I forgot how I originally stumbled upon the poetry of Kenneth Patchen, I was in college at Syracuse University and I remember going to the rare books room on the 5th(?) floor of Bird Library to look at his manuscript in the collection. I was charmed by the illustrations, hand lettering and poetry. I ended up writing a paper about Patchen for some class and was on a mission to collect his books which were at that time, mostly out of print. When I was in Philly over the weekend, D. and I popped into a lovely independent bookstore, Joseph Fox Bookshop, - and lo and behold, sitting on the shelf was this newly printed Kenneth Patchen book with his illustrated poetry. I think his original drawings were in color- but this book is black and white. I wish it was slightly larger and that the poems were reproduced in color. But nonetheless, I'm happy I found it, and happier that D. bought it for me as a present! 10 March 2009
The Wonderful World of Kenneth Patchen
I forgot how I originally stumbled upon the poetry of Kenneth Patchen, I was in college at Syracuse University and I remember going to the rare books room on the 5th(?) floor of Bird Library to look at his manuscript in the collection. I was charmed by the illustrations, hand lettering and poetry. I ended up writing a paper about Patchen for some class and was on a mission to collect his books which were at that time, mostly out of print. When I was in Philly over the weekend, D. and I popped into a lovely independent bookstore, Joseph Fox Bookshop, - and lo and behold, sitting on the shelf was this newly printed Kenneth Patchen book with his illustrated poetry. I think his original drawings were in color- but this book is black and white. I wish it was slightly larger and that the poems were reproduced in color. But nonetheless, I'm happy I found it, and happier that D. bought it for me as a present! 