The Daniel Jazz

'Mr. Lindsay is America's most vigorous poet, and the poems in this volume are thoroughly characteristic of his peculiar style and qualities. They are poems which should be read aloud, for it is then that their extraordinary rhythm, their strange power and euphony can best be appreciated.' (jacket blurb). Lindsay's atavistic approach to poetry impressed many at the time, including W.B. Yeats, seeing in it a triumphant return to a 'primitive singing of poetry'; his poems expressed, amongst other things, his ambivalence towards America entering the First World War, his admiration for silent film stars of his era, and even pieces designed to be expressed through the medium of dance.

Daniel Jazz was written at the height of Lindsay's career, published first in the UK to coincide with a recital tour he was then undertaking (the first US edition appeared more than ten years later, as an Armed Services paperback). The poet was not apparently very pleased with the publisher's choice of title, feeling it overplayed the performance aspect of his work. Sadly Lindsay seems to have fallen out of fashion following this tour, and his star faded rapidly; he took his own life in 1931, penniless and suffering health problems. His work has been reappraised since, notably by Allen Ginsberg, who even wrote a poem about him:

'Vachel, the stars are out
dusk has fallen on the Colorado road
a car crawls slowly across the plain
in the dim light the radio blares its jazz
the heartbroken salesman lights another cigarette
In another city 27 years ago
I see your shadow on the wall
you're sitting in your suspenders on the bed
the shadow hand lifts up a Lysol bottle to your head
your shade falls over on the floor'
('To Lindsay', Allen Ginsberg).

First edition; 8vo; light browning to free endpapers; publisher's yellow cloth, a little darkened and spotted toward extremities, but overall very good; printed dust-jacket with publisher's device to lower panel, spine and fore-edges browned and rubbed, some edge wear and light creasing, general light dust-soiling, small hole to spine.