Introductions

DeCasseres wrote introductions, forewords and prefaces to a number of books, what follows is an incomplete list. They are currently ordered by chance, those with cover images and descriptions are first, in whatever order completed.


The Sublime Boy

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Title: The Sublime Boy; the Poems of
Author: Walter De Casseres
DeC’s Contribution: Introduction and a few poems.
Publisher: Seven Arts, New York
Year: 1926
Publisher: Underworld Amusements
Year: 2014

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Thirty Years On The Open Road

Title: Thirty Years On The Open Road
Author: Bruce Calvert
DeC’s Contribution: Foreword
Publisher: Greenberg
Year: 1941
Pages: 280

Extract from inside front jacket flap reads:
This book epitomizes the personal views on world events and on human problems and his reactions to nature and people of an unusual man who led an unusual life.

Primitives: Poems and Woodcuts

Title: Primitives: Poems and Woodcuts
Author: Max Weber
DeC’s Contribution: Introduction
Publisher: New York: Spiral Press
Year: 1926
Pages: 36
Only 350 numbered copies. The first book by the famous Spiral Press (founded by Joseph Blumenthal and A. George Hoffman). Introduction by Benjamin de Casseres. With eleven woodcuts by Weber; text printed in Pen Print Bold on hand-made English paper. In the original modernist binding after a design by Weber.

The Planetary Heart

Title: The Planetary Heart
Author: Eric Baker
DeC’s Contribution: Foreword ( also includes an introduction by John Cowper Powys)
Publisher: The Wings Press
Year: 1942

Inside front jacket flap reads:
“It is rarely that a book, much less a first book of poetry, is introduced by two such eminent critics as John Cowper Powys and Benjamin DeCasseres. It is more rarely yet that a book deserves the commendation of such authorities. But we issue Eric Wilson Barker’s collection of poems with a full belief that its authentic lyricism, its sensitive reactions to nature, and its imaginative reach and power not only entitle it to the words of praise uttered by Mr. Powys and Mr. DeCasseres but will earn for it a treasured place in the minds and hearts of all poetry lovers.”

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The Hermaphrodite: A Poem

Hermaphrodite

Title: The Hermaphrodite: A Poem
Author: Samuel Loveman
DeC’s Contribution: Preface
Publisher: W. Paul Cook
Year: 1926
Pages: 33

The book was published in an edition of 350 copies in July, 1926. Besides the 2 page preface by DeC, the work “The Hermaphrodite” is one long poem.

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Painted Veils

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Title: Painted Veils
Author: Huneker, James
DeC’s Contribution: 8 page Preface
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Year: 1947 “Black & Gold Edition”
Pages: 310

DeCasseres wrote the preface to a later edition of the book after it had gained some noteriety. This story, set in New York, is noted as being Huneker’s most famous novel. James Huneker was a noted art critic.

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Selected Poems

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Title: Selected Poems
Author: Clark Ashton Smith
DeC’s Contribution: “Clark Ashton Smith: Emperor of Shadows”
Publisher: Arkham House
Year: 1971
Pages: 403

Selected Poems is a collection of poems by Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1971 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,118 copies. The collection also includes several translations of French and Spanish poems. Christophe des Laurieres and Clérigo Herrero, however, are not real people, and the poems are actually compositions of Smith’s.


What I learned in Nazi Germany

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Title: What I learned in Nazi Germany
Author: Major Frank Pease
DeC’s Contribution: Foreword
Publisher: American Defender Press
Year: 1934
Pages: 59

I first ran across this book in an advertisement while researching online (see below), and know little about it.

The following is a short news item from January 27th, 1934:
“What I Learned in Nazi Germany,” a booklet written by Major Frank Pease and just published by the American Defender Press at 221 Centre street, links Communism and Nazism in Germany.
Pease, a former officer of the United States Army and a writer for a number of American magazines, expresses apprehension with regard to both the internal structure of the Third Reich and Hitler’s foreign policies. Pease contends that the Nazi structure of Hitler’s domain merely shelters huge masses of Communists now parading in brown shirts and that the foreign policy of the Hitler Government is rapidly leading the nation to another debacle such as that of 1914.

Ad from “The Economic Bulletin”, August 1934

Pease describes the bitterness of Nazis in Germany toward Americans and America, a fact which the major states was evidenced by Nazi assaults on his own and the person of his wife during their stay. He charges that he and his wife bore the brunt of a vicious Nazi attack and that American diplomatic officials made no effort to protest.   “The Vaterland,” Pease writes, “itself is a country of overgrown kindergartners who look upon the nations around them as but blocks to play with–never mind the blood, and damn the consequences. Germans have more intellectual intolerance than any other tribe on earth. They are of the fearful breed which is ‘always right.’ Their very sneers are ex cathedra.”


And the Sphinx Spoke

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Title: And the Sphinx Spoke
Author: Paul Eldridge
DeC’s Contribution: Three Page Introduction
Publisher: The Stratford Company
Year: 1921
Pages: 99


The Boy of Bethlehem

Title: The Boy of Bethlehem
Author: Bio Terrill DeCasseres
DeC’s Contribution:
Publisher: Christopher Press, New York
Year: 1926


Life Sings a Song

Title: Life Sings a Song
Author: Samuel Hoffenstein
DeC’s Contribution: Short introduction.
Publisher: Wilmarth PublishingCompany
Year: 1916

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Intimate Letters of James Gibbons Huneker

Title: Intimate Letters of James Gibbons Huneker
Author: James Huneker, edited by Josephine Huneker
DeC’s Contribution: Forword
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corp.
Year: 1936

Intimate letters of James Gibbons Huneker, colleced and edited by Josephine Huneker; with a foreword by Benjamin DeCasseres.

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