[PW] Re: Reply #2 RE: National Poetry Association

[Franco, Adrienne]

Below is cataloging copy from CATNY (catalog of the New York Public Library Research Libraries). Note information about later, succeeding titles.  This, too, lends credence to the organization and to the publication.  NYPL does not own the year your father's poem appeared, but serials cataloging record covers the publication as a whole. Even though publisher is listed as "National Poetry Press", it is noted at the end of "Notes" field:

"Published 1944-65 by National Poetry Association; 1965-75 by National Poetry Press."
---------------------------------
Call # 	NBH (America sings) Library has: 1949, 1952.
Title 	America sings.
Imprint 	Los Angeles, Calif : National Poetry Press,
LOCATION 	CALL # 	STATUS
  Humanities- General Research- Rm315 	 NBH (America sings) Library has: 1949, 1952. 	
Division	Humanities- General Research- Rm315
Descript 	20 v. ; 24 cm.
Frequency 	Semiannual 1965-
	Annual 1944-64
Note 	Began publication in 1944 and ceased in spring 1975?
	Subtitle: spring 1970-spring 1975, College poetry review. Vols. for 1946-spring 1968, spring 1969-fall 1970, spring 1972-fall 1974 also have subtitle: Anthology of college poetry.
	Description based on: spring 1968.
	Published 1944-65 by National Poetry Association; 1965-75 by National Poetry Press.
Cont'd by 	College poetry review
Subject 	College verse -- Periodicals.
Add'l name 	National Poetry Association.
	National Poetry Press.
Alt title 	Biennial college poetry review fall 1968-fall 1970
	Young America sings spring 1971
	College poetry review spring 1972-1975
-----------------
Adrienne Franco / Iona College Libraries/ New Rochelle, NY 10801

-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org on behalf of Meredith Dixon
Sent: Sun 5/7/2006 12:34 PM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: [PW]  National Poetry Association
 
My father recently passed away, and I've inherited a pamphlet called "America
Sings", which is a 1946-47 anthology of the work of college students across the
country.  It was published by the National Poetry Association in Los Angeles, and
it contains a poem my father wrote in his freshman year of college.

My first thought upon seeing this was, "Oh, no; my  father must have fallen for
one of those vanity-press creative writing scams!  Evidently they go back a long
way."  And perhaps he did.  

But since it is a pamphlet rather than a glossy-looking book, and since the
publishers "thank the Instructors and Heads of the English Departments for their
excellent efforts in making the Anthologies possible."  I am wondering whether by
any chance it might really have been just what it says it is: a genuine anthology
of the best collegiate poems of 1946-47 (as opposed to any poem that was sent in).

I can't find anything about a National Poetry Association of the right age online,
though there are of course several vanity-press publishers with similar names and
there seems to be a genuine National Poetry Series launched in 1978 (though I
didn't look at it closely as it wasn't the right date).   MX Bookfinder lists
America Sings anthologies for the mid-1940's (my 1946-47 one says it is the fourth
such compilation) until mid-1955, but that's no help in determining whether or not
they are genuine.

It's probably vanity press, but if by any chance it isn't it would be very nice to
know otherwise.   Does anyone have more certain information about this National
Poetry Association?

-- 
Meredith Dixon <dixonm at pobox.com>
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