"The existence of these poems was not known until recently. Two 
years after the poet's death, his wife found them in his desk in a 
handwritten notebook and in typescript. Nor was most of his later 
work generally known by the reading public. After a spat with his 
long-term New York publisher, Random House, Shapiro had to buy 
back all rights to his own poems. He then proceeded to publish new 
work in books that received relatively limited distribution.

    "Only two of the poems in this final volume of his work have been 
published.

    "Even in his late seventies, Shapiro was writing well, as these 
poems aptly demonstrate. Whenever he dated his manuscripts or 
typescripts, I have supplied the dates. Sophie Wilkins believed most 
of the undated poems in the first section were written in 1984, the 
first year they were together. Occasionally I have corrected a spelling 
or added punctuation, but largely the poems stand as Shapiro left 
them, in his desk drawer in uptown Manhattan, in an apartment 
overlooking the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where his 
last and best Muse lived until her demise."—from the Foreword

_________________________________________________________

KARL SHAPIRO authored a novel, an autobiography, several books 
of essays, and over twenty volumes of poetry. Among his many 
prizes and awards, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the Bollingen 
Prize, and the Shelley Memorial Prize, and he served as Consultant in 
Poetry to the Library of Congress (a title that was changed to 
American Poet Laureate in 1985) for two years. He died in 2000. 
ROBERT PHILLIPS of Houston, who is responsible for compiling, 
editing, and introducing this final book of poems by Karl Shapiro, is 
the author or editor of some thirty volumes of poetry, fiction, 
criticism, and belles lettres and publishes in numerous journals. A 
professor of English, he was director of the Creative Writing Program 
at the University of Houston from 1991 to 1996. In 1998 he was 
named a John and Rebecca Moore Scholar at the university.



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