Longshot O'Leary Counsels Direct Action

Poetry. This collection is a sampler of Thomas McGrath's best short poems from the 1940s to the 1970s edited by Fred Whitehead. It is modeled after an earlier pamphlet, Longshot O'Leary's Book of Practical Poetry, published shortly after the Second World War. McGrath then is a western American, a radical, a modern and 'postmodern, ' witty, angry, important, as yet neglected poet. Most who know his work believe that his importance in the body of recent American poetry will continue to grow, especially as additional parts of Letter to an Imaginary Friend become available in book form--Frederick C. Stern