Upside-Down
Chestertown
1988
Robert Day was showing me around the Literary House on the campus of Washington College. The Lit House housed a large letterpress room and bindery as well as classrooms, offices, and a public reading space where I was going to give a reading. The hallway walls were filled with finely designed printed broadsides and colorful posters, beautifully framed, advertising all the individual writers who had visited over the years. Walking slowly through the halls, we admired the gallery of famous names, and Bob related interesting anecdotes about each occasion. I noticed that every once and awhile one of the posters was hung upside-down. After I had seen a number upside-down, I asked Bob why that was. He told me those had been the writers the students hadn’t liked. I hoped then that my poster wouldn’t end up so. Near the end of the tour, we came upon a poster hung not only upside-down (I imagined) but also back-to-front so all I could see was the brown backing paper. “The students really, really didn’t like that one,” he said. “You want to guess who it is?” And I did.