When the poet Maxwell Bodenheim and his common-law wife, Ruth Fagan, were found brutally murdered by the insane man whose single room they were sharing, the press made much of the sensation. Persons safely distant from Bodenheim's bitter struggle for existence, who thought of him merely as a drunken shambles, felt, somewhat smugly, he had met a suitable end.But Bodenheim's funeral was richly attended by poets and artists who know better. They knew that to the last minute of his prec...

Some of the poems which compose this book have appeared in the Yale Review, the Smart Set, the New Republic, Reedy’s Mirror, the Dial, the Touchstone, the Little Review, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, the Century, and the New York Tribune. They are good, in spite of their numerous appearances. Lacerated grey has bitten Into your shapeless humility. Little episodes of roving Strew their hieroglyphics on your muteness. Life has given you heavy stains Like an ointment growing stale. Endless fee...

Bodenheim’s writing in "Introducing Irony" is marked by his characteristic blend of lyrical beauty and sharp critique. He employs irony not just for humor but to expose the deeper truths behind human behavior. The themes of alienation, love, cynicism, and societal decay run throughout the stories and poems, reflecting the modernist influences of the time.The style is often experimental, mixing traditional narrative forms with free verse and modernist techniques. Bodenheim’s use of imagery ...

Carl Felman is a young man who, at the start of the story, is returning to his parents’ home following an extended absence. He stole money from his parents before leaving home, did a stint in the army, and spent some time traveling America as a hobo. Carl fancies himself a poet, but has had no training in writing. During the story he finds his poetic voice, but also uncovers a personality that is at odds with the world he tries to describe.

If I yield to the remorseful redundancy of a foreword, with its bedraggled battalions of fiercely insinuating words, it is from no mere desire to invite the ridicule of impatient time, or to rail against that host of vacant insincerities which betrays the animations of life. It may be that I do not look upon words as intimidating a fixed content, or beckoning to an inevitable style. It may be that I regard words as flexible lures seducing the essential emptiness of life, with little, false...

WITH crafty brooding life turned to Jack Rose And made him heroin-peddler, and his pose Was sullenly reflective since he feared That life, regarding him, had merely jeered. His vanity was small and could not call His egoism to the dubious hall Of fame, where average artists spend their hour. Doubting his powers he was forced to cower Within the shrill, damp alleys of his time, Immersed in that brisk midnight known as crime. He shunned the fiercely shrewd stuff that he sold To other people,...

Carl Felman stepped from a train at the Union Station of a midwestern American city. His young face, partly obscured by a blonde stubble of beard, was a passive concealment, and his thin lips and long nose did not hold that stalwart sleekness which one associates with earth. If some joker had taken a Gothic effigy of Christ, trimmed its beard, dressed it in grey and dirty clothes, and forced upon it an unwilling animation, he would have produced an exact duplicate of Carl’s aspect and gest...

The novel "Blackguard" follows the story of its protagonist, who is often referred to as the Blackguard. Set against the backdrop of the bustling and sometimes seedy streets of New York City, the novel delves into themes of crime, poverty, and moral ambiguity. The Blackguard himself is typically depicted as a morally ambiguous character, navigating the challenges of survival in a harsh and unforgiving urban landscape.Bodenheim's writing style in "Blackguard" is known for its rawness and vi...

Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (18891955) was an American novelist and short story writer. She primarily authored fiction in the hardboiled subgenre of detective novels.Born June 18, 1889 in Brooklyn, New York, Sanxay attended Miss Whitcombe's and other schools for young ladies before marrying British diplomat George E. Holding in 1913. The couple had two daughters, Skeffington (1917-2009) and Antonia (1920-2006), and traveled widely in South America and the Caribbean before living in Bermuda fo...

He knew that he was dead because his fingers had forgotten the art of touching and were trying to regain their ability. They were no longer able to separate different textures and surfaces, and everything held to them a preposterous smoothness that suggested an urbane, impenetrable sophistry. With a methodical despair they gripped one object after another, disputing the integrity of their condition, and when at last they capitulated he accepted the verity of his death. So far he had not so...

Excerpt: "When the light of morning touches the buildings and pavements of a city, it always seems to borrow their hardness and to lose in some degree its quality of flowing detachment. The Sunday morning that fell upon Ninth Avenue, New York City, gave you a sense of invisible stiffness in its very air. The buildings, with their smudged, flat fronts and tops, presented the impression of huge warehouses stretching down both sides of the street—the appearance of holding commodities rather t...

Ninth Avenue by MAXWELL BODENHEIM offers a concentrated, compelling experience within fiction / literary. This concise work presents carefully drawn characters and purposeful plotting that together explore themes of choice, consequence, and human connection. The prose is precise and economical, balancing vivid scenes with clear pacing to maintain narrative momentum. Ideal for readers seeking a thoughtful, accessible read, the book is well-suited to book clubs and classroom discussion. Its ...