Just received in the mail: a masterly bilingual edition in English and German of Slow Newsreel of Man Riding Train by Robert Nichols. (The title in German: Langsame Wochenschau Eines Bahnreisenden.) It is the latest in Stadtlichter Presse’s Heartbeats series devoted to American poets of the Beat generation.
Slow Newsreel of Man Riding Train was originally published in 1962 as No. 15 in City Lights Books’ Pocket Poets Series. It has been out of print for decades. Why City Lights hasn’t reprinted it is a mystery to me. Nichols’s book is one of the best in that series. Maybe it’s a matter of literary rights? Or maybe it’s simply been underappreciated and overlooked. I think the latter. Here are the opening lines of the first poem:
Beginning when I was six I became my father's accomplice
in his affair with trains.
The wheels of the night train
are thundering over the Portland Street trestle.
We are crouched below, momentarily wrapped in steam.
At a country crossing the Express passes us
and disappears in the snow. . . .
Our job was to mark the passage
of all trains going North South & West of Wayne Jtn ME.
as an ornithologist notes the flyways of birds.
We knew the names of all trains
even the secret ones.
I can’t help wondering what Jack Kerouac made of Nichols’s railroad poems. I don’t think he ever commented on them.
Thank you so much for this post. I did not know about Robert Nichols and am very happy to discover his work. It does not appear that any of his poetry is currently in print, only works by the British poet of the same name. I’d love to get a copy of this new edition. I also see he was married to the wonderful writer Grace Paley.
thnx for your comment. if you message the publisher of stadtlichter presse, you can order a copy for delivery by mail: ralf.zuehlke@gmx.de or post@stadtlichterpresse.de.
mailing cost for books from Germany to the States (which I assume is where you are) has become more expensive and less reliable than it used to be, due to problems created by Trumpian p.o. hassles, as you may know. but the mailing cost shouldn’t be too expensive, since the book is slim (64 pages) and would be well worth it. as is the entire Stadslichter Heart Beats series.
yes, married to Grace Paley, antiwar activist, architect, one of the founders of Judson Poets Theater, involved with Bread & Puppet theater, and so on. here a brief bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Nichols_(author)#:~:text=Robert%20Nichols%20(July%2015%2C%201919,poet%20and%20short%20story%20writer.