Riding the overburdened L train into Manhattan this morning, I looked up not to find a stranger’s sweaty face jutting into mine, but a faded mass market paperback featuring a dandelion spreading its fluffy seeds on the cover. It was New Poets of England and America: An Anthology (1957 first ed., 1962 2d ed., pictured below), and it was being read by a dewy-eyed young man of 25 at the oldest.

In my subway sightings of books (which I’m going to try to make into a regular blog series), I rarely ever spy poetry, much less poetry being read by a gangly hipster. What’s even cooler is that the book in question appears to be famous in poetry circles. Not only does it garner an entry on Wikipedia, but it also comes highly recommended by the Academy of American Poets. Edited by Donald Hall and Robert Pack, it was intended to introduce a new generation of talent. And as it turns out, the writers featured—e.g., Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton—became icons.

Even more interesting are the introductions. Pack addressed the American poetry culture of the late 1950s/early 1960s, saying that it was divided between “the Academics and the Beats.” Clearly, the man’s aim was to push the latter, who did not find it necessary to drink themselves into the grave or strip in public to gain an audience. Their appeal was the caliber of their work, their “tight…and…free forms.”

If I can get my hands on a copy, I just might check it out.