KARL SHAPIRO was one of the twentieth-century's major poets. He published more than twenty books of poetry, two autobiographies, including poetry, seven collections of essays, and a novel. Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate), he was the winner of numerous prizes and awards, including the Contemporary Poetry prize, two Guggenheim Foundation fellowships, the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, the Shelley Memorial Prize, and the Bollingen Prize. He was also a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and a faculty member at several universities. Active in his craft well into his late seventies, in 2000 Shapiro died at the age of 86.

ROBERT PHILLIPS, who is responsible for compiling, editing, and introducing this final book of poems by Karl Shapiro, was the author or editor of some thirty volumes of poetry, fiction, criticism, and belles lettres and publishes in numerous journals. A professor of English, he was director of the prestigious Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston from 1991 to 1996. In 1998 he was named a John and Rebecca Moore Scholar at the university.