“If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live than it is…” - John F. Kennedy
So reads the frontispiece to, “Marcantoniana: Items from the Life and Times of the Marvelous Vito Marcantonio;” a collection of 41 essays, vignettes, literary reviews, and symposia reports I wrote, dating back to 2013.
Ergo…Kennedy’s remark about politics and poetry, the balancing of which I’ve strived for throughout my days as a Scribe.
I’m squishy about pushing my novel after the initial, post-release flurry. I don’t ask for reviews, or for anything really, but I WILL make ANOTHER book just so that you might be reminded about the novel in case, you know…
These writings are from an online source of the same name. The website’s first posts were drawn from material I could not fit into the novel’s framework, but were worthy of recounting.
Though run independently of the Vito Marcantonio Forum, “Marcantoniana,” did concern itself with the group’s agenda.
The Forum’s de facto leader, the late Gerald Meyer, planted seeds for certain of the topics covered and provided subsequent critique. Included in the book are some of our backs-and-forths by email to demonstrate how an old school CP guy and an anarcho-syndicalist reach consensus.
There are posts specific to Marcantonio: “Marc and The Mob,” “The Bread of the Poor,” while other entries meet the subtitle’s criteria as, “Items from the Life and Times of,” such as, “Literature in the Red Decade,” “Rubinstein on the Harlem Renaissance,” or “Birthday Card for Tina Modotti”.
Running 281 pages, it’s designed as a companion volume to “The Goodfather.” Same font and color scheme, same anti-AI cut-and-paste graphic sensibility, so that they stand handsomely together on your bookshelf.
In 2007, I budgeted four years to do research and write the novel. The journey became something much longer and more rewarding, but with “Marcantoniana” I reach the end of my scholarly and literary efforts on behalf of this good man.
I hope to be in New York City this April and hold court in a Manhattan bar for a pair of nights, bring some books, and wait for you to come meet the crazy California writer. Let me know if you might make it and if you have ideas about a venue.
Find it here: https://a.co/d/3sPiAwg
