Vachel Lindsay

Bibliography

Other info : Career | Furtherreading

POETRY

• The Tree of the Laughing Bells, privately printed (New York City), 1905.
• The Village Magazine (includes "On Reading Omar Khayyam," "What the Great City Said," "The Airship of the Mind," and "Genesis"; also see below), Jefferson's Printing Co. (Springfield, IL), 1910, 2nd enlarged edition, 1925.
• Rhymes to Be Traded for Bread; Being New Verses by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, Springfield, Illinois, June, 1912, Printed Expressly as a Substitute for Money. This Book Is To Be Used in Exchange for the Necessities of Life on a Tramp-Journey from the Author's Home Town through the West and Back (also see below), privately printed (Springfield), 1912.
• "General William Booth Enters into Heaven," and Other Poems (first edition published under name Nicholas Vachel Lindsay; includes poems from previous volumes), M. Kennerly (New York, NY), 1913.
• "The Congo" and Other Poems (includes "The Santa Fe Trail," "The Fireman's Ball," and "Twenty Moon Poems"), introduction by Harriet Monroe, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1914.
• "The Chinese Nightingale" and Other Poems, Macmillan, 1917.
• The Daniel Jazz and Other Poems, G. Bell (London), 1920.
• The Golden Whales of California and Other Rhymes in the American Language (includes "The Daniel Jazz," "Rameses II," "Kalamazoo," "My Fathers Came from Kentucky," and "The Empire of China Is Crumbling Down"), Macmillan, 1920.
• Springfield Town Is Butterfly Town and Other Poems for Children, self-illustrated, edited by Pierre Dussert, introduction by Louis Untermeyer, Macmillan, 1922.
• Collected Poems, self-illustrated, Macmillan, 1923, revised illustrated edition, 1935.
• Going-to-the-Sun, self-illustrated, D. Appleton (New York City), 1923.
• Going-to-the-Stars, self-illustrated, D. Appleton, 1926.
• The Candle in the Cabin: A Weaving Together of Script and Singing, self-illustrated, D. Appleton, 1926.
• Johnny Appleseed and Other Poems for Children, Macmillan, 1928, new edition, illustrations by Lindsay and George Richards, 1961, Buccaneer, 1981.
• Every Soul Is a Circus, illustrations by Lindsay and Richards, Macmillan, 1929, Granger Books, 1976.
• Selected Poems, edited with introduction by Hazelton Spencer, Macmillan, 1930.
• Selected Poems of Vachel Lindsay, edited by Mark Harris, Macmillan, 1963.
• Adventures, Rhyme and Design: Early Writings (contains Adventures while Preaching the Gospel of Beauty [also see below], "The Village Improvement Parade," Rhymes to Be Traded for Bread, and The Village Magazine), introduction by Robert F. Sayre, Eakins (New York, NY), 1968.
• Collected Poems, Volume 1, edited by Dennis Camp, Spoon River Poetry Press (Peoria, IL), 1983.
• 1984-86 The Poetry of Vachel Lindsay: Complete and With Lindsay's Drawings, three volumes, newly edited by Dennis Camp, Spoon River Poetry Press.

Also author of Where Is Aladdin's Lamp, three handmade volumes, c. 1904; Net to Snare the Moonlight, 1913; The Eagle That Is Forgotten, 1913; The Santa Fe Trail: A Humoresque, 1914; and The Ghost of the Buffaloes, 1917. Poems represented in many anthologies, including Major American Poets, edited by H. H. Clark, 1936. Contributor of poems to Poetry, Forum, Literary Digest, Current Opinion, Current Literature, Sunset, Survey, New Republic, Bookman, Playground, Literary Review, Golden Book, Nation, Ladies' Home Journal, and Scholastic.

