A Houyhnhnm's Scrapbook/Number 1/Foreword

A Houyhnhnm’s Scrapbook (pronounced Whinnum’s) was established in reaction to the high-level dullness of much modern poetry. We cheerfully run the risk of the other extreme, low-level brightness. The contents of this issue will partly define the type of material we would like to receive. But the name is a better definition. It will be recalled that when Gulliver visited Houyhnhnm Land he found it inhabited by a highly intellectual and reputable race of Horses, who ruled a man-like, anti-intellectual, and disreputable race, the Yahoos. For understandable reasons the Yahoos are today more famous than their reputable masters, who, at the time of Gulliver’s reluctant departure from the island, were debating the question of Yahoo extermination. If certain items in this scrapbook seem bizarre, we should remember that Gulliver at first found Houyhnhnm Land bizarre. And if other items seem more suited to a Yahoo scrapbook, we should not forget that intelligent Houyhnhnms were interested in Yahoo aberrations, just as a psychologist may find diversion in, and gain insight from, the behavior of Pan satyrus. With this gesture we warn our long-faced critics that frivolity is not always frivolous. **** A reward of thirty dollars will be paid to each poet who visits Houyhnhnm Land and returns with an authentic Houyhnhnm poem that compels publication. This is not a prize contest, since no poet may be successful; and we reserve the right to judge authenticity. If we question a poem (one which may be found in a bottle in the sea near Houyhnhnm Land, but of unproved provenience) we reserve the right to publish it at our customary rate of $2. There is no length limit below several pages. Needless to say the poems must be translated from Houyhnhnm into English. Send any number. Take the first boat, since your translation must reach Box 12038, New Orleans 24, Louisiana by January 1, 1957.