THEODORE RUSSELL WEISS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 180870

THEODORE RUSSELL WEISS
Poet Theodore Russell Weiss wrote this letter to a teacher. It accompanied a set of poems that he signed, of which he said: "I hope they do spur some of your students on to better work."
Autograph letter signed "Theodore Weiss" in blue ink. 1 page, 6x9. In full: "Dear Ms. McGilberry, Normally I sign only my books. But since you've chosen an interesting set of poems & since you intend them for a likely cause, I do not mind signing the poems. I hope they do spur some of your students on to better work. As for drawing a self-caricature, I'm afraid I have to beg off. It would - whatever I tried to draw - look nothing like me. Sincerely,". An American master of long narrative poetry, Weiss (1916-2003, born in Reading, Pennsylvania) is probably best known as one of the founding editors of the Quarterly Review of Literature in 1943. The magazine publilshed poetry by William Carlos Williams, E. E. Cummings and Ezra Pound, as well as poetry by non-English speakers and women, including Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath and Joyce Carol Oates before they became famous. Weiss was sole editor of the magazine in 1944, a position he held until 2003, the year of his death. He published a number of collections and book-length poems of his own between 1951 and 1995. His best-known poem is probably Gunsight, a book-length poem on war and the suffering of soldiers begun in the early 1940s and published in 1962. Lightly toned, soiled and creased. Page was neatly torn from a notebook or larger sheet at right edge. Folded twice and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.