Proletarian Laughter
Yonkers, NY: Alicat Bookshop, 1948. Octavo. Item #028798
40 unnumbered pages. During World War II, Willeford served as a tank commander with the 10th Armored Division of George S. Patton's Third Army. He earned the Bronze Star, Silver Star and the Purple Heart as well as the Luxenbourg Croix de Guerre. After recovering from wounds to the face and leg, he attended several colleges but since he had not graduated from high school, he was rejected by the colleges he applied to. His most brutal war experiences are found in this work in both poetry and introductions to poems. His writing was called dark, gruesome, and a cynicism about war and the treatment of civilians. He points to a line of eighty soldiers and says: "See that line..there are two whores in that house. Nice girls who came up from Paris to pick up a piece of change. That's democracy." The cold, sharply observational, morbidly humorous pieces set the tone for much of his future writing. Only a thousand copies were printed, issued in pictorial wraps as an Alicat Chapbook.page edges toned, rear lower corner creased, closed tears to spine, tiny tear to upper corner of first leaf.
Price: $125.00