On the Slain Collegians
Melville, Herman and Antonio Frasconi. On the Slain Collegians. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971 (1st Noonday Ed.). Softbound. Dedicated to the victims of both the Kent State and Jackson State killings of May 1970, this book juxtaposes photo-reproductions of Frasconi's woodcuts with haunting excerpts from Melville's poetry selected and arranged by the printmaker. Its title is taken from a poem Melville wrote during the bloodiest final battles of the Civil War, and there is a Dickinsonian emphasis here on the strictures—as well as, appropriately enough, the rhythms—of time: 'Dust to dust, and blood for blood— / Passion and pangs! Has Time / Gone back? or is this the Age / Of the world's great Prime?' Frasconi, who often carved blocks from the driftwood found on the beach in front of his home, said, 'Sometimes the wood gives you a break, and matches your conception of the way it is grained. But often you must surrender to the grain, find the movement of the scene, the mood of the work, in the way the grain runs.'
