First printing

£12 plus shipping

108 pages. Format approx. 7"/170mm wide x 10"/240mm tall. 100% recycled, acid-free text paper; acid-free smoke grey endpapers; recycled crimson red card covers. Printed and bound in England. ISBN: 978-0-9573385-7-9

100 Numbered copies

£30 plus shipping

108 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; three-colour title page. ISBN: 978-0-9573385-8-6

Fully bound in deep red cloth; 100% recycled, acid-free text paper; 3-page ‘stepped’ Canson Mi-Tientes front endpapers — the page colours being light grey nestled between black; Canson Mi-Tientes black back endpapers; front cover artwork embossed in silver.

26 Lettered/signed copies, inc. variant edition

£*** plus shipping

108 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; three-colour title page. ISBN: 978-0-9573385-8-6

19 Lettered/signed copies

Also known as the 'Lung Blood' edition. Quarter bound with Canson Mi-Tientes strawberry red paper covered boards and Japanese silk/natural linen spine; front cover artwork embossed in copper; 100% recycled, acid-free text paper; 3-page ‘stepped’ Canson Mi-Tientes front endpapers — the page colours being red, light grey and black; Canson Mi-Tientes red back endpapers; Includes a bound in facsimile of Wantling's US Marines certificate acknowledging his promotion to the rank of sergeant.

Signed by Thurston Moore and John Osborne.

SOLD OUT

7 Lettered/signed/slipcased copies

Quarter bound with hand marbled Buttermilk paper covered boards, with Japanese silk/natural linen spine; front cover artwork embossed in black; 100% recycled, acid-free text paper; 3-page ‘stepped’ Canson Mi-Tientes front endpapers — the page colours being red, light grey and black; Canson Mi-Tientes red back endpapers. Includes a bound in facsimile of Wantling's US Marines certificate acknowledging his promotion to the rank of sergeant. Also tipped in is a broadside of a rarely seen 'little magazine' variation on a well known Wantling poem. Custom slipcase bound in hand marbled Buttermilk paper. Copies with the letters of the author’s surname have been slipcased.

Signed by Thurston Moore, John Osborne and binder/publisher Michael Curran.

SOLD OUT

“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

William Wantling (1933-74) was a veteran of the Korean War and a heroin addict who spent five and a half years in San Quentin Prison, where he first taught himself to write. Upon his release in 1963, under the G.I.Bill, he entered higher education, obtaining a BA and MA in English Literature. A contemporary of Charles Bukowski – with whom he had an unusual and ultimately destructive friendship – Wantling was widely published in the vibrant US poetry scene of the 1960s and 70s, including an appearance in the twelfth edition of the prestigious Penguin Modern Poets series. Whilst maintaining a high profile in the independent press scene, important literary figures such as Edward Lucie-Smith, Walter Lowenfels and Cyril Connolly regularly supported and promoted his work. Christopher Logue, writing in the Times Literary Supplement in December 1967, declared Wantling’s collection The Awakening his recommended book of the year. Wantling was a university lecturer when he died of heart failure on May 2nd 1974, aged 40 years.