Though many hold him to be one of the greatest American poets of this century, Lax has maintained a low profile, living and writing in seclusion on the Greek island of Patmos. In Circus Days & Nights, Lax's three great long poems on the circus—“Circus of the Sun,†? “Mogador's Book,†? and “Sunset City†?—are collected together for the first time, placing this early masterwork in the position within American literature that it so richly deserves. Each of the three poems in this collection expresses a reverence for the acts of daring, beauty, and grace that make the circus the singular event it is. What also emerges is the drawing of a link between this world of the circus—wherein a tent is erected, acts are performed, and then the tent is disassembled only to be re-erected the next day—and Lax's faith. As Denise Levertov has said, “the radiant security of Lax’s faith appears in his work as a serenity of tone.†?

A photographic documentation of the Beatty-Cole Circus, recording and portraying the customs, activities, animals, and singular personalities of an endangered way of life.

Allentown, the Queen City of the Lehigh Valley, is the youngest but largest of the three cities in the valley. Founded in 1762 by William Allen, it was little more than a crossroads and small market town along the Lehigh River until it became the county seat in 1812. Heavy industries based on iron developed in the mid-eighteenth century along the Lehigh River and, by the 1860s, Allentown had become the largest community in the Lehigh Valley. In 1867, Allentown became a city. In Allentown, readers nostalgic for times past will find photographs showing the places they remember from years ago, the Pennsylvania Power & Light tower, and the effects of the devastating floods on the Lehigh River. Equally, newcomers who have heard about the great department stores of Hamilton Street, the trolley systems, Central Park, the breweries, and the iron and silk industries will treasure the images in this volume. Many places that still exist are shown in Allentown as they appeared in their earlier days. Perusing these pages will evoke memories and will provide opportunities for parents and grandparents to introduce a younger generation to the city as it was in their youth.

The nineteenth century saw the American circus move from a reviled and rejected form of entertainment to the “Greatest Show on Earth.” Circus Life by Micah D. Childress looks at this transition from the perspective of the people who owned and worked in circuses and how they responded to the new incentives that rapid industrialization made possible. The circus has long been a subject of fascination for many, as evidenced by the millions of Americans that have attended circus performances over many decades since 1870, when the circus established itself as a truly unique entertainment enterprise. Yet the few analyses of the circus that do exist have only examined the circus as its own closed microcosm—the “circus family.” Circus Life, on the other hand, places circus employees in the larger context of the history of US workers and corporate America. Focusing on the circus as a business-entertainment venture, Childress pushes the scholarship on circuses to new depths, examining the performers, managers, and laborers’ lives and how the circus evolved as it grew in popularity over time. Beginning with circuses in the antebellum era, Childress examines changes in circuses as gender balances shifted, industrialization influenced the nature of shows, and customers and crowds became increasingly more middle-class. As a study in sport and social history, Childress’s account demonstrates how the itinerant nature of the circus drew specific types of workers and performers, and how the circus was internally in constant upheaval due to the changing profile of its patrons and a changing economy. MICAH D. CHILDRESS received his PhD in history from Purdue University and currently works as a Realtor® in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His articles have appeared in Popular Entertainment Studies and American Studies.