Shaking Hands with the Dead - Richard D. Houff

A number of years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Houff, during a stay in Berkeley. I was an expat and had arrived several weeks prior to our meeting. The late Tom Clark and David Meltzer, introduced us. We were going to meet Ed Dorn for dinner, and the conversation that followed was an all night affair on books. I was familiar with Houff's publications, and assumed that he was a French citizen. I owned several books that he had authored from a Parisian publishing house, and enjoyed them very much. I was actually quite taken to find that he was from the Midwest. He had been invited to read from a new and slender book that Anvil Press had just released, and I was quite pleased to attend the event. Afterwards, I invited him to submit new work for my press; four books followed and a life long friendship ensued. His poetry and prose never fail to satisfy, he holds a brilliant pen!

Lionel King / Bootleg Press