Parents: What Are They Good For? | Benjamin DeCasseres, Chip Smith | SA1252

Benjamin DeCasseres’ essay “Parents: What Are They Good For?” originally appeared exclusively in the premiere issue (dated January 1, 1916) of Revolt, a short-lived literary anarchist periodical that was published and edited by Hippolyte Havel in New York City before being suppressed by the U.S. government. Despite the appearance of novelty, the idea to feature this nearly forgotten, century-plus-old essay as a short book is informed by a greater appreciation for DeCasseres’ marque as a prosodist, rhapsodist, and polemicist — and even as a kind of philosophical gadfly. The present volume has thus been typographically arranged (and graphically supplemented) to showcase the author’s stylistic and polemical brio, and in the hope of drawing greater attention to a uniquely provocative document in the literature of resistance. Available in hardcover and pocket paperback formats, it includes a facsimile reproduction of the first issue of Revolt and an afterword by Nine-Banded Books publisher Chip Smith.