Speech with Humans

For over 25 years Glen Baxter has been producing humorous illustrations which have gained him a major following the world over - collectors include the Prince of Wales and Salman Rushdie. He has also published an autobiography and a number of books of drawings, the most recent of which, Looming over the Suet, appeared from Bloomsbury in 2004.

The present collection, Speech with Humans, differs from his previous publications in that it is a collaboration with the influential American poet, critic and jazz musician, Clark Coolidge. Baxter first met Coolidge in 1974, and was a frequent visitor to his house near the old Shaker village of Hancock, Massachusetts. The two of them worked on Speech with Humans during one of these visits, producing a quirky, darkly humorous and slightly disturbing text. But the project was never brought to a conclusion.

Glen Baxter writes in his introduction to the present volume: "I had always intended to create a series of drawings to accompany the text but somehow this never happened until one day Tony Ward of Arc encouraged me to complete the project that had begun in 1982. This is the result."

American poet, critic and jazz musician, Clark Coolidge was born in 1939. A hugely influential figure, often associated with the Beat Poets, Coolidge has published over 25 books.