Frank Stanford

Frank Stanford (born Francis Gildart Smith; August 1, 1948 – June 3, 1978) was an American poet. He is most known for his epic, ''The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You'' – a labyrinthine poem without stanzas or punctuation. In addition, Stanford published six shorter books of poetry throughout his twenties, and three posthumous collections of his writings (as well as a book of selected poems) have also been published.

Biography

Early life and education

Frank Stanford was born Francis Gildart Smith on August 1, 1948, to widow Dorothy Margaret Smith at the Emery Memorial Home in Richton, Mississippi. Wright, C. D. "Frank Stanford: Blue Yodel Of A Wayfaring Stranger," ''Oxford American'', Issue 52, pp. 98–105. Winter 2006. He was soon adopted by a single divorcee named Dorothy Gilbert Alter (1911–2000), who was Firestone's first female manager.Stanford, Frank. ''The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You'', biographical note and C. D. Wright's preface. No place given: Lost Roads no. 50, 2000. . In 1952, Gilbert married successful Memphis levee engineer Albert Franklin Stanford (1884–1963),Albert Stanford at th
Social Security Death Index
who subsequently also adopted "Frankie" and his younger, adoptive sister, "Ruthie" (Bettina Ruth). Stanford attended Sherwood Elementary School and Sherwood Junior High School in Memphis until 1961 when the family moved to Mountain Home, Arkansas, following A. F. Stanford's retirement;Subiaco Academy records, Registrar's office. Accessed by Registrar Lou Trusty at Subiaco Academy on November 19, 2008. Stanford attended Sherwood Junior High School for 7th grade (1960–1961), Mountain Home Junior High School for 8th grade (1961–1962), Mountain Home High School for 9th and 10th grades (1962–1964), and Subiaco Academy for 11th and 12th grades (1964–1966). Stanford graduated from Subiaco on May 27, 1966. Stanford finished junior high school in Mountain Home. The elder Stanford died after the poet's freshman year at Mountain Home High School.

In 1964, as a junior, Stanford entered Subiaco Academy near Paris, Arkansas, in the Ouachita Mountains. He entered the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville where he started to write poetry, and soon became known throughout the Fayetteville literary community,Wright, C. D. Epilogue, ''The Singing Knives'' (Lost Roads,1979). Re: unpublished manuscripts, Wright's epilogue notes the existence of fifty complete manuscripts of poetry, short fiction, screenplays, and essays. and published poetry in the student literary magazine, ''Preview''. However, he left the university, never earning a degree. Wright, C. D. "Frank Stanford", ''The Before Columbus Poetry Anthology''. W. W. Norton. 1991.

Career

1969–1972

Over the next several years, Stanford kept writing and in 1971 married Linda Mencin. Stanford probably worked on ''The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You'' — which he had likely begun as a teenager.

In June 1970,''Mississippi Quarterly'', Vol. 24, No. 4, Fall 1971, p. 405. Mississippi State, MS: Mississippi State University. The Hollins Conference on Creative Writing and Cinema took place June 15–28, 1970. he met Irving Broughton, the editor and publisher of Mill Mountain Press, at the Hollins Conference on Creative Writing and Cinema. Broughton, Irv. "Tracing The Tale" (Letters To The Editor), Poets & Writers, September 2002. Broughton read Stanford's work at the conference and agreed to publish the poet's first book, ''The Singing Knives''. Five of Stanford's poems appeared in ''The Mill Mountain Review'' later that year,Stanford's poetry in three issues. ''The Mill Mountain Review'', Vol. 1, No. 2; 1970. Vol. 1, No. 3; 1971. Vol. 1, No. 4; 1971. Seattle, WA: Mill Mountain Press. and in 1971, ''The Singing Knives'' was published as a limited edition chapbook.Stanford, Frank. ''The Singing Knives''. Seattle, WA: Mill Mountain Press. 1971. . "The Minnow" reprinted here with permission from C. D. Wright, rights holder. Re: publication date, some sources have listed book's publication date as 1972 (such as stated on the copyright page in the 2008 reprint), but book itself lists 1971. That summer, Stanford and Mencin married, but, after having lived together for two years, Mencin left the poet after only three months of marriage.

Stanford spent much of 1972 traveling through the South and New England with Broughton, a communications teacher and filmmaker, and these interviews were published in ''The Writer's Mind: Interviews With American Authors'', a three-volume set. Broughton, Irv, ed. ''The Writer's Mind: Interviews With American Authors''. 3 vols. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press. 1989–1990. Stanford briefly lived in New York City, but only, he would later write, "to go to the movies."Stanford, Frank. "Blue Yodel Of The Desperado." ''Constant Stranger'', p 29. Seattle, WA: Mill Mountain Press. 1976. Returning to Arkansas from New York, he moved to the old spa town of Eureka Springs and took a room in the New Orleans Hotel.

