Inscribed by the author. Includes miniature staplebound poetry book "Poet Cop II."

A Pocket Book Edition published by Simon & Schuster of Canada, Ltd., 1975.
First Edition.
ISBN: 067180183X. 122 pp.
Very good. Paperback.
Red fore edges. Corners worn.

From J. Carpenter's essay, "Looking for poetry," in Books in Canada: "Hans was the sort of fun-loving guy who would hang around outside the Selby [Hotel] while on duty, waiting for one of his literary friends to stagger out into the night, fumbling for his car keys. Larry Scanlan, currently an editor and writer with Harrowsmith, remembers leaving the Selby one Tuesday night, climbing into his car, and immediately being pulled over. A policeman approached, shone a blinding light through the side window, and told Larry sternly that he was going the wrong way down a one-way street. It was, of course, Hans. He extinguished the light, laughed his booming laugh and told Larry that he was just kidding, and let him go his way. Hans was our guardian angel. Half of him wanted to be inside drinking with us, and the other half wanted to make sure we got home safely. I remember celebrating Hans's sale of The Poet Cop to New York's Simon and Schuster in 1975. We were in awe of his success, but were dismayed when the book was released with a photo of Hans on the front, in uniform, stooped beside a little girl, with the title scrawled as if with chalk on a red-brick wall behind them, and a subtitle, "Some Call Me Pig," beneath it. The publishers were treating him as a gimmick: a policeman so sensitive he wrote poetry. When the book didn't pan out, they returned his second manuscript unread. It was an insult to Hans, who had a poet's eye for detail and a fine turn of phrase, and as far as I know he never published again. For the rest of us it was edifying: something about 'them and us,' and having a tough skin."