16 Words William Carlos Williams And The Red Wheelbarrow Cover Reveal

In honor of National Poetry Month, today we’re revealing the cover for Lisa Rogers’ debut picture book 16 WORDS: WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS AND THE RED WHEELBARROW, illustrated by Chuck Groenink. The story is a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of that famous poem and releases on September 24, 2019. Find out more here. Lisa, When did you first get the idea to write 16 Words, and what inspired you? One summer morning, just before my family was to embark on a dream Italian vacation, I was sipping coffee and reading The New York Times. A photo of a mustachioed man standing proud beside towering sunflowers caught my eye. Thaddeus Marshall, ramrod-straight in a suit jacket, had been identified as the owner of a red wheelbarrowâ€"the red wheelbarrow of William Carlos Williams’ famous poem. Marshall was a street vendor who raised chickens and grew vegetables in his Rutherford, N.J., garden. And, he was a patient of Williams, who was a medical doctor as well as a poet. I told my husband that there needed to be a book about Mr. Marshallâ€"and that I was going to write it. But not immediately. I wanted it to be just right. I carefully cut out Jennifer Schuessler’s story, folded into a tiny Moleskine notebook that my oldest friend had given me, and packed it with my sundresses and sandals. I thought about the story, thought about the relationship between Marshall and Williams, but I didn’t write down a word. Then, on a train from Venice to the Italian Riviera, I took out my little notebook and began to write. What kind of challenges did you face while writing the manuscript? Ever since it was published, that seemingly simple 16-word poem has got people wondering just what depended upon that wheelbarrow. Williams had said he was inspired by a scene out of a windowâ€"and it turns out that window was Marshall’s. That conclusion was reached by the scholar William Logan, through an