cover. Her first book, Renascence and Other Poems (1917), was published when Millay was 25. The controversial title poem, more than 200 lines, was entered in a contest when she was just 19 and published the next year. These poems demonstrate Millay's early experimenting, reflect her influences, and often look back to great poets of the past. Her second work, A Few Figs from Thistles, was originally published in 1920, with a second expanded edition released in 1922. This book shows a daring bohemian nature and a confident, independent woman of the Roaring Twenties (the 1920's, of course). The poetry world wasn't quite ready for an in-your-face poetess, but readers were and A Few Figs from Thistles was popular and created a stir. Millay began her mature work with her third book, Second April (1921), which opens with the scintillating "Spring." That poems ends: "Life in itself/Is nothing,/An empty cup a flight of uncarpeted stairs./It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,/April/Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers." The book is filled with a variety of accomplished works, including the six-part "Memorial" and twelve sonnets. Many of the poems are concerned with broken romances, death, and dying. Making the reader reflect and identify. More than just reading the three books, however, is that this collection was only $3.50. What a gift that Dover makes so much great work so easily accessible. I believe the British have something similar to Dover in Wordsworth Editions, and I hope other countries do also. Many thanks to those publishers who make great literature available to those who can least afford it, especially when a good library may not be nearby. Sometimes the whole is greater than the parts.  [5★]

"The Manchester Marriage" by Elizabeth Gaskell (1858)

After her husband is lost at sea, a woman marries a conservative man.

Short Story Review: "The Manchester Marriage" is not a story about a United fan married to a City supporter as one might think. Instead it's intended as a tear jerker (if it succeeds depends on whether the reader has a heart of stone). Just a bit of melodrama, with everyone simply human, no villains, nobody doing wrong, and everyone doing their duty as best they can despite the hap of life. To live is to serve. Some characters have to be able to change, and just who does so makes up part of the surprise at the end. The story turns on the twist of a secret with serious legal and psychological consequences. Times change, and what was a matter of life and death in 1858 would be the subject of a screwball comedy with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in 1940. The first twist was predictable, though the ending not so much, and the resolution was both sad and gratifying.  [3★]

"Eveline's Visitant" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1867)

A ghost's revenge: as in life, as in death.

Short Story Review: "Eveline's Visitant" is a short ghost story about two cousins who engage in a duel over a nameless woman, which ends in the death of one (André) and a curse on the other (Hector). Even though Hector is instantly remorseful, this is a tale of Gothic horror. If the curse seems unfair, too bad, equity is not be a requisite element of curses. André was a ladies' man, a "favourite of women," who treacherously stole a woman away from his cousin. In revenge, André's ghost seduces Hector's (later) wife, just as he seduced women when alive. At first glance it seems wrong the sweet and much-loved Eveline should suffer for her husband's youthful crime. So often it's the innocent who suffer most and most unfairly. But was she guiltless in her relationship with the ghost? The reader can't help but wonder why Eveline suffers so much trauma that she wastes away and dies. Braddon leaves a suggestion that Eveline entered into some form of supernatural infidelity, in which case she is punished sure enough for her wavering loyalty. There are even intimations of some erotic attachment between the ghost of Andre and Eveline. She confesses that the ghost "plucked all old familiar joys out of my heart, and left in it but one weird, unholy pleasure -- the delight of his presence ... I have striven against this wickedness in vain." Ironically, she asks her husband to curse her for this sin. "Eveline's Visitant" is a tale of the other side of this life, where the world is harsh, evil happens, and mortals suffer. Mary Elizabeth Braddon was famous for writing "sensation novels," her best known being Lady Audley's Secret (1862).  [3★]

"The Mortal Immortal" by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1833)

The author of Frankenstein explores love and immortality.

Short Story Review: "The Mortal Immortal" is a short, supernatural tale about a young man's confrontation with the perils of immortality and the limits of love. As with Frankenstein, Shelley investigates the boundaries of science (alchemy) and the fearful consequences of experimentation. She attempts to find the line where knowledge challenges the natural order and interferes with what is moral or human, and becomes a blessing and a curse. The irony being that in seeking longer life, one becomes removed from normal life. While inventive and engaging, Shelley develops no radical or startling response to these themes. As a fairy tale this would fall into the "be careful what you wish for" category. Notably, this Gothic tale has a contemporary setting with an emphasis on the psychological; Mary Shelley, ever imaginative.  [3★]

The Spoiler by Domenic Stansberry (1987)

An itinerant reporter stumbles on baseball and arson in a small city in Western Massachusetts.

