Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of (Nicholas) Vachel Lindsay, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 7417 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) was the most intensely romantic US poet of his generation. Less well known is the fact that Lindsay was also a radical critic of the white supremacy, greed, misery, brutality, ugliness and emptiness inherent in US capitalist culture. His only novel, The Golden Book - now back in print after over 80 years of shameful neglect - is a relentless dreamer's all-out assault on the stupidity and bigotry of Main Street USA. Linsay's Luciferian lyricism, incantatory and even shamanic; the carnivalesque enthusiasm and humor that he called the 'higher vaudeville'; and of course that zany, jubilant, self-contradictory mysticism that was all his own are amply evident in this radically nonconformist dram of the future. In The Golden Book, the coffee houses, movie theaters, streets and parks of Springfield in the 'Mystic Year' 2018 are the setting for a valiant struggle to transform a village dominated by shady politicians, lynch-mobs, commercialism and cocaine into a new paradise. Ron Sakolsky's superb introduction, the most detailed examination yet of Lindsay's 'Johnny Appleseed utopianism', explores The Golden Book as a radical response to the Springfield Race Riot of 1908; relates the book to the utopias of Fourier, Ruskin, Bellamy, and others; and traces Lindsay's involvement in Chicago radicalism in the 1910s, as well as his affinities with anarchism, feminism, Black liberation, the IWW, and such poet radicals as Blake, Lautreamont, the surrealists, Langston Hughes and the Beats. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The High Priest of Illinois
The Golden Book of Springfield is a super arcane, esoteric gem!!It should be required reading in every Illinois school.Lindsey attempts to do justice to his home state, by creating a futuristic Illinios filled with life and dignity. So unlike the Illinois of his time or anyone elses. Lindsey has a deep knowledge of the occult which is apparent to anyone who reads this book. The book is steeped in the occult tradition, filled with magic and mysticisim.Like ancient vibrations coming off his midwestern landscapes. Lindsey was the real deal!Artist, poet, seer!Its like an Illinois Book of the Dead.This book will leave the reader with a certain level of aboveness, for those hip/sensative enough to appreciate what Lindsey is saying.
The fact that this novel (Lindseys only) has just recently been available after almost 70 years just makes it even more special.
Unfourtunately I do not think I have even barely shown has special and unique this novel is.Its better the psychedelics!!

The High Priest of Illinois
The Golden Book of Springfield is a super arcane, esoteric gem!!It should be required reading in every Illinois school.Lindsey attempts to do justice to his home state, be creating a futuristic Illinios filled with life and dignity. So unlike the Illinois of his time or anyone elses. Lindsey has a deep knowledge of the occult which is apparent to anyone who reads this book. The book is steeped in the occult tradition, filled with magic and mysticisim.Like ancient vibrations coming off his midwestern landscapes. Lindsey was the real deal!Artist, poet, seer!Its like an Illinois Book of the Dead.This book will leave the reader with a certain level of aboveness, for those hip/sensative enough to appreciate what Lindsey is saying.
The fact that this novel (Lindseys only) has just recently been available after almost 70 years just makes it even more special.
Unfourtunately I do not think I have even barely shown has special and unique this novel is.Its better the psychedelics!! ... Read more

Book Description
In 1925, Vachel Lindsay wrote The Progress and Poetry of the Movies as a sequel to his pioneering Art of the Moving Picture (1915). The present edition of The Progress and Poetry of the Movies, never published in Lindsay's lifetime, contributes to our understanding of the genealogy of contemporary film studies. ... Read more