Cancer – Tom Raworth' s ' lost' book – was originally to have been published by Frontier Press in 1973. After Frontier' s funds ran out, the typescript was returned to its author, and its opening section, ' Logbook' , was published as a standalone volume by Poltroon Press in 1976. Revised versions of Cancer' s other two sections were published separately in the 1980s; the original versions of both – the ' Journal' as written in the opening months of 1971, and the letters ...

Poet Tom Raworth has remained steadfastly independent of literary fashions, movements, and cliques throughout a poetic career spanning 50 years. As When is the first selection of Raworth's writing to address the full scope and range of his work, from the first poem he ever shared with anyone outside his family, "You Were Wearing Blue," to his most recently published poem, "Surfing the Permafrost Through Methane Flares." The collection includes prose work and notational pieces that...