1973–1976

For several years, beginning as early as 1970,Stanford worked with R. S. Gwynn at Kemp, Christner & Associates, a land surveying company, in summer 1970. Stanford meagerly supported himself (and his second wife) by working as an unlicensed land surveyor.Father Nicholas Fuhrmann at Subiaco Abbey and Academy by phone on February 15, 2008. Re: his last meeting with Stanford, Fuhrmann remembered it as being approximately ten days before Stanford died, but Stanford was in New Orleans for his last two and a half weeks, so the Stanford/Fuhrmann meeting was probably at least a few weeks before his death. The profession permeated his poetry in numerous instances, as in the poem "Lament Of The Land Surveyor".Stanford, Frank. ''Arkansas Bench Stone''. Seattle, WA: Mill Mountain Press. 1975. Broughton and Stanford made a 25-minute documentary about Stanford's work and life — filmed in Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri, discussing the land surveyor's experiences, and interviewing friends on whom Stanford's literary characters were sometimes based — titled, ''It Wasn't A Dream, It Was A Flood'', which won one of the Judge's Awards at the 1974 Northwest Film & Video Festival.Bachar, Greg
"It Wasn't A Dream, It Was A Flood: Constant Stranger"
, Rain Taxi, Vol. 3, No. 3. Fall 1998.The film includes a recording of Stanford reading his work, his poem, "Linger," from ''Ladies From Hell'' (Mill Mountain Press, 1974).

Following the publication of ''The Singing Knives'', Broughton's Mill Mountain Press published five more of Stanford's chapbook-length manuscripts between 1974 and 1976. ''Ladies From Hell'' appeared in 1974,Stanford, Frank. ''Ladies From Hell''. Seattle, WA: Mill Mountain Press. 1974. "Death In The Cool Evening" reprinted here with permission from Ginny Stanford, rights holder. followed by ''Field Talk'',Stanford, Frank. ''Field Talk''. Seattle, WA: Mill Mountain Press. 1975. ''Shade'',Stanford, Frank. ''Shade''. Seattle, WA: Mill Mountain Press. Limited Edition. Second Edition. 1975. The publication date of ''Shade'' is a source of much confusion. The book's title page notes 1975, the copyright page reads "Copyright 1973, 1975 by Frank Stanford," "Second Edition," and the book's front matter lists "SHADE 1973" under "Books By Frank Stanford." and ''Arkansas Bench Stone'' in 1975; all four books included drawings by Ginny Stanford. ''Constant Stranger'', were released the following year.

Returning to Fayetteville in 1975, Stanford reestablished relationships with local area writers and met poet C. D. Wright, a graduate student in the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Arkansas. The two poets began an affair which would last the rest of Stanford's life.Stanford, Ginny. "Death In The Cool Evening", ''The Portable Plateau'', 1:1. Joplin, Missouri: Ridgerunner Press. 1997; The Alsop Review (reprint). The essay as published in ''The Portable Plateau'' differs by two additional sentences and it incorporates Stanford's poem of the same name. In 1976, Stanford rented a house in Fayetteville on Jackson Drive with Wright and established the independent publishing operation Lost Roads Publishers to publish the work of talented poets without ready access to publishing; Wright, C. D.br>"Finishing The First"
Poets & Writers, December 2006. he said that his purpose with the press was to "reclaim the landscape of American poetry."Hall, R. C. "Death Of A Major Voice In Arkansas", '' The Arkansas Times'', December 1978. That fall, the Stanfords moved from Beaver Lake to the Crouch family's farm in southwest Missouri.

1977–1978

In 1977, Stanford's Fayetteville, Arkansas based Lost Roads Publishing Company released its first title, Wright's ''Room Rented By A Single Woman'', and more titles soon followed. The press would issue twelve books under Stanford's direction. Early in the year, in an article on Arkansas arts in ''The New York Times'', Stanford's teacher, Jim Whitehead, referred to Stanford as "the most exciting young Arkansas poet he knows."Roy Reed. "Arts in Arkansas: They Make Music, Poetry, Even Movies." ''The New York Times''. February 2, 1977.

= ''The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You''

=
The year 1977 also saw the publication of Stanford's most substantial and influential book, ''The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You''. A joint publication by Mill Mountain Press and Lost Roads (taking up numbers 7–12 in the Lost Roads catalogue), the published version of the epic (which had, at one point, according to Stanford, reached over 1,000 pages and 40,000 lines)Stanford, Frank. "Letter to David Walker", April 1, 1974. ''The Alsop Review''. settled at 542 pages (383 pages in the second, 2000, edition)Stanford, Frank. ''The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You''. Fayetteville, AR: Mill Mountain/ Lost Roads nos. 7–12, 1977. . In an April 1974 letter, Stanford comments that poet Alan Dugan had written to him with the response, "This is better than good, it is great ... one day it will explode."

= Final months and days

=
By 1978, Stanford was heavily occupied with Lost Roads' publishing endeavors. Father Nicholas Fuhrmann, Stanford's former English teacher and longtime friend, has noted that Stanford was, during this period, visiting his mother (who lived in Subiaco) more often than had seemed usual.

