THE OUTLANDER. Natal Number, Autumn, '26.

Lewis, H.H. [Harold Harwell] (1901-1985); editor. Communist American Poet and farmhand.

Published by Cape Girardeau, MO: H.H. Lewis, 1926., 1926

SIGNED BY THE COMMUNIST AMERICAN POET H.H. LEWIS - Octavo, 8-3/4 inches high by 5-3/4 inches wide. Printed tan wraps, titled in a rustic decorative style on the front cover and with a short poem printed on the rear cover. This little periodical was once bound in with a larger collection of pamphlets as attested by remnants of green cloth tape and stab marks along the inner edge. 21 pages, illustrated with 3 textual vignettes or decorations. The contents are bright & clean. Good. Signed in blue ink by H.H. Lewis on the last page and with a correction in his hand on page 4.RARE.This issue is dedicated to Noah F. Whitaker, the poet-editor of the small poetry magazine "Pegasus" and includes an appearance of his poem "I Hate The Stony-Hearted Crew". Also appearing in this issue is the short poem "The Dreamers" by New York Bohemian poet Anton Romatka.In addition to Lewis' own contributions, including his poem "Amateur Woes", several other contributors are identified as Ezrirah Gunk, Mogler Snodgrass, The Boss, Joe Slimp, Farthingstone B. Twatt, names so unlikely that they may well be pseudonyms for Lewis himself.Lewis concludes on the last page: "Grand Finale: Beloved readers bear with me. You are about to finish one of the queerest magazines that you ever read - one that fully lives up to its name: it is really outlandish. The old junk-pile rattles and groans. Long years of hard service have uniformly weakened it here and there and at all points. It's under the impending fate of general and complete collapse but still holds out. Like the "one hoss shay," it goes on and on until disintegration, sudden and to be put off no more, revengeful - will overwhelm it. Now there are strange shudders and vibrations passing throughout. A nut drops off. A crack appears and widens in the base. A rod breaks with a tired faint snap. A casting crumbles and the ink-table falls. Hey, the whole thing's going to pieces! - Bear with me, friends! (crack!) Goo'bye till we meet again - goo'bye, goo'bye! (Crack! . plop . plop, plop . plop .)". And here the author prints "yours" and signs his name in ink.The Communist American poet Harold Harwell Lewis (1901-1985) was born near Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Lewis traveled through the Southwest as a common laborer during the Great Depression and his adventures and impression inspired his later works. Returning to the family farm, Lewis pursued his passion to write and even published his own magazine "The Outlander". Malcolm Cowley praised him as "the red-starred laureate" and his poems were published in Cowley's "The New Republic", Jack Conroy's "The Anvil" and Mencken's "The American Mercury". He had a close friendship with William Carlos Williams who saw him as a colleague in his search for the common man, the "low-down Americano". Lewis' essays and prose sought to bring to light the condition of Native Americans, African-Americans and the struggling sharecroppers, drawing on dialect and vernacular. His works were translated in Japanese, French, German, and of course Russian as his proletarian and revolutionary sympathies made him popular in the Soviet Union. His later essays and poems focused on the plight of sharecroppers as well as on conspiracy theories regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor. Seller Inventory # 94983

Bibliographic Details

Title: THE OUTLANDER. Natal Number, Autumn, '26.
Publisher: Cape Girardeau, MO: H.H. Lewis, 1926.
Publication Date: 1926
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good
Signed: Signed by Author(s)