The Wild Party - Hardcover

by Joseph Moncure March (Author), Steele Savage (Illustrator), Louis Untermeyer (Introduction by)

The Wild Party is a narrative poem written by Joseph Moncure March, originally published in 1928. The poem tells the story of a wild and decadent party thrown by a vaudeville dancer named Queenie and her lover, Burrs, a violent and jealous vaudeville clown. The party is attended by a cast of colorful characters, including a lesbian stripper, a cocaine-addicted playboy, and a black boxer. As the night wears on, the party spirals out of control, with drunkenness, drug use, and sexual excess leading to violence and tragedy. The poem is notable for its vivid imagery, rhythmic language, and frank depictions of sexuality and violence, which caused controversy and scandal upon its initial publication. The Wild Party has since become a classic of American literature and has been adapted into a successful musical and a film.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Front Jacket

Spiegelman's drawings are like demonic woodcuts: every angle, line, and curve jumps out at you. Stylishness and brutishness are in perfect accord.
-- "The New York Times
Art Spiegelman's sinister and witty black-and-white drawings give charged new life to Joseph Moncure March's Wild Party, a lost classic from 1928. The inventive and varied page designs offer perfect counterpoint to the staccato tempo of this hard-boiled jazz-age tragedy told in syncopated rhyming couplets.
Here is a poem that can make even readers with no time for poetry stop dead in their tracks. Once read, large shards of this story of one night of debauchery will become permanently lodged in the brain. When The Wild Party was first published, Louis Untermeyer declared: "It is repulsive and fascinating, vicious and vivacious, uncompromising, unashamed . . . and unremittingly powerful. It is an amazing tour de force."