Death

On the Saturday evening of June 3, 1978, Stanford committed suicide in his home in Fayetteville.Staff reports. "Gunshot Wounds Fatal," ''Northwest Arkansas Times'', June 5, 1978. Police reported that Stanford was dead on their arrival to the home at 7:28 p.m.; Deputy Coroner Hugh Huppert subsequently ruled the death a suicide.Frank Stanford
Academy of American Poets, 2008. In her essay, "Death In The Cool Evening," widow Ginny Stanford notes that, having discovered her husband's infidelity, they argued about the matter; subsequently, Stanford retreated to his bedroom, and moments later, gunshots were heard: on the morning of June 5, Deputy Coroner Hugh Huppert ruled the death a suicide, declaring that Stanford had thrice shot himself in the heart with a .22-caliber target pistol.Stanford's bio at the ''Alsop Review'' reports a ".22 revolver." At least three other accounts describe a pistol
"The Long Goodbye"
(Poetry Foundation, 2008) refers to a ".22-caliber target pistol"; in a 1997 essay, C. D. Wright describes a "target pistol"; newspaper accounts published at the time also referred to a ".22 caliber pistol." Thus, information in ''Alsop Review'' is likely a misprint. Both Ginny Stanford and C. D. Wright were in the house at the time of his death. Thomas, Lorenzo
"Finders, Losers: Frank Stanford's Song Of The South"
January 2, 1979. Stanford's funeral was held on June 6. He was buried in St. Benedict's Cemetery at Subiaco beneath a stand of yellow pines, five miles (eight km) from the Arkansas River.

Father Fuhrmann, who had met with Stanford shortly before his death, feels that the poet had "a lot on his mind," and Wright and Ginny Stanford reported that he was depressed and withdrawn on the day of his suicide. Stanford had also spent time at the Arkansas State Hospital (the state psychiatric hospital) in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1972 and may have had prior suicide attempts.

Legacy

Frank Stanford's legacy is one shrouded in numerous inaccuracies. A 2002 misprint in ''Poets & Writers'' credits Stanford, not Irving Broughton, as the founder of Mill Mountain Press.Holman, Bob
"Trace of a Tale: C. D. Wright: An Investigative Poem"
''Poets & Writers Magazine'', May 2002. Stanford's own books have printed biographical and bibliographical errors; for instance, the biographical note for the posthumously published book, ''Crib Death'', states that Stanford was "born in 1949 in Greenville, Mississippi," when in fact he was born in 1948 in Richton, Mississippi, some away,Stanford, Frank. ''Crib Death''. Kensington, CA: Ironwood Press. 1978. and the table of contents for ''The Light The Dead See: Selected Poems of Frank Stanford'' lists ''The Singing Knives'' as having been published in 1972 and ''Crib Death'' as having been published in 1979, when in fact they were published in 1971 and 1978, respectively.

In 2008 Ben Ehrenreich published an essay on Stanford on Poetry magazine's website which was reposted in 2015 on the occasion of the publication of ''What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford''.

Posthumous works

Ironwood Press published Stanford's chapbook, ''Crib Death'', in 1978, shortly after his death. Lost Roads, editorship succeeded by C. D. Wright, published a posthumous chapbook of yet more of Stanford's poems, titled ''You'' (as well as a limited edition reprint of ''The Singing Knives''), in 1979.Stanford, Frank. ''You''. Fayetteville, AR: Lost Roads. 1979. . No place given: Lost Roads. 2008. . "Instead" reprinted here with permission from C. D. Wright, rights holder. In 1990,Stanford, Frank. ''Conditions Uncertain And Likely To Pass Away''. Providence, RI: Lost Roads no. 37, 1990. . Re: date of publication, some sources list "1991" (date on book's back cover), but title page and copyright page print 1990. the press released a collection of Stanford's short fiction, titled ''Conditions Uncertain And Likely To Pass Away''. A slim volume of selected poems, ''The Light The Dead See: Selected Poems of Frank Stanford'', was published the following year by the University of Arkansas Press.Stanford, Frank. ''The Light The Dead See: Selected Poems of Frank Stanford'', p ix. Leon Stokesbury, ed. Fayetteville, AR: The University of Arkansas Press. 1991. Furthermore, much of Stanford's work is as yet unpublished, including the manuscripts: ''Flour The Dead Man Brings To The Wedding'' and ''The Last Panther In The Ozarks'' (which combine to make one manuscript), and ''Automatic Co-Pilot''.

Stanford's work was published by Mill Mountain, Ironwood, and Lost Roads mostly as limited edition chapbooks. In October 2000, Lost Roads republished ''The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You''. In February 2008, Lost Roads reissued ''The Singing Knives'' and ''You''. 2015 saw the publication of two collections, ''What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford'' from Copper Canyon Press and ''Hidden Water: From the Frank Stanford Archives''.

Reception

Frank Stanford's poems— tall tales of wild embellishment with recurring characters in an imaginary landscape, drawn from his childhood in the Mississippi Delta and the Ozark mountains—are immediately recognizable, and his œuvre continues to be influential and well-received.

Cultural response

In the 1990s, Ginny Stanford and C. D. Wright published accounts of their respective relationships to Stanford, both during his life and afterward. Ginny Stanford published two essays: "Requiem: A Fragment," in ''The New Orleans Review'' in 1994,Stanford, Ginny. "Requiem: A Fragment," ''The New Orleans Review.'' New Orleans, LA

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