Benjamin De Casseres

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benjamin De Casseres (1873-1945) was an American journalist and author. He worked for various New York City newspapers writing columns and editorials. He also wrote poetry, fiction, essays, and critical reviews. He was married to author Adele Bio Terrill De Casseres, and corresponded with prominent literary figures of his time including Clark Ashton Smith and Charles Fort.

A three volume retrospective of his work was printed by Blackstone in 1936 and reprinted in 1975 by Gordon Press.

[edit] The Moth-Terror

De Casseres' poem "The Moth-Terror" is amongst his most famous work, and certainly one of the most frequently reproduced.

I have killed the moth flying around my night-light; wingless and dead it lies upon the floor.

(O who will kill the great Time-Moth that eats holes in my soul and that burrows in and through my secretest veils!)

My will against its will, and no more will it fly at my night-light or be hidden behind the curtains that swing in the winds.

(But O who will shatter the Change-Moth that leaves me in rags -- tattered old tapestries that swing in the winds that blow out of Chaos!)

Night-Moth, Change-Moth, Time-Moth, eaters of dreams and of me!

[edit] Bibliography

The Shadow-Eater
The Adventures of an Exile
Anathema! Litanies of Negation
The Muse Of Lies
I Dance With Nietzsche
Fantasia Impromptu
Don Marquis
Finis
Forty Immortals
James Gibbons Hunekar
The Love Letters Of A Living Poet
Mencken and Shaw
Mirrors of New York
Robinson Jeffers, Tragic Terror
The Last Supper
The Communist-Parasite State
The Eighth Heaven
The Eternal Return
The Chamelon, Being A Book Of My Selves
Sir Galahad: Knight of the Lidless Eye