Originally published in 1996, Love Had a Compass was lauded as one of the best portraits of Lax's life and work.

Love Had a Compass was the first and remains the only collection of Lax's work to print his previously unpublished sequence of poems, Port City: The Marseille Diaries, which is often considered Lax's finest work.

New Directions will also reissue Robert Lax's 33 Poems in February. This simultaneous reissue is sure to attract media and review attention