The story -- told through his published work, selections from unpublished manuscripts, 44 drawings not seen publicly prior to this publication and a biographical introduction -- of Herman Spector. This proletarian writer of the late Twenties and the Thirties influenced with his experimental work then-radical poets who came out of that period. He wrote for and was a contributing editor for radical publications such as New Masses, Blues and Dynamo (which he co-founded) and was a member of the W.P.A. Writers Project. But then, although he continued to write during the last two decades of his life -- which ended in 1959 the day before his 54th birthday, he never again submitted his talents to the opinion of editors, critics and the public.

The critics praised Bastard in the Ragged Suit:
"One of the few real artists writing for the radical left...his work, collected here in a handsome edition complete with his drawings, vividly recreates the embittered poverty of New York in the Depression...The volume is valuable for students of modern literature and American studies." (Choice)

"Contributing editor of New Masses, founding editor of Dynamo, anthologized amongst such writers as Conrad Aiken, Sherwood Anderson, Nathan Asch, Mark van Doren and William Carlos Williams, praised by Partisan Review, admired and published by Ezra Pound, searched out by the young Nelson Algren, Spector, after shining briefly in the gloom of the Depression years, strangely, and quite suddenly turned it all off...This profusely illustrated collection is fascinating." (Los Angeles Times)

"This fine collection brings it together in a way Spector never could, and gives the work a dignity and coherence he never appreciated." (The New Republic).

"Spector's prose pieces preserve the flavor of New York's low-life...In this respect, he remains a kind of bitter and proletarian Damon Runyon. Though much of Spector's poetry has an ephemeral and almost journalistic quality, he yet managed, at his best, to be published in the same anthologies as Sherwood Anderson, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane, Waldo Frank, Robert Frost, Katherine Anne Porter, Robert Penn Warren and William Carlos Williams. His Harlem River, for instance, still deserves to be reprinted in anthologies." (Midstream)

"Rough 'caesar of sad words,' Spector wrote for New Masses and founded a radical revolutionary poetry mag, Dynamo. Staccato blues talk and rhythms drive through his published work...Bastard bares the ideological rage and disillusion of his rowdy spirit in cutting criticisms and poems guaranteed to rouse the blood." (American Library Association's Booklist)

And notable writers commented:
"Herman Spector had a powerful impact on American poetry of the Thirties. He was a fine poet, a good artist and an excellent writer of short sketches." (Nelson Algren)

"It was certainly a most moving experience to read it straight through." (Kenneth Rexroth).

"1929 and a decade audible in these poems. The poetry tells this story, the tones of the poetry, even the borrowed tones, which are dreams, tell the story of a man who risked himself for the hope of a poetry that would isolate no man and no thing, that would seem to him in no way 'privileged' and he became perhaps the loneliest of the impoverished men of his time and I believe he must have become afraid. Before he died, fear had abolished his poetry. Yes, I think (he) stopped short, or was stopped. Yes, sure his spirit failed (but) he did a great deal more than most men have." (Pulitizer Prize-winning poet George Oppen)

$12.50 Hardcover
ISBN 0-912184-03-5

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