NONFICTION

• Adventures while Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (travel memoirs; first edition published under name Nicholas Vachel Lindsay; includes "The Kallyope Yell," "Kansas," and "The Flute of the Lonely"), M. Kennerly, 1914, Macmillan, 1916.
• A Handy Guide for Beggars, Especially Those of the Poetic Fraternity: Being Sundry Explorations Made while Afoot and Penniless in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (includes "The Flower of Mending" and "The Would-Be Merman"), Macmillan, 1916.
• The Art of the Moving Picture, Macmillan, 1915, revised edition, 1922, revised edition, introduction by Stanley Kauffmann, Liveright, 1970.
• The Litany of Washington Street (essays and articles, including many originally published in Dearborn Independent), Macmillan, 1929.
• Letters of Nicholas Vachel Lindsay to A. Joseph Armstrong, edited by A. J. Armstrong, Baylor University Press, 1940.
• Through a Poet's Eyes, Marshall Mitchell Printing, 1957.
• Letters of Vachel Lindsay, edited by Marc Chenetier, B. Franklin (New York, NY), 1979.
• The Progress and Poetry of the Movies: A Second Book of Film Criticism, edited with commentary by Myron Lounsbury, Scarecrow Press (Lanham, MD), 1995.

BROADSIDES AND PAMPHLETS

• We Who Are Playing Tonight (broadside), privately printed, c. 1905.
• The Cup of Paint (broadside), privately printed, c. 1905.
• The Last Song of Lucifer, privately printed, 1908.
• God Help Us to Be Brave, privately printed, 1908.
• These Ten Lectures by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay for Men Only Will Be Given Wednesdays at Eight in the Evening, Beginning October 14 in the Y.M.C.A. Building, Y.M.C.A. (Springfield), 1908.
• War Bulletin (series of five pamphlets; number 4 separately titled as The Tramp's Excuse and Other Poems), privately printed, 1909.
• The Sangamon County Peace Advocate (includes "Springfield Magical," "The Shield of Lucifer," and "The Springfield of the Far Future"), privately printed (Springfield), 1909.
• The Heroes of Time (also published as A Memorial of Lincoln Called "The Heroes of Time"), T. W. Rokker (Springfield), 1910.
• The Spring Harbinger, privately printed, 1910.
• The Soul of the City Receives the Gift of the Holy Spirit, privately printed, 1913.
• A Letter about My Four Programmes, for Committees in Correspondence (promotional brochure; contains "The Gospel of Beauty," "A Talk on the Art of the Moving Picture," "An Evening of Higher Vaudeville, and Orthodox Verse as Well," "The Chinese Nightingale," and "Dramas for Impromptu Actors"), Jefferson's Printing (Springfield), 1916.
• A Letter for Your Wicked Private Ear Only, privately printed, 1920.
• Babylon (broadside; originally published in New York Evening Post), Mrs. Dicken's Book Shop (Memphis, TN), 1923.
• A Map of the Universe Issued in 1909; This Map Is One Beginning of the Golden Book of Springfield (pamphlet), 2nd edition, privately printed (Spokane, WA), 1926.
• Rigmarole, Rigmarole (pamphlet), Random House (New York, NY), 1929.
• Letter of Vachel Lindsay on the "Movies" (facsimile of letter to Paul Howell, July 24, 1916), privately printed, 1945.

OTHER

• The Golden Book of Springfield, Macmillan, 1920.
• Vachel Lindsay Reading "The Congo," "The Chinese Nightingale," and Other Poems (recording), Caedmon, 1941.
• Out of Rhythm Come Words and Form: Vachel Lindsay; A Centennial Exhibition of the Work of Vachel Lindsay, Kennedy Center Art Gallery, Hiram College, November 4-29, 1979, Kennedy Center Art Gallery, 1979.

Contributor of articles to American Magazine, Twentieth Century Magazine, New Republic, Dial, Indiana, and Christian Century. Contributor of short stories to Outlook and Collier's Weekly. Contributor of film reviews to the New Republic. Lindsay's works have been translated into Polish. Lindsay's papers are collected at numerous libraries, including the Clifton Waller Barrett Library at the University of Virginia, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Beinecke Library at Yale University, the Firestone Library at Princeton University, the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, the Illinois State Historical Society Library in Springfield, and at the Vachel Lindsay Home in Springfield. Columbia University holds a series of recordings Lindsay made in January 1931 of thirty of his poems.