Hitler Painted Roses Paperback – September 1, 1994

I decided to check out Steve Richmond's work after reading a line in LIFSHIN & RICHMOND, "...all I see is the enlarging face of bugs bunny laughing...unfunny unfeeling ungood in any way to me..." which intrigued me as a nightmare vision. HITLER PAINTED ROSES also displayed a fascinatingly dark imagination but was too slight a volume to give me much of an impression of his work.

This 1994 copy is not the true first edition. This volume originally appeared in the late 1960s on the Earth Poet Series imprint. I have a stated "second printing" copy that I purchased in 1969.

Steve Richmond's poetry is probably the best "undiscovered" writing in America today. This reissued volume of old and new poems is good, but his best book is the long out-of-print tome EARTH ROSE. Regardless, or maybe in spite, of Richmond's relationship with American-icon Charles Bukowski, these poems stand up and holler on their own.