{"product_id":"letters-of-a-poet-dying-a-p-walton-9781682262955","title":"Letters of a Poet Dying: The Selected Correspondence of Frank Stanford","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLetters of a Poet Dying\u003c\/i\u003e is a watershed publication--the first collection of correspondence by the virtuosic poet Frank Stanford (1948-78). Born in southeast Mississippi, Stanford lived most of his brief life in northern Arkansas, where he studied, loved, founded a publishing company, and wrote prolifically before ending his life at the age of twenty-nine. These strikingly original letters, postcards, and book inscriptions written in Stanford's twenties to several dozen recipients--poets, editors, friends, lovers, and family members--illuminate his complicated and often tumultuous creative process.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnhanced by A. P. Walton's painstaking scholarship, Stanford's correspondence reveals a poet intent on crafting and shaping his oeuvre as he approached the death he long anticipated. \"I have never feared Death,\" he wrote in 1972. For him, \"Death was always there, a pale master holding the reins of my horse.\" Yet these letters are much more than a contemplation of the poet's own mortality--they demonstrate a lust for life and contain untold moments of beauty, providing intimate, moving glimpses into Stanford's creativity, aesthetic beliefs, friendships, romances, and fears.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat these letters have survived obscurity for the many decades since the poet's death is a small miracle. Stanford's letters offer a clear window into the genius of one of the most gifted and prodigious poets of the twentieth century and stand in their own right as significant works of literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e A. P. Walton\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1682262952\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781682262955\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Arkansas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/11\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 406\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"A. P. Walton","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48440777867519,"sku":"9781682262955","price":49.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_508dcafd-ed13-4c4a-809a-9c6635ab97e9.jpg?v=1777184746","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/letters-of-a-poet-dying-a-p-walton-9781682262955","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}