The American Night

The title is eponymous with a poem that appears on the album An American Prayer, itself a collection of spoken word and musical vignettes released in 1978.

[2] The book consists of his theories on night which the publisher describes as containing "nightmarish images, bold associative leaps, and [a] volcanic power of emotion" and being "the unmistakable artifacts of a great, wild voice and heart.

Both poets entertain nontraditional formats for their poetry, Rimbaud implementing the prose style while Morrison often played around with space in The American Night.

[8] At the same time, questions arose as to whether it was ethical to publish Morrison's works after his death when he gave no indication that this was his intention.

A friend of Morrison's was quoted as saying, "If something was thrown in a wastebasket by Cezanne, I don't think it should hang in a museum ... What about the sanctity of the writer?"