Desert Hawk Books

 

Down in My Heart

by William Stafford
with a new introduction by Kim Stafford

 

5.5" x 8" inches
120 pages
Photographs
Paperback

 

From 1942 to 1946, William Stafford was interned in camps for conscientious objectors in Arkansas, California, and Illinois for his refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army. As a pacifist, he worked on conservation projects for the Civilian Public Service, an alternative service program for young men who openly objected and refused to participate in World War II. As writer, he reported the life he found there; the fellowship within the camps and the antagonism outside them,

Down in My Heart is an account of the relationships among the men in the camps and their day-to-day activities: fighting forest fires, building trails and roads, terracing eroded lands, and their earnest pursuit of a social morality rooted in religious and secular pacifist ideals. In his new introduction to the book, Kim Stafford calls them a "generation of seekers," men who sought alternatives to violence, refused to augment the killing, and spent the war years working full time "to envision a way to avoid the next war."

First published in 1947, this "peace relic," as William Stafford later called his first book, offers a rich glimpse into a little-known aspect of the war and a fascinating look at the formative years of a major American poet.

The Author
William Stafford was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1914. An enormously loved and admired teacher and poet, he received many honors including the National Book Award for Traveling Through the Dark. He taught at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and was poet laureate of that state for several years. He died at his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, in 1993.

Kim Stafford directs the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College. He is the author of several books, including Having Everything Right: Essays of Place (Sasquatch Books).