Selected by Peter Davison with an introduction by Edward Hirsch. Sissman was a true phenomenon in American poetry. He published his first book, a collection of antic, autobiographical episodes in blank verse, in 1968. Eight years and three books later, he died of Hodgkin's disease at the age of forty-eight. Of Sissman's remarkable final poems John Updike wrote, "What other poet had ever given such wry and unblinking witness to his own dying? His poetry gave back to life more generously than he had received, and carried his beautiful wit into darkness undimmed." Now Sissman's longtime editor,...

There are 2,000 verbal differences between the text of the First Quarto of Shakespeare's Richard III (1597) and the version in the First Folio (1623). In this Quarto edition the text is accompanied by a collation of variant readings and substantial textual notes. Peter Davison argues that Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, used a memorially reconstructed text of Richard III during a touring performance of the play, and that text provided the manuscript for the 1597 Quarto. The result is a breakthrough in textual studies.

There are 2,000 verbal differences between the text of the First Quarto of Shakespeare's Richard III (1597) and the version in the First Folio (1623). In this Quarto edition the text is accompanied by a collation of variant readings and substantial textual notes. Peter Davison argues that Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, used a memorially reconstructed text of Richard III during a touring performance of the play, and that text provided the manuscript for the 1597 Quarto. The result is a breakthrough in textual studies.