The Writing on the Wall: 108 American Poems of Protest [Inscribed to Susan Sontag]

Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1969. First Edition. Softcover. Octavo (20.5cm); pictorial paper covers; [xxii],[2],3-189,[3]pp. Inscribed on half-title: "Dear Susan Sontag / Still hoping to get a copy of this speech you made at town hall read-in for peace a few years ago / Walter Lowenfels Peekskill 1969", with Lowenfels's ownership blind stamp to title page. Inscription clearly in Lowenfels's hand, but he may not have delivered this item to Sontag, as there is a blank sheet laid in with offsetting and stains where inscription was covered previously. Cover photograph by Alex Gotfryd, and priced $1.95 on front cover. Modest rubbing, with shelf-soil and foxing to edges of textblock, surface scratches, and small indentation to rear cover and final pages of text; Good.

Inscription references the February 20, 1966 New York City Read-In for Peace in Vietnam, with artists presenting speeches for the anti-war movement. Speakers included Susan Sontag, Robert Lowell, Arthur Miller, and William Styron. This collection of verse includes Ishmael Reed's "sermonette", Denise Levertov's "What Were They Like?", Art Berger's "No Generation Gap", and Calvin C. Hernton's "Jitterbugging in the Street". [85011].