The Press of James A. Decker was a poetry publishing house once located in the tiny hamlet of

Prairie City, Illinois Prairie City is a village in McDonough County, Illinois, United States. The population was 407 at the 2020 census. Geography Prairie City is located in the northeast corner of McDonough County at (40.620740, -90.463582). It is bordered to the ...

. Created in 1937 by James A. Decker, the press carried the full name of its founder until 1948 when the imprint was shortened to simply the Decker Press. The Decker Press received national attention in the 1940s, when it published work by famous authors such as

Edgar Lee Masters Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950) was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of ''Spoon River Anthology'', ''The New Star Chamber and Other Essays'', ''Songs and Satires'', ''The Great V ...

August Derleth August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the ...

, Hubert Creekmore, William Everson (Brother Antoninus),

David Ignatow David Ignatow (February 7, 1914 – November 17, 1997) was an American poet and editor. Life David Ignatow was born in Brooklyn on February 7, 1914, and spent most of his life in the New York City area. He died on November 17, 1997, at his ...

Kenneth Patchen Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911January 8, 1972) was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of Will ...

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider h ...

and

Louis Zukofsky Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was an American poet. He was the primary instigator and theorist of the so-called "Objectivist" poets, a short lived collective of poets who after several decades of obscurity would reemerge a ...

. The small press was noted as one of the most prolific publishers of poetry in the country at the time, but the business was plagued by financial issues until the press came to a sudden end in 1950 with a murder-suicide case.

The Decker family

James A. Decker, the founder of the Decker Press, was born in 1917 in Prairie City, Illinois, to Ulah and Arthur Decker. His younger sister Dorothy was born in 1921. His father Arthur worked in a drugstore owned by Ulah's father, Eldon James. James Decker graduated from Prairie City High School in 1934 and then attended

Park College Park University is a private university in Parkville, Missouri. It was founded in 1875. In the fall of 2017, Park had an enrollment of 11,457 students. History The school which was originally called Park College was founded in 1875 by John A. ...

in Missouri from 1934 to 1935 before returning to Prairie City.

History of the Press

James Decker returned to Prairie City with the goal of combining his passion for poetry and his interest in publishing. Decker obtained a small hand press, which he set up in the back room of his grandfather's drug store. In 1937, he began printing volumes of poetry, with the help of his sister Dorothy. Dorothy continued to work as an employee of the press throughout its operation, including while James served in the military from 1943 to 1945. The press began gaining attention after James Decker obtained permission to print two of

’ collections: ''Illinois Poems'', published in 1941, and ''Along the Illinois'', published in 1942. The press began to attract other poets from across the country, but Decker struggled with the funding to finance the work. By 1947, the press was facing financial difficulties, and Decker sold it to a local businessman and lumber dealer, Harry M. Denman. A few months later, Denman sold the press to Ervin Tax, a writer from Chicago whose work was scheduled to be published by the Decker Press. Impatient with the delays, Tax traveled to Prairie City to see the press for himself and soon became involved in the financial and administrative oversight. In 1948 Tax purchased the press, changing the name to simply The Decker Press. Despite Tax's efforts, the financial difficulties of the press continued, and interpersonal relationships began to unravel. As ownership of the press changed hands, James and Dorothy Decker had continued to work as employees, but in 1949 Tax announced that James Decker had been dismissed after mishandling funds. Rather than challenging these accusations of embezzlement, Decker left Prairie City, moving his family to Kansas City. Dorothy remained behind, but her relationship with Tax deteriorated. In May 1950, after driving to pick up Tax who was returning from a trip out of town, Dorothy shot him in the head before killing herself. Their bodies were discovered in the car on the side of the road just outside Prairie City on May 11, 1950.

Selected authors

* Sylvia Trent Auxier: ''Meadow Rue'' (1948) * Tom Boggs, editor: ''Lyric Moderns in Brief: Some Modern Poets'' (1940); ''New Poets: an Anthology of Seven Young Contemporary Poets—Tom Boggs, John Ciardi, Robert Clairmont, M. Gellert, Lucy Kent, E. L. Mayo, Marshall Schacht'' (1941); ''An American Anthology: 67 Poems Now in Anthology Form For The First Time'' (1942) *

Herbert Bruncken Herbert Brunken (born 1896, date of death unknown) was an American poet, and magazine editor. Life He lived in Wisconsin. He sent contributions for the ''Smart Set'' to H. L. Menken. He was editor of ''Minaret'' magazine in Washington, D. C., ...

: ''Noise in Time'' (1949) *

Carlos Bulosan Carlos Sampayan Bulosan (November 24, 1913 – September 11, 1956) was an English-language Filipino novelist and poet who immigrated to America on July 1, 1930. He never returned to the Philippines and he spent most of his life in the United St ...

: ''Letter from America'' (1942) *

Hubert Creekmore Hubert Creekmore (16 January 1907 – 23 May 1966) was an American poet and writer from the small Mississippi town of Water Valley. Creekmore was born into one of the oldest Southern families of the area but he would grow up to embody ideals v ...

: ''Personal Sun'' (1940) *

: ''Rind of Earth'' (1942); ''Selected Poems'' (1944); ''The Edge of Night'' (1945) * William Everson: ''The Masculine Dead'' (1942) * Robert Friend: ''Shadow on the Sun'' (1941) *Martha K. Graham: ''Prairie City Poems'' (1940); ''Listen Forever'' (1940); ''Words for the Music'' (1942) *

: ''Poems'' (1948) *

: ''Illinois Poems'' (1941); ''Along the Illinois'' (1942) *

Lorine Niedecker Lorine Faith Niedecker (English: pronounced Needecker) (May 12, 1903 – December 31, 1970) was an American poet. Niedecker's poetry is known for its spareness, its focus on the natural landscapes of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest (particularly wa ...

: ''New Goose'' (1946) *

: ''To Say If You Love Someone'' (1947) *

: ''The Art of Worldly Wisdom'' (1949) * Edouard Roditi: ''Prison Within Prison'' (1941) *

Winfield Townley Scott Winfield Townley Scott (April 30, 1910 – April 28, 1968) was an American poet and diarist. He also worked as a newspaperman and book reviewer. Biography Scott was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, seven days after the arrival of Halley's Co ...

: ''Wind the Clock'' (1941) *

: ''55 Poems'' (1941); ''Anew'' (1946)

Legacy

Th
Archives and Special Collections Unit at Western Illinois University Libraries
is the single-largest holder of materials from the Press of James A. Decker. Archives staff has compiled a complete bibliography of Decker Press books with a listing of which books are currently held there. Other materials include articles, photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, historical records, and unpublished typescripts about the Decker Press and James Decker.

References

{{reflist Book publishing companies based in Illinois Defunct book publishing companies of the United States