Poetry and Letters

Although Gass has been influenced by many poets, he has not written or published much verse himself (if you don't count the limericks and other poetry scattered throughout The Tunnel and Middle C). Gass fans may be surprised to find out his only published piece in The New Yorker was a poem, the proof of which is included here. In 1980, Webster Review published a poem by and photograph of Gass, also included below.

We also had to find a place for the letter to the editors of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Gass wrote in the guise of Samuel Clemens, in response to a bill in the Missouri legislature to rename the Mark Twain Expressway the Mark McGwire Expressway.