No Vacancies in Hell: Poems

by Daniel Mark Epstein

Book Overview

Several long poems of absorbing skill stand out in the book: Requiem for Christine Latrobe, Letter Concerning the Yellow Fever, and The Assassins, an imagined address after the deed from John Wilkes Booth to one of his co-conspirators. A deep sense of place, namely of Baltimore, Tidewater Country, and Appalachian Maryland, informs the pages of this book. Yet through the art of his poetry, Epstein makes what begins as local history and personal...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871402866
• ISBN13: 9780871402868
• Release Date: October 1973
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 66 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Extraorindary Perceptions VIce-like in their Grip: "No Vacancies In Hell"

One of the few books that have remained constant on my literary bookshelf for always. Will till I am ashes. While seated two rows behind the umber-headed, dark stubble chin bard at Northwestern High School in Adelphi,MD in Mrs. James writing class, I knew I was listening to God's scribe's voice enunciate scintillating, well read prose. I was in love. Not with Mr. Epstein. With his words. The magical phonemes and vowels and consonants that tripped off his tongue. Well, perhaps his voice had something to do with it. "No Vacancies In Hell" was an extraordiny first start. Mine less auspicious or noted. I must recommend the juxtaposing lovelies, so many words of cadence and kin, depth and skin. In my humble opinion, this is Danny's masterpiece. An early ode to his most faithful love. No pretence. Nothing but articulated grains of sand you can hold in your open hands like the precious of gems or jelly beans. [..]

An American Classic

This book was in my parent's collection, and I first read it years ago. Epstein sent a shock through the poetry world in the 1970s when he published this book of erotic love poems and dramatic monologues, and many of the pieces, such as "The Assassins" and "The Mountain and Tidewater Songs" (later made into a song cycle by Damon Ferrante) still give me chills. It is a tribute to Epstein's gifts that this book is still in print after so many years.