A FORTUITOUS COLLABORATION:
The
Enlightened Bean
A Poet and His Publisher
Café
Great Music
Fabulous Food
Reasonable Prices
by Larry D. Thomas and Clarence Wolfshohl
Part One:
The Poet - Larry D. Thomas
A
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16
Part Two:
The Publisher - Clarence Wolfshohl
W
lthough I have lived in Houston since
hen Larry sent me the manuscript of
1967, I immediately say “West Texas”
The Red, Candle-lit Darkness with the
when asked where I am from. Four of
parenthetical note under the title
my 10 published books of poetry are set predom-
“(The Chisos Mining Company, Early 1900s,
inantly on the West Texas dirt where I was born and
Terlingua, Texas),” I was excited to be back in
raised. I grew up in Midland during the infamous
West Texas with his poetry. We had travelled that
“Dust Bowl” of the 1950s and early 1960s, and I
territory with Stark Beauty (2005). Although he sent
vividly remember red dust storms so violent that I
the manuscript as a gift, not a submission, after a
could extend an arm and not even see my hand.
few days with the poems, I wanted to publish The
I also remember the wide, endless skies and the
Red, Candle-lit Darkness as our fifth collaboration.
baby horned lizards so plentiful in my backyard:
Stark Beauty was successful and was nominated
tiny creatures I could fit on a dime, lay on their
for a number of national awards – 2007 Poets’
backs and coax asleep with my index finger.
Prize at West Chester University, 2006 Western
These are but a few of the countless
Heritage Award at the National
West Texas images which stayed with
Cowboy & Western Heritage
me through the years and inspired a
Museum and the 2006 Spur Award
significant portion of my poems.
from the Western Writers of
During our years in Midland, I
America.
and my family made so many week-
But I did not offer to publish the
end trips to the Balmorhea-Ft. Davis-
new chapbook for possible awards.
Marfa-Alpine area that I consider it
Beyond the aesthetic considerations, I
as much of a “homeland” as Midland
am drawn by the Big Bend landscape
itself.
in the poems. Although I was born
The publisher of my first book of
and raised in San Antonio, I got my
poetry and three of my subsequent
bachelors at Sul Ross and began pub-
books was Clarence Wolfshohl, pub-
lishing when I lived in Mason, on
lisher of the nationally respected
what I consider the eastern frontier of
Timberline Press in Fulton, Mo. Stark
West Texas. I feel at home in Larry’s
Beauty, the second of the four, was my Linocut by Clarence Wolfshohl poetry.
first collection of poems set exclusive-
Also, the poems’ vivid imagery
ly in far West Texas.
begs for illustration. I started publish-
Ever since I first visited the Terlingua
ing to practice the book arts and printmaking, as
Cemetery 20 or so years ago, I have wanted to
much as to practice literary dictatorship. Larry
write a collection of poems about the Mexican
gave me a free rein in designing and producing
miners buried there who had worked the quicksil-
the four previous books, so each is illustrated.
ver (mercury) mines in the early 1900s. Much of
For example, Stark Beauty has a linocut on each
the literature I was able to locate about the mine
of the four sectional title pages. Our most recent
focused on the business angle of the Chisos
project, Wolves (2010), has four large linocuts with
Mining Company; very little dealt with the lives of
five poems. All of the books were printed by
the miners themselves.
handset letterpress and stitched and bound by
I recently completed a chapbook of poems
hand.
about the miners’ lives and titled it The Red,
Stark Beauty is a poetic natural history of West
Candle-lit Darkness. Although it is primarily a work
Texas; The Red, Candle-lit Darkness is a poetic social
of my creative imagination, much of its content is
history of a part of that vast territory.
based upon factual historical research, which I
The current project is still in gestation, but I
trust will give the reader a powerful and authentic
envision three or four woodcuts and deep red to
feel of what it was like to work the Terlingua mines.
capture the cinnabar that runs in the lines of the
I recently gifted Wolfshohl with a copy of the
poems as it did in the veins of the mines and the
manuscript, and he serendipitously offered to pub-
lives of the miners. The poems tell the miners’
lish it sometime in 2011 in a limited, handset letter-
story powerfully. The book should add another
press edition with his original linocut illustrations.
aesthetic dimension to their story.
Cenizo
First Quarter 2011