The Set-Up by Joseph Moncure March
16th Jan 2020
One of the projects we are currently working on is The Set-Up, a long narrative poem about the boxing underworld – a hard-boiled tragedy told in syncopated rhyming couplets. It's a lost classic by the author of The Wild Party, Joseph Moncure March. When the work was first published in 1928, it made The Times bestseller list, and in 1949 it was turned into an award-winning film featuring Robert Ryan.
It's been out of print for over 50 years, which we consider to be a total tragedy — so we decided to reprint it, and to that end we have specially commissioned the award-winning artist Eric Kriek to illustrate it.
If you would like to follow Eric's progress, we have set up a dedicated Facebook page where we will be posting videos, sketches, finished drawings, and additional info as the project develops. Watch this space!
Further Reading
• The Set-Up: Poetry in the Ring – A deep dive into the poem’s forgotten history
• Erik Kriek Interview – Exclusive Q&A with the illustrator
