Poetry Chicago, Spring 1958

KoehlL, M[att] (ed.); Eustace Mullins (contributor)

Published by [Eustace Mullins], Chicago, 1958

A strange one-off poetry chapbook edited by the future leader of the National Socialist White People's Party/New Order, Matthias "Matt" Koehl and funded by Koehl's fellow far right activist, poet, artist, and probable one-time lover Eustace Mullins. Besides being active in right wing circles beginning in the 1950s, both men were devoted acolytes of imprisoned poet Ezra Pound and served on the committee to free him from St. Elizabeth's asylum in Washington, D.C. But Poetry Chicago avoids any of the extremist posturing that both Koehl and Mullins would be remembered for and is described by Koehl in his short opening editorial thusly: POETRY CHICAGO celebrates a great city and a great civilization. We hope you will participate in that commemoration, which is expressed here by the most magnificent of all rituals, the fanfare of poetry." The chapbook collects a dozen tepid poems from Koehl, a single poem from Mullins, an excerpt from Hugo Plantagenet's long-form poem "Risus Sardonicus" (published the same year in full by Mullins. Plantagenet was a pseudonym, perhaps for Mullins himself, and is playfully described here as the "Aristocrat of Surrealism," of French and Jewish extraction), and four poems by frequent Mullins collaborator Wade Donohue. In the early 1950s Koehl moved to New York City to join James Madole's National Renaissance Party before returning to Chicago in the mid-1950s. He was a founding member of the short-lived United White Party, which was later absorbed by the National States Rights Party, and in 1960 joined the American Nazi Party. He rose through the ranks before succeeding ANP leader George Lincoln Rockwell following his 1967 assassination. He proved a fractious and unpopular leader, but remained at the helm of the organization (which renamed the New Order in 1983) for the next 47 years before dying of cancer in 2014. Stapled silver foil wrappers (8 ½" x 5 ½" x ), [24] p. Some rubbing to wrappers, else a fine copy. Less than a dozen copies in OCLC. This copy came from the inventory of Mullins' remaindered copies squirrelled away for decades and now in our possession. Seller Inventory # 07773

Bibliographic Details

Title: Poetry Chicago, Spring 1958
Publisher: [Eustace Mullins], Chicago
Publication Date: 1958
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included