Soft cover, illustrated wraps. Simultaneous paperbound issue. First Edition (stated)/First Printing (number line begins in "2" per Random House's anomalous designation system). Oblong 8vo. Unpaginated 262 pp. B/w photos (154); illus. (9); Preface by Warren Susman; Intro. by Michael Lesy; excerpts from Black River Falls town archives; period photos by Charles Van Schaick sequenced by Lesy. (Parr & Badger II, 216; Roth, 222). Small tear along upper front spine edge, small dings to cover corners, overall fine.

From the library of the important American poet Frank Bidart, who received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award, and the 2017 National Book Award for Poetry for his book Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016. His signature of ownership is on the inside front cover. 

An uncommon first edition copy of this historical nonfiction book by Michael Lesy, which charts the numerous sordid, tragic, and bizarre incidents that took place in and around Jackson County, Wisconsin between 1885 and 1900, primarily in the town of Black River Falls. The events are outlined through actual written historical documents—primarily articles published in the town newspaper—with additional narration by Lesy, as well as excerpts from works by Hamlin Garland, Sinclair Lewis, and Glenway Wescott, which thematically parallel the incidents depicted. The text is accompanied by contemporaneous photographs and portraits taken in Black River Falls by photographer Charles Van Schaick. Thematically, the book emphasizes the harsh aspects of Midwestern rural life under the pressures of crime, pestilence, mental illness, and urbanization.

Wisconsin Death Trip developed a cult following in the years following its publication. In 1999, British filmmaker James Marsh adapted the book into a critically acclaimed docudrama film of the same name.