Minna and Myself

Minna and Myself (1918) was the first book by Maxwell Bodenheim (1892-1954), an American poet then making his name in the little magazines Poetry and Others. The Pagan Publishing Company of New York issued the volume. Its opening section gathers love lyrics addressed to Minna Schein, the poet’s first wife, including Poet to His Love, the short piece anthologists kept reprinting for decades. The book also contains The Master-Poisoner, a verse play written with Ben Hecht that marked Hecht’s own first appearance between covers; first-state copies misprint the title as The Master-Posner, a point rare-book dealers still check. Bodenheim later drifted into the Greenwich Village bohemian life that ended with his murder in 1954, which gives this confident debut a sad afterglow. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.