Mystery Review: The Spoiler combines America's two national pastimes: baseball and murder. Frank Lofton is short, balding, in his late thirties, thinks too much and consistently makes poor decisions. He doesn't know his son by his first marriage, his second marriage has fallen apart, his career as a reporter is marginal, and he's chasing a story in which people who know too much are dying. Did I mention he makes poor decisions? Seems his only joy in life is going to the ballpark to watch the Holyoke Redwings lose ballgames. Frank is the unlikely hero of this introspective, noir, and hardboiled mystery about a Massachusetts town with dying industry and too many abandoned warehouses burning. The story is a slow build. Stansberry paints a careful portrait of town and characters, as Frank spends many pages mulling over the ramifications of the many moving parts he's discovered. Typically for noir there's an aptly named femme fatale, though unusually the reader gets to share some of her thoughts. After a lengthy set-up, the ending comes fast, furious, and unexpected. The Spoiler was the first novel by Domenic Stansberry, who's written a number of other mysteries, including The Confession (2004), from the popular Hard Case Crime series. Stansberry dedicated The Spoiler to Adam Hammer, a surrealist poet and talented baseball player who died in a car accident three years before the novel was published. Adam's book of poetry, Deja Everything, is reviewed on GR (3.75) and Amazon (5.0).  [4★]

American Troubadours by Mark Brend (2001)

A retrospective of nine little known, folkish musicians from the Sixties.

Nonfiction Review: American Troubadours is subtitled "groundbreaking singer-songwriters of the 60s," but most weren't influential and aren't remembered today. Features an odd group of nine musicians, which except for being white, male, folk music-adjacent, and having a recording career that began between 1963 and 1968, don't have a lot in common. Four died young, most had short musical careers (which happens when you die young) ending in the Seventies, three or four were noted songwriters, four or five were talented singers. Three were named Tim, two each Tom and David. Not many boys' names in the Sixties. Most people have never heard of David Ackles, David Blue, Tom Rapp, or Tim Rose. Some folks may be at least vaguely familiar with (those folks who lived through the Sixties and remember the Sixties) Tim Hardin ("If I Were a Carpenter"), Fred Neil ("Everybody's Talking"), Phil Ochs ("Changes," "There But for Fortune"), Tom Rush ("No Regrets"). Tim Buckley may be better known as the father of Jeff Buckley, who had a hit with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." I enjoyed reading about the various artists, some with tragic careers, some who weren't especially nice, some with a lot of talent that they couldn't sustain. American Troubadours is lushly produced on heavy stock with a Foreword and an Introduction, a generous color picture gallery of the artists, well-done biographies of six to eleven (large) pages for each, an illustrated discography in color, a well annotated discography (with star ratings), a key to various other people mentioned in the book and to other artists of the time, and an index. The processing was done in Malaysia and Hong Kong so it's high quality. A first rate production if one doesn't mind the relatively short biographies (they were long enough for me) and the idiosyncratic choice of subjects. There are no women or people of color -- in a group of nine wouldn't you expect at least one? Just because I'm that way, if someone is interested in a sequel to this book they might consider Judee Sill, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Patrick Sky, Judy Roderick, Richie Havens, Carolyn Hester, Karen Dalton, Janis Ian, Richard and Mimi Fariña, Julie Felix, and Judy Henske among about a hundred other artists who weren't too famous, but had interesting careers back in the day. There are few others who were so unfamous that I just can't quite remember their names at the moment ... . Despite all my harping, I'll admit that as a bedsit guitarist, I have happily tried the excellent songs of Hardin, Neil, and Rush. American Troubadours is interesting, but far from necessary. A quite well done oddity. Unless you're a huge fan of one or more of these artists, in which case it won't be quite enough.  [3★]

Chess: East and West, Past and Present by Charles K. Wilkinson & Jessie McNab Dennis (1968)

A sampling of the great  creativity and diversity of chess sets from across the ages and around the world. 

Nonfiction Review: Chess: East and West, Past and Present is the hard-cover catalogue of an exhibition of chess pieces and sets shown at the Brooklyn Museum in 1968 and sponsored by that institution and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the bulk of which is portrayed in here. Most of the works are from the Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Collection, and what's displayed is about a third of the Metropolitan's collection. Who knew the Met collected chess sets? The earliest pieces are from the Sixth or Seventh Centuries to the Ninth and Eleventh Centuries, with the most recent from the 20th Century up to 1944. The sets are made in a wide variety of materials from ivory, bone, wood, amber, iron, silver, ammunition cartridges, and just about anything else the human mind can conceive. Sets are presented from every region on earth -- Indigenous Americans from Mexico and Alaska, Nigeria and Algeria, Japan, China, Burma, Malaya, India, as well as virtually every country in Europe. There are representational sets, designed as figures whether animals or human. These often portray competing armies such Christians and Muslims, Communists and Capitalists, Prussians and Hungarians, Good and Evil, and concepts such as the Conversion of California, The Discovery of America, Shakespeare, Cowboys and Indians, even Blondes and Brunettes. Some of the sets are clearly partisan and intended to make political or social statements. An unusual way to evaluate history and society. There are also the more commonly used "conventional" or abstract designs, meaningful only to those who understand the motif -- such as the most common Staunton style. In all there are 108 styles of pieces or sets, proving the aptness of the title, Chess: East and West,  Past and Present. The introduction is authoritative, thorough, and interesting, covering a wide variety of themes regarding the history of chess and pieces. For the player, addict, or collector this is an eye-opening book showing great diversity and creativity, and some of the sets (Alice in Wonderland) are great fun. Copies are available second hand. In the "if wishes were horses" category, the book could've benefited from more color plates, there are a few but not enough and the character of the various pieces and sets don't come through well in black and white. But then the catalogue would've cost a fortune.  [4★]