Tag Archives: Lost Roads

The Mill Mountain Press

The Mill Mountain Press was founded by Irving “Irv” Broughton in the early 1970’s, publishing Frank Stanford’s first book in 1972. The press went on to publish five more of Stanford’s books of poetry between 1974 and 1976 and co-published (with Lost Roads) Stanford’s magnum opus, The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You, in 1977.

1. Stanford, Frank. SINGING KNIVES
Seattle: The Mill Mountain Press, 1971 [1972]

2. Stanford, Frank. LADIES FROM HELL
Seattle: The Mill Mountain Press, 1974

3. Goll, Yvan. THE MYTH OF THE PIERCED ROCK. translated by Frank Jones
Seattle: The Mill Mountain Press, 1975

4. Morris, Phyllis Franklin. TIME TO CLOSE THE COTTAGE
Seattle: Mill Mountain Press 1975

5. Stanford, Frank. FIELD TALK
Seattle: Mill Mountain Press, 1975

6. Stanford, Frank. SHADE
Seattle: Mill Mountain Press, 1975

7. Stanford, Frank. ARKANSAS BENCH STONE
Seattle: Mill Mountain Press, 1975

8. Brewster Ghiselin. LET THERE BE LIGHT
Seattle: Mill Mountain Press, 1976

9. Hankla, Susan. MISTRAL FOR DADDY AND VAN GOGH
Seattle: Mill Mountain Press, 1976

10. Wright, C.D. ALLA BREVE LOVING
Seattle: Mill Mountain Press, 1976

11. Stanford, Frank. CONSTANT STRANGER
Seattle: Mill Mountain Press, 1976

12. Stanford, Frank. THE BATTLEFIELD WHERE THE MOON SAYS I LOVE YOU
Seattle / Fayetteville: Mill Mountain / Lost Roads, 1977. Lost Roads 7-12

13. McAuley, James J. AN IRISH BULL
Spokane: Mill Mountain Press, 1980
First edition, broadside

Lost Roads Press

When you take the lost road
You find the bright feathers of morning
Laid out in proportion to snow and light
And when the snow gets lost on the road
Then the hot wind might blow from the south
And there is sadness in bed for twenty centuries
And everyone is chewing the grass on the graves again
—Frank Stanford, from “Circle of Lorca”

Lost Roads is a small press founded in 1976 in Arkansas by poet Frank Stanford. Its stated mission is to publish essential books in contemporary literature. After Stanford’s death in 1978, editorship was assumed by poet C.D. Wright, whose book, Room Rented by a Single Woman (1977), had been the press’s first release. Wright co-edited the press with poet Forrest Gander for many years. The current editor is Susan Scarlata.


1. Wright, C.D. ROOM RENTED BY A SINGLE WOMAN
Fayetteville: Lost Roads Publishing Company, 1977
First edition, perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 6.25″ x 8.75″, 48 pages. Cover art by Stephen Beard. Printed by White River Printers. Published as Lost Roads Number 1

2. Stoss, John. FINDING THE BROOM
Fayetteville: Lost Roads Publishing Company, 1977
Published as Lost Roads 2

3. Adamo, Ralph. SADNESS AT THE PRIVATE UNIVERSITY
Fayetteville: Lost Roads Publishing Company, 1977
Published as Lost Roads 3

4. Morris, John S. BEAN STREET
Fayetteville: Lost Roads Publishing Company, 1977
Published as Lost Roads 4

5. McKernan, John. WALKING ALONG THE MISSOURI RIVER
Fayetteville: Lost Roads Publishing Company, 1977
First edition, perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 6.25″ x 8.75″, 40 pages. Cover art by Richard Albertine. Printed by White River Printers. Published as Lost Roads Number 5

6. Broughton, Irv. THE BLESSING OF THE FLEET
Fayetteville, Lost Roads Publishing Company, 1977
Published as Lost Roads Number 6

7. Stanford, Frank. THE BATTLEFIELD WHERE THE MOON SAYS I LOVE YOU
Fayetteville / Seattle: Lost Roads Publishing Company / Mill Mountain Press, 1977
First edition, perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 7.25? x 8.5?, 542 pages. Published as Lost Roads Number 7-12

8. Wright, C. D. TERRORISM
Fayetteville: Lost Roads Publishing Company, 1979
First edition, perfect-bound in illustrated wrappers, 6″ x 8″, 48 pages. Cover art by Alan Pogue. Printed by White River Printers. Published as Lost Roads Number 13

9. Gilchrist, Ellen. THE LAND SURVEYOR’S DAUGHTER
Fayetteville: Lost Roads, 1979
Published as Lost roads Number 14

10. Stanford, Frank. YOU
Fayetteville: Lost Roads, 1979
Published as Lost roads Number 15

11. Caldwell, Justin. THE SLEEPING PORCH
Fayetteville: Lost Roads, 1979
Published as Lost Roads Number 16

12. Adamo, Ralph. THE END OF THE WORLD
Fayetteville: Lost Roads, 1979
Published as Lost Roads Number 17

13. Stanford, Frank. THE SINGING KNIVES
Fayetteville: Lost Roads, 1979
Published as Lost Roads Number 18

14. Benitez, Zuleyka. TROUBLE IN PARADISE 
Fayetteville: Lost Roads, 1980
Published as Lost Roads Number 19

15. Johnson, Honor. SMALL AS A RESURRECTION
Eureka Springs: Lost Roads, 1982
Published as Lost Roads Number 20

16. Rice, Stan. BODY OF WORK
Eureka Springs: Lost Roads, 1983
Published as Lost Roads Number 21

17. Stern, Steve. ISAAC AND THE UNDERTAKER’S DAUGHTER
Published as Lost Roads Number 22

18. Mayes, Frances. HOURS
Providence: Lost Roads, 1984
Published as Lost Roads Number 23


Online Resources:

Rain Taxi article on Lost Roads Press

Frank Stanford

Photo by Ginny Crouch Stanford

 

 

 

Born in 1948, Stanford was a prolific poet known for his originality and ingenuity. He has been dubbed “a swamprat Rimbaud” by Lorenzo Thomas and “one of the great voices of death” by Franz Wright. He grew up in Mississippi, Tennessee, and then Arkansas, where he lived for most of his life and wrote many of his most powerful poems. He attended the University of Arkansas from 1967-69 and studied engineering while continuing to write poetry. Stanford died in 1978.

He authored over ten books of poetry, including eight volumes in the last seven years of his life: The Singing Knives (1972), Ladies from Hell (1974), Field Talk (1974), Shade (1975), Arkansas Bench Stone (1975), Constant Stranger (1976), The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You (1977), and Crib Death (1978). His posthumous collection, What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford (2015), was a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Award.


Frank Stanford Checklist:

Section A: Books and Broadsides
Section B: Contributions to Books and Anthologies
Section C: Contributions to Periodicals
Section D: Film

Lost Roads Press

Mill Mountain Press [coming soon]


References Consulted:

RACCOON: MONOGRAPH TWO, edited by David Spicer
Memphis: St. Luke’s Press, April 1981
“A Preliminary Bibliography of Frank Stanford” by C.D Wright


Online Resources:

Lost Roads

“Finders, Losers: Frank Stanford’s Song of the South”, by Lorenzo Thomas

“The Last Light of the Levee Camp: Frank Stanford Revisited”, by Elijah Burrell

“Poetry Class #2 (Frank Stanford)”, by Jack Dog Welch