Preface

As part of of Jacket2’s publication of Barbara Guest’s 1995 LINEbreak interview, we are publishing two of Guest’s early poems, “Escape” and “The Inhabitants” (each available as a scan of the original typsescripts and as an html version). These poems were written around 1945, well before Guest’s first book, which was published in 1960. We thank Hadley Guest for sending us these previously unpublished poems. We are also publishing the final poem Guest reads on LINEbreak, “Multiplicity,” which had as its only previous publication The Iowa Review 26, no. 2 (Summer 1996). These three poems are published here with the permission of Hadley Guest.