Books in Masterpieces of American Literature series

Lines from a Canvas offers the public one of the best kept secrets in the world of poetry for years, the work of Jacob Miller. His poems uniquely traverse the cultural territory from Homer to the Grateful Dead, taking the reader from ancient Greece and Rome to the Holocaust to the Cold War to Vietnam to 9/11. In short, the expansive canvas of his content presents a compelling spectrum mixing classical and modern brush strokes, all while exploring experiences of love and loss, isolation and separation, as well as mortality. Consistent with his content, though perhaps of even greater importance, the crowning achievement shown in this collection is Jacob Miller's new poetic technique, which delivers the reader to an expertly constructed and long-needed bridge between classical traditions (such as rhyme and meter, or even hidden slant rhymes or assonance connections), and imagistic free-verse. Additionally, this collection contains the poet's free-verse libretto to the modern opera Manhattan in Charcoal,(recently released on CD). The title poem, Lines from a Canvas, offers the point of view of a canvas, not the painter, and this launches the operative conceit in this collection: each poem explores the perspective of the canvas of life and death, more than the poet himself. Each poem truly brings something new to the page.

"I have a swell idea for a long poem," wrote Stephen Vincent Benét to his wife in 1925. "The only trouble is, it would take about seven years to write and I'd have to read an entire library first." Thus began the long journey into 100,000 words—almost 15,000 lines—that was to culminate in the publication in 1928 of John Brown's Body. Benét knew it would be a long, arduous, often discouraging task, and yet it was one in which he strongly believed and just as strongly wanted to complete. "The book had to be written," wrote his brother William Rose Benét. "It sprang from inner necessity." This stirring poem is a remarkably vivid portrait of our heritage. It has been widely published, has received a Pulitzer Prize, has been the basis for a powerful stage performance that toured 60 cities across the country. Such distinction carries The Franklin Library limited edition dress and binding most comfortably. Come with us now to the American Civil War, to the adventure, drama and lyrical beauty of John Brown's Body. The Editors 1976 Franklin Mint Corporation Printed in the United States of America