Ludlow

"Ludlow bowled me over with its dramatic power, kept me reading on, under its spell. This violent chapter in American labor history richly deserves a poem of epic size, and David Mason, outstanding poet and long-time resident of Colorado, is the man to deliver it. Unforgettably, its characters practically step off the page--immigrant hero Louis Tikas, mistreated waif Luisa Mole, and Too Tall MacIntosh, the man who must stoop to work in a mine. Here is a major poem bursting with life, a book with greatness written all over it."

-X. J. Kennedy

"A true verse novel (real verse, real novel), David Mason's Ludlow revisits one of the cruelest, bloodiest chapters in the history of American labor and state and corporate injustice: the Ludlow coal field massacre of 1914, in which eighteen men, women, and children of coal mining families were killed by the Colorado National Guard. Within a driving narrative that never loses momentum, Mason's deftly drawn characters, both historical and fictional, take on the lineaments of Dorothea Lange's photographs. With Ludlow, reminiscent in its political and dramatic power of Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle, Mason confirms his reputation as one of America's finest poets and a master of narrative."

-B. H. Fairchild

"Here is a chapter of our lives in cadences that will resonate with anyone who gives them a chance."

-Ron Charles, Washington Post Book World

"I read it in two sittings, finishing the last 140 pages in about two hours. It actually is a page-turner."

-Frank Wilson, Philadelphia Inquirer

"...a compelling story and a sustained act of poetic imagination."

-Brighde Mullins, The Dark Horse

"David Mason has succeeded in restoring to poetry some of the territory lost over recent centuries to prose fiction."

-Paul Lake, First Things

"Because this is a story more Americans should know and feel, I hope Mason's book troubles a lot of readers."

-Anne Hyde, La Tertulia

"His role in resurrecting the genre is his most distinguished achievement to date, and Ludlow is the peak of that achievement."

-Andrew Frisardi, Contemporary Poetry Review