Tissue of Smiles and Tears –– by Anna Hempstead Branch

The poet, playwright, social worker and philanthropist Anna Hempstead Branch was well-respected in her day, but has since disappeared from memory and print. Her work is infused with a mystical spiritual vision which makes use of Christianity and other religious and esoteric canons to celebrate her devotion to a God which she defines as Language itself. Drawing on mainstream genres traditionally associated with female writers as well as on the earlier avant-garde traditions of Aestheticism and Symbolism, she crafted dense textures of sound, image, and allusion. Behind the subtle facade of her verse, we find work that is conceptually and formally challenging, simultaneously mystical and personal, socially progressive, and which has been almost totally and unfairly ignored for generations. This chapbook is the only collection of her poetry to be published in over seventy years.

With a bio-critical introduction by Olchar E. Lindsann. Cover by bb Grimm.

36 pgs on folded 8.5”x11”. Nov., 2024/A.Da. 108/A.H. 194
$3.25 + s/h