An announcement

We are pleased to have in our possession “Elmer McCurdy,” an incredible narrative poem by Thomas Thornburg.

Elmer McCurdy was an Oklahoma bad man and train robber who practiced his craft at the turn of the Twentieth Century. He was killed in 1911, but that wasn’t the end of him.

Here is the historical notice that accompanies the poem in its original printing.

At the bicentennial celebrating the birth of these United States, a curious discovery was made. The mummified remains of Elmer McCurdy, who was known in his first life as The Oklahoma Badman, were discovered hanging in a Los Angeles carnival called “Laugh in the Dark Funhouse.” Elmer, who was discovered by a crewman for the Six Million Man television show, had in his first life been a train robber operating out of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. In 1911 he was slain in a desperate gun battle, thus ending his first life. The sheriff who killed Elmer McCurdy sold him to a carnival sideshow. So began Elmer’s second life, a life in which he was mistaken for a wax dummy and exhibited all over the United States. In 1940, Elmer was stored in a warehouse with a collection of wax dummies (real dummies, if we assume that Elmer was never a dummy) and in 1968 Elmer was sold again, then again, then again, and he hung around until the TV crewman, fiddling with him, cause his arm to fall off and reported that one of the figures was no dummy. After he was formally identified, Elmer McCurdy was trundled back to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and buried under a large granite boulder. Thus his career, begun in 1869, ended in 1976.

The poem, written in 1977, a year after Elmer McCurdy’s reappearance in society, is a masterpiece of style a great pleasure to read or, better, to hear read. It’s voice is that of the mid-century badman and its slang rings with humor and irony. We believe, once we have prepared it for publication, that you are in for a treat.

Remember, poetry is aloud. Do read aloud.