Acknowledgements

Chris Llewellyn was the winner of the Walt Whitman Award for 1986, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. Judge for 1986: Maxine Kumin.

This is a revised edition of that book which was originally published by Viking Press in 1987 and again in Steam Dummy & Fragments from the Fire by Bottom Dog Press in 1993.

Special thanks is due to the late Leon Stein, author of the first book written exclusively on this tragic event, and to the ILR School’s Kheel Center at Cornell University for their online exhibit of primary sources about the fire.

The poet also wishes to thank the District of Columbia Arts and Humanities Commission for a 1984 grant which funded technical assistance for the manuscript and to acknowledge the continued support of the Capitol Hill Poetry Group, the Jennie McKean Moore Writing Program, and the Festival of Poets and Poetry at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

One final note of thanks is due to Sarah Grey of Grey Editing, L.L.C., who provided invaluable editorial suggestions on the concluding “Historical Contexts” essay of this book.