The Edwin Poems

About the Book

The poems in this collection were written during John Zeigler’s 49-year partnership with Edwin Peacock, whom he met in 1940 after receiving a letter from a cousin of Carson McCullers urging that he meet her friend, then working for the Army at Fort Moultrie while John was spending the summer with an aunt on Sullivan's Island. A year after they met they moved to San Francisco, joined the Navy as Radiomen, and after the war opened the book shop.


TESTIMONIALS

"I just finished The Edwin Poems and muct tell you how moved I was - to tears - by your triumph. The love, the beauty,the sorrow and austere elegance are as palpable as breathe. Despite death,Edwin lives, and you will too, John. This book will astonish and move readers for generations."
-Harlan Greene-
Novelist/Biographer

About the Author

A South Carolinian, born 5 February 1912, educated in Florence and at The Citadel, John Zeigler has lived in Charleston, his ancestral home, since 1946, when he co-founded The Book Basement, an intimate bookshop specializing in Caroliniana. At The Citadel, he began and was editor of The Shako, the school’s literary magazine. After graduation, while working at The R.F.C. in Washington, D.C., he was editor of the little magazine Foothills, which introduced the early work of many young writers, one of whom was the gifted Jessamyn West. While serving in the Navy during the Second World War, he was stationed for an extended period at Yakutat Bay, Alaska, an experience which resulted in some of the work in this volume. His poetry has been seen in such periodicals and newspapers as The American Mercury, Harper’s Bazaar, The Lyric, Good Housekeeping, Nature Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Washington Post, The Poetry Society of South Carolina Yearbook and others. His book of poetry, Alaska and Beyond, was published in 1984.