The Wild Party: The Lost Classic by Joseph Moncure March [Paperback]

Art Spiegelman (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 1999

"Spiegelman's drawings are like demonic woodcuts: every angle, line, and curve jumps out at you. Stylishness and brutishness are in perfect accord."
-- The New York Times

Art Spiegelman's sinister and witty black-and-white drawings give charged new life to Joseph Moncure March's Wild Party, a lost classic from 1928. The inventive and varied page designs offer perfect counterpoint to the staccato tempo of this hard-boiled jazz-age tragedy told in syncopated rhyming couplets.

Here is a poem that can make even readers with no time for poetry stop dead in their tracks. Once read, large shards of this story of one night of debauchery will become permanently lodged in the brain. When The Wild Party was first published, Louis Untermeyer declared: "It is repulsive and fascinating, vicious and vivacious, uncompromising, unashamed . . . and unremittingly powerful. It is an amazing tour de force."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A lost "classic"? It's odd how strikingly some writing may date to an era yet can later be resuscitated because of its potential for art and camp, and thus gain a new audience. That's what Spiegelman (Maus I and II) has pulled off here by rediscovering and illustrating this jazzy, insistently rhyming roaring '20s period poem, banned in Boston when first published in 1928. What Spiegelman, in his introduction, calls his "fetishistic" pleasure in the poem, penned by the New Yorker's inaugural managing editor, is borne out by March's dither of hard-edged rhythms recounting the boozing, brawling and fractious lovemaking of an all-night party ending in a murder. The characters are hard-boiled and needy-and stereotypically presented. The women, especially, seem deliberately one-dimensional, even offensively so-if one is inclined to take offense at all. But the poem works as a bouncy artifact, and the black-and-white illustrations are appropriately, viscerally graphic, summoning up the sense of a knockabout urban spree with debonair zeal and well-appointed crudeness.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Published in 1928, this racy prose poem follows a night in the life of a vaudeville dancer that includes everything from hot sex to cold murder. This classy edition has 75 drawings by Art Spiegelman (MAUS) and red velvet endpapers.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon Books; 1st edition (March 23, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375706437
• ISBN-13: 978-0375706431
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #494,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wild and wonderful, December 13, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wild Party: The Lost Classic by Joseph Moncure March (Paperback)

The wild party is a brilliant poem that pre-empts the beats' sense of rhythm and love for the low-down and dirty elements of modern life. Even though it was written six decades ago, it is fantastically modern. With a pulsuating, driving style that includes violence, humour and excitement, The Wild Party grips the reader from beginning to end. Spielgelman's illustrations, although nice and evocative, do not match the pure intensity of the writing. Well done to Spielgelman for finding this 'lost classic' and re-publishing it (although on the spine his name gets top billing which seem a little self-centred seeing as the books power lies entirely in the words, not the pictures. Indeed the writing is so bitingly vivid that the pictures are unneeded). I have read this book over a hundred times and it never fails to quicken my pulse and ressurect my love for poetry.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chaotic and delicious, February 2, 2001

By 

Michael A. Benedetto (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wild Party: The Lost Classic by Joseph Moncure March (Paperback)

Like many people, I picked up this book after seeing one of the two musicals in New York based on it last year (the LaChiusa one on Broadway, in my case). I thought both shows were highly enjoyable, and was pleased to learn that a good deal of their success could be attributed directly to the source material. March's poem (if it can indeed be called that) itself provides a brief but memorable glimpse into the darkest corners of a dangerous era.

The story, such as it is, concerns the unhealthy relationship between two vaudeville performers, Queenie and Burrs, which comes to a head when they throw the party of the title. Among the guests are a number of people who have lived the high life for so long that they are no longer able to put their emotions in perspective -- they hurt each other and are hurt, but appear unable to learn from their mistakes. Naturally, the party ends with a mistake that is completely irrevocable and devastating.

The piece would be compelling even without Art Spiegelman's perfect illustrations. With them, this is a book that shouldn't be missed.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard poetry in crisp accessible language with a clean story., June 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wild Party: The Lost Classic by Joseph Moncure March (Paperback)

This was a brilliant work from days gone past. Oddly, the story could happen as easily today as it did when written, the only difference being that the censored content of yesterday would be praiseworthy subtlty today.

As the backcover quotation reads, it made William S. Boroughs "want to be a writer." It made me wonder why I can't find his second book. It should be noted that the illustrations by Art Spielgelman clearly add to the aura of the consuming experiece.

I highly recommend this book that can be read in under an hour. Give it to poetry haters. They can access the work thouugh the tough sexy voice and may enjoy poetry as might have been impossible before.