The American Poets Project is a series that aims to present “the most significant American poetry” written by poets who are, well, dead. (The lone exception to this rule is Samuel Menashe, whose richly deserved New and Selected Poems was published this year.) The series is published by the Library of America, and includes sixteen volumes thus far, with several more (Emma Lazarus, Theodore Roethke, and Poets of the Civil War) just out, and many more planned. Three things should be said about the project. First, whatever objections one might have to individual selections, the series as a whole is a worthwhile undertaking that stands a reasonable chance of getting good poetry into the hands of more people. Second, the books themselves are extremely well put together (design is credited to Chip Kidd and Mark Melnick) Finally, the project’s website claims that the series is edited by “today’s most discerning poets and critics,” but it’s hard not to notice that, with one exception, every editor is over the age of fifty. What you think this says about the future of the game called “American poetry” will depend on where you sit in the bleachers.