The Centrifugal Eye - April/May 2011

around Britain. Many chapbooks were popular others told historical stories, ~ 74songs, ~ while yet others were tales about clothiers or weavers, for example, aimed at specific tradespeople. Ye olde chappies were cheap and widely distributed and are credited with spreading literacy throughout Great Britain.

Modern poetry readers can read many of those original chapbooks, thanks to Samuel Pepys, who avidly collected the ephemeral publications all the while he was writing his monumental diary of Restoration England. Still, many others are lost to us by the very nature of their ephemerality – 16th-century references cite the use of these pamphlets as ‚bum fodder,‛ ahem, toilet paper. (Think of that, poet-readers, the next time you get a rejection from an editor; it could be worse.)

But it wasn’t until the 19th Century that the word ‚chapbook‛ entered the English language. Bibliophiles eager to distinguish them from other kinds of pamphlets, tracts and printed disposable materials came up with the term, derived from chapmen, a variety of peddler who distributed them along with other wares.

Chapbook has since become a catch-all term for ‚an inexpensively-produced thin booklet‛ that ‚can be anything from religious tracts to nursery rhymes. Some chapbooks may contain political prose, while others hold poetry,‛ so says wisegeek.com. This source claims 32 pages is ‚the maximum of most chapbooks.‛ My search of submissions criteria for chapbook competitions and a riffle through my poetry bookshelves proved wisegeek.com correct.

No wonder the chapbook remains a highly popular form of publication, even in this technological era. It proved to be the right vehicle for Jessie Carty’s The Wait of Atom.

Today’s chapbooks aren’t halfpenny-cheap, but they are affordable. Chapbook editor Patricia Schwartz, who edited Michael Rhynes’ Guerillas in the Mist, and Other Poems (reviewed in the November 2009 issue of TCE), says she chose the chapbook because ‚this format was what we could afford with Olive Trees, our small grass-roots publishing effort, and also because the poet, Michael Rhynes, had a collection of short poems that all hung together thematically and stylistically. His manuscript made a perfect 42-page book which we could sell for only $5.00.‛ Chapbooks also don’t strain our time-budget. Leah Maines, editor and publisher at Finishing Line Press, one of the largest chapbook publishers in the United States, explained to me in a recent email why chapbooks are so popular among poets and readers: ‚I think the chapbook is popular because it is very inviting. The reader can enjoy a sample of the poet’s work in this smaller format. Chapbooks are a great way for lovers of poetry to explore what’s going on in the poetry scene without committing the time needed to digest a full-length collection.‛ And sometimes, chapbooks just happen, much as they did in their early 16 th-century heyday. Such was the case with poet Beau Cutts, whose chapbook, Night Is a Rare Place And Other Poems, I reviewed in my first ‚Tao of Poetry‛ column (August 2009).

Cutts claims, ‚The idea of 'chapbook' was not part of my publishing strategy. My book of poetry is considered a 'chapbook' by some people, while others, including me, have not used the word in association with the book. Why should I? I'd guess fewer than 20 percent of the purchasers of my book knew the difference between a 'chapbook of poems' and a 'book of poems.' If I had promoted my collection of poems as a 'chapbook,' I would have been obliged to explain what 'chapbook' means. Some potential buyers would have had questions about 'chapbook' and how it differs from a regular book of poems, etc. These potential side-issues would have eaten away at those precious first moments of trying to close a sale.‛ His non-strategic strategy worked; Rare Place is now in its 4th edition and won a first-place, statewide competition in Georgia.

Print readers can find more information at these URLs: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-chapbook.htm http://issuu.com/centrifugaleye/docs/tcenov09-stereotypes http://issuu.com/centrifugaleye/docs/tceaug09-unbidden