Shrieking of the Better Years – by Vachel Lindsay

The American performance poet, artist, and activist Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) dedicated his life to spreading his vision of a potential America transmuted into a socialist, ecologically responsible, racially diverse utopia. Like Blake, Lindsay viewed his everyday context of contemporary America prophetically, through his own highly personalized and esoteric mythic lens, dominated by the Queen of Bubbles; this myth was built around an emblematic “Map of the Universe” he first drew in 1904.

Lindsay’s poems were conceived for live declamation, and performed with strong rhythms, theatrical gestures, shouts, multiple voices, humour and onomatopoeia; his delivery was inspired by carnival barkers and revival preachers, in a style he dubbed “Higher Vaudeville”. Inspired by medieval troubadours and by his hero, the Swedenborgion socialist John Chapman or “Johnny Appleseed”, Lindsay walked around 1,000 miles on foot, performing and selling his poetry to earn his daily bread and lodging; he published his memoirs in the form of A Handy Guide for Beggars (1916). He was among the founders of American film criticism, and though his work was popular and admired in his day, and he acted a mentor to important younger poets such as Langston Hughes and Sara Teasdale, he fell into obscurity shortly after his death and his work has rarely been republished since.

Cover image by the author.

Forgotten Avant-Gardists TLP #18

6 pgs on folded letter. June A.Da. 110 (2026 Anti-Vulgar)
$0.75 + s/h

Packed along with a few other free pamphlets from this series tossed in! (Specify other titles in a note with the order, if you have a preference.)