Disappointed by our audience's disappointment in "First Loves", Bartleby Willard and Amble Whistletown have reconsidered our recent literary and philosophical creations with particular attention to readability.
We've asked, "Will readers enjoy reading this?" to many and diverse pieces, selecting for this volume only those cases where we felt fairly confident of a "Yes, this is both readable and worth reading".
Did we choose wisely? Were we ever even in possession of the raw materials necessary for success? We hope so; we hope so.
The selections include tales of the Pure Love industry (from "First Loves" and elsewhere); essays lying along various points of the lyrical-to-philosophical spectrum (from "First Essays"); frame stories of Bartleby Willard's life and times at Skullvalley After Whistletown Bookmakers, both from the standard and from a less standard SAWB mythology; many poems; several advertisements for Pure Love and related concepts; a few first-hand accounts of life in New York City; and a general sense of lonesome.
Is the book good?
We cannot say, but we pray
that it is good,
and that you'll find it
a pleasant stream, gently pulling you along
as you slowly sink deeper and deeper
into it's calm cool but persistent fellowship.
Your friends in a way
in that way we're all bound up as one,
your friends in that eternal magic way,
Bartleby Willard
Amble Whistletown
