william wantling • in the enemy camp • publisher's cut • david keenan
A signed, limited edition, expanded 'Publisher's Cut' of In the Enemy Camp by William Wantling (1933-74).
50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
with an introduction by David Keenan
Award-winning author David Keenan (For the Good Times, This is Memorial Device) has written a specially commissioned introduction.
Specially commissioned artwork by Christoph Mueller (Mineshaft; also New Yorker front cover 2021)
EXTRAS:
1) 'Death in Los Angeles' chapbook. Unpublished poem from 1965, with Charles BukowskI 'version' in response.
2) Unpublished photographs. Photos of Wantling, housed in a custom, embossed envelope.
Numbered/signed £150 plus trackable shipping.
50 Numbered/signed copies
£150 plus shipping
Expanded edition, including 'new' and unpublished poems not found in the first edition.
144 pages. Pinched Crown format, approx. 7”/175mm wide, 10”/250mm tall. Handbound at the Tangerine workshop with acid-free boards, conservation glue and hemp cord; foil embossed front cover artwork; colour title page. ISBN: 978-1-917085-09-0
Quarter bound with Lana mid-blue paper covered boards and cloth spine; front cover artwork embossed in black; acid-free text paper and endpapers. Full colour illustration by Christoph Mueller on Mohawk paper and forms part of the 3-page ‘stepped’ front endpapers — the other page colours being crimson and mid-brown; crimson back endpapers.
Specially commissioned introduction by David Keenan (For the Good Times, winner of the Gordon Burn Prize; This is Memorial Device, winner of London Magazine Prize; also Monument Maker, a Rough Trade Book of the Year)
Specially commissioned artwork by Christoph Mueller (regular contributor to Mineshaft; also New Yorker front cover 2021; Rolling Stones artcards)
New 'Publisher's Note' by Michael Curran
EXTRAS:
1) 'Death in Los Angeles' chapbook. Previously unpublished poem from 1965, sent to Charles Bukowski, who wrote his 'version' in response. Both poems published here for the first time.
2) Unpublished photographs. High quality prints of photos, housed in a custom, embossed envelope: Wantling in Military Barracks, 1953; Wantling (close up), 1972); Wantling & Goat, 1972; Wantling & Cat (1973, colour)
SIGNED BY DAVID KEENAN & MICHAEL CURRAN
SOME COMMENTS ON IN THE ENEMY CAMP (2015)
“Sentences flow over lines and across stanzas, raising questions while dragging you ever onward through squalid yet stunning tales; always with rhythm, rarely rhyme. For many who approach this outstanding collection, the brew may prove too strong.”
— Alan Bett, The Skinny
“…a brilliant gathering of poems. It deserves a wide audience.”
— Ian Seed, Stride
“There are poems here that read like Denis Johnson, poems full of beauty, poems full of sass and wisdom, poems that examine shortcomings as well as any poem Ray Carver ever wrote, poems about Korea, jail, drugs, love, the universe, poems that are reflective, keen, poems that turn a stern eye on themselves.”
— Bookmunch
“Wantling’s casual mastery of technique hoodwinks the reader. Many of the poems employ rhyme and half-rhyme but Wantling’s attention to form is hidden in the dark intimacy of his verse.”
— The Manchester Review
Illinois born William Wantling (1933-74) joined the US Marines at seventeen years of age and served in the Korea War. He was honourably discharged in 1955, having attained the rank of sergeant (aged 20 years). The next few years were spent in California, where he and his first wife, Luana, became addicted to heroin, resorting to petty crime, assaults and robbery to finance their growing habit. By 1958, Wantling’s luck had run out and he was incarcerated at San Quentin Prison for 5½ years. Whilst there, his wife (with their son in tow) divorced him. It was in prison that he first taught himself to write. Following his release in 1963, Wantling returned to Illinois, met and married Ruth Ann Bunton and, under the G.I. Bill, enrolled at Illinois State University, obtaining a B.A. and an M.A. in English. As well as publishing a number of poetry collections, being courted by Doubleday chasing a debut novel and even producing ‘erotic’ pot-boilers for the adult market, he was a regular and respected contributor to the literary scene, including an appearance in the prestigious Penguin Modern Poets series. On completing his studies at ISU, he was asked by the faculty to stay on as a lecturer. Wantling continued to have addiction problems, however, often ending up in hospital for treatment. Likwise, he would admit himself to Veterans’ Association psychiatric wards throughout the 1960s, alongside occasional run-ins with the law. Wantling died of heart failure on May 2nd 1974, aged 40 years.
David Keenan is the author of six critically-acclaimed novels; the cult classic This is Memorial Device, which won the London Magazine Prize; For the Good Times, which won the Gordon Burn Prize and was shortlisted for the Encore Award; The Towers The Fields The Transmitters, Xstabeth, which was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award; Monument Maker, which was a Rough Trade Book of the Year and Industry of Magic & Light. He is also the author of England’s Hidden Reverse, a history of the UK’s post-punk and Industrial music scenes. He has been writing about music since he was seventeen years old, most consistently for The Wire, and between the years 2004-2014 he co-ran the cult Glasgow record shop Volcanic Tongue.
Publishing misfits, mavericks and misanthropes since 2006
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