Kindle book of poetry by Henry Livingston, "Thrice Happy Poetry," 174 vintage postcards, FREE today

Amazon Kindle ^ | December 2016 | Henry Livingston

[mairdie]

This is, essentially, a Kindle graphic novel - a comic book if you will - of 14 poems of love and beautiful women by Henry Livingston (1748-1828), the author of "Night Before Christmas," illustrated with 174 antique postcards. FREE for the remainder of today, 15 Oct 2017.

[mairdie]

As an art history/physics major, may I say that the book is breathtaking for both the art and Henry's poetry. I grew up with a beloved comic book collection, which has undoubtedly affected the way I approached Henry's poems. He's funny and sweet and absolutely adored women.

[be-baw]

“I grew up with a beloved comic book collection”

You too? I have, I’m pretty sure, more than 20,000 comics.

[mairdie]

Consider me green with envy. They were the comfort of my days and evenings. Then I came home from college and discovered mother had GIVEN THEM AWAY!!!! It took the longest time to forgive her. How wonderful that you were able to hold onto yours.

[humblegunner]

Yesterday:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3595014/posts

[be-baw]

I lost a lot of the big ones (very early Marvel) I still think my brother stole them from me.

What comics did you read?

[yarddog]

IMy finances are in pretty sad condition but I ordered a refurbished Kindle on Amazon a few days ago. They had a special deal where I can pay for it, $12 a month.

I wish I already had it. I do intend to order “The Red Cliffs Of Zerhoun” as soon as I get it. I wonder if I got that word right?

[mairdie]

Yes, indeed. That was the announcement that it would happen. But I never believe Amazon until I see it actually happen. And they did get it working, for which I’m eternally grateful. Thanks for noticing the earlier one.

[texas booster]

Thanks for the linky to yesterday's thread. I remember reading it but forgot to open a page to the Amazon page.

Great job, mairdie!

[mairdie]

Every superman, superboy, supergirl, batman, and wonder woman I could find. Things like that. A few comical ones like archie, huey (whom I LOVED!). That would be maybe 1952-1962.

[Berlin_Freeper]

My daughter holding my Fantastic Four #1 comic book. :)

[mairdie]

Thanks, Texas. You can't imagine the way my heart beat when I got that last picture in. I had a very hurried buying spree at the end to get the best images I could find for every line. There are more images in the Kindle than paperback because I wasn't space constrained, so I went back through my images and stuffed almost every line. What saves me from total penury is that I'm good at Photoshop, so I can even buy an image with problems and fix it. I can replicate torn corners and remove gashes and scratches. The cover image was a total disaster originally and was a complete remake. It just felt like the essence of the book. Santa loving women. And the title comes from:

When she swims in the dance or wherever she goes
She's crowded by witlings, plain-fellows & beaux
Who throng at her elbow & tread on her toes.

If a pin or a hankerchief happen to fall
To seize on the prise fills with uproar the hall:
Such pulling and hawling & shoving & pushing
As rivals the racket of 'key & the cushion;'
And happy - thrice happy! too happy! the swain
Who can replace the pin or bandana again.

Tho the fellows surround & so humbly adore her
The girls on the contrary cannot endure her;
Her beauty their beauty forever disgraces
And her sweeter face still eclipses their faces.
For no lov'ly girl can a lov'ly girl bear
And fair-ones are ever at war with the fair.

[be-baw]

My mother taught me how to read with Little Lulu comic books before kindergarten. I read all the Harvey, Dell, DC, Marvel, etc. that I could get my hands on. Used to skip church and go to the corner store, get a box a cheezits and a double cola and read their comics.

[mairdie]

Wow!

What a beautiful child. Comics are nice, but what you created beats any book written. Congratulations!

[Berlin_Freeper]

I can see by your interest from this thread you are a very classy person.

Thank you very much mairdie! :)

[mairdie]

Would never have occurred to my mother. She wasn’t a comic book person. My earliest collection was Little Golden Books, but the first big girl book I read was Tales from Shakespeare. I went through all of mother’s and grandmother’s books, and still have them all (as well as the LGB). The hallway is 37’ long with floor to ceiling bookshelves on both sides - full size on one side, paperback on the other. Then there’s the library with walls of book bays (AND A LIBRARY LADDER!!!!!) and then there are bookshelves in several bedrooms and the rest of the books sit in boxes in the closet.

I think the glory of comic books is that combination of art and writing. Putting poetry into that format seemed so incredibly natural.

[mairdie]

I love art and I love design. It really doesn't matter what I work in. Creating is what it's all about. The library I was just describing is essentially an art piece that you stand in the middle of. I designed a way of creating the boards and then designed the space in horizontals and verticals, and tried to pound that concept into the minds of the team that kept trying to talk about windows and doors. We had the most wondrous time. We absolutely created art. And, yes, I think a comic book would be a perfectly wonderful piece of art work for the library.

The Library

[redhead]

My Precious is Carl Barks...

[mairdie]

????? Sorry. Confused.

[concentric circles]

Thank you for the lovely book of poetry. All of your efforts have yielded beautiful results.

[mairdie]

Oh, thank you so very much, circles. That was such a work of love. I still get chills looking at it. It was such an incredibly exciting time. Thank you, thank you for sharing it with me.