Slaughterhouse Music Available to Purchase

THOMAS MCGRATH (1916–1990) began his work-life as a young boy on the family farm in North Dakota near the Minnesota border. His poetry is known for its breadth of language and diction, range of form, and mastery of the long line, exemplified in Letters to an Imaginary Friend, an epic book-length poem in four parts, written over thirty years. A lifetime activist, organizer, Rhodes Scholar, and World War II veteran, he was blacklisted following his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In addition to poetry, he wrote novels and documentary screenplays. “Slaughterhouse Music” appears in McGrath’s final book, Death Song—edited by Sam Hamill—completed before his death and published posthumously.

—Susan Eisenberg