Phoenix: The Baleen Press, 1971. First edition. 32pp. 8vo. Brown cloth stamped in gilt on spine; lacking a jacket if issued with one. Sunning to spine and tops of boards, else near fine. Signed and inscribed to the half-title: “a constant friend through it all— J. D.” The position of the inscription just below the printed dedication to Jack Thompson, suggests that he may have been the recipient of this copy.
A collection of poems about alcoholics and barrooms, with illustrations by Harriet Wolk Quick; in a statement at rear, Reed writes: “I tried to capture the bathos (both kinds) of the drinker without using that quality in the verse. The lush is merely one of the lab slides in existence. Also, the American tavern is a dramatic production that outdoes the circus, the baseball game and the poetry reading in elaborateness of gesture and speech.” J. D. Reed (1940-2005) won a Guggenheim Award for his 1970 collection Expressways; his 1980 crime novel Free Fall was adapted into the 1981 film The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper.
