Was reading about books as gifts on Althouse and thinking about the sadness in my grandmother giving me the Reader's Digest for Christmas and reflecting that she was a contemporary of Scofield Thayer more or less and could have subscribed to The Dial, his avant-garde journal. Except for being moderne which seems now old fashioned I guess there is only the challenge that there were some beautiful, structurally challenging or penetrating things done. In Googling Thayer to find the article (again), I came upon the author of Sea Power, I would expect a relative. Thayer was apparently analyzed by Freud and became schizophrenic; it's an interesting story. I came to it because of his connection to ee cummings, an old fashioned moderne of whose is:

I'm very fond of
black bean
soup(O i'm
very
fond of black
bean soup
Yes i'm very fond
of black bean soup)But
i don't disdain
a beef-
steak

Gimme gin&bitters to
open my
eyes(O gimme
gin&
bitters to open
my eyes
Yes gimme gin&bitters
to open my eyes)But
i'll take straight rum as
a night-
cap

Nothing like a blonde for
ruining the
blues(O nothing
like a
blonde for ruining
the blues
Yes nothing like a blonde
for ruining the blues)But
i use redheads for
the tooth
-ache

Parson says a sinner will
perish in the
flames(O parson
says a
sinner will perish
in the flames
Yes parson says a sinner
Will perish in the flames)But
i reckon that's better
than freez-
ing

Everybody's dying to be
someone
else(O every
body's
dying to be some
one else
Yes everybody's dying
to be someone else)But
i'll live my life if
it kills
me

The 'lost poem' in the Thayer article is even more scandalous to the pc reader. I had thought that 'the only emperor is the emperor of ice cream' was his but it's from Walther Stevens though I would like to see a copy of the book Sound and Sense by Laurence Perrine where I swear it's done by Edward.