THE explosion of anti-war poetry on the internet is to appear in print as one of the fastest books ever published.

More than 10,000 poets, including big names such as Adrian Mitchell and Sean O’Brien, have composed verses in response to what they see as the war-mongering rhetoric of Britain and the US.

Their works will be published in paperback next week as 100 Poets Against the War by Salt Publishing of Cambridge, just six weeks after an appeal was made for poems. The e-version of the book has already broken all British records with 48,000 copies downloaded. The most successful e-books released by British publishers usually sell only several hundred copies.

Todd Swift, editor of the book and poetry editor of the British website nthposition.com, said that the response was unprecedented. “It is an amazing speed,” he said. “Within 24 hours of putting out the appeal for poetry we had 350 poems. The total is now 1,000.”

Adrian Mitchell, who adapted his poem To Whom it May Concern, said that the Iraq issue had created a hunger for poetry. He said: “I feel very anxious about the war, very frightened for the people of Iraq and amazed that Tony Blair could fall for this incredible con trick.”

Mimi Khalvati, an Iranian-born poet published by Carcanet, said that the speed with which poets had reacted was a contrast to normal practice. “Poetry is normally the slowest movement in the arts,” she said. “It has been so fast because people have been so desperate to give a response. For a long time there was a build-up of frustration that there was no platform. It reflects the passion which people feel about the war.”

She said it was one of the best examples of how the internet has been used to champion a cause. “I think size matters: the sheer volume of responses you can create on the net is something that would have taken ages before.”

Sean O’Brien, who wrote his poem in a day, said he could not think of a cause that had incited such a quick response. He added: “I don’t suppose Jack Straw is going to be wringing his hands this evening, but a government at some point has to respond sensitively, or else it loses its mandate. One hopes that Blair will listen to other counsels.”

The Bulgarian-born poet George Szirtes predicted that the book would have an impact on politicians because it was an articulate response, not just cat-calling.

Profits from the book will go to Amnesty International.

Other publishers have also been swift to respond to public interest in Iraq. Faber has rushed out an anthology of existing poetry called 101 Poems Against War. It was produced in three weeks. Matthew Hollis, a Faber poetry editor who spent his evenings and weekends compiling the collection, said: “We ploughed through two and half thousand years of war poetry in that time, and not just from the English-speaking world.”

Transworld publishers have commissioned Jon Steele, an ITN cameraman, to write dispatches from the frontline in Baghdad. HarperCollins is preparing to reissue Saddam’s Secrets by Tim Trevan, a British diplomat.

Granta is rushing to press with Dilip Hiro’s Iraq, A Report from the Inside. Profile published War on Iraq by the former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter less than two weeks after first hearing about it. It has sold 40,000 copies and has been reprinted six times.

Verso, the publishing house run by Tariq Ali, republished Andrew and Patrick Cockburn’s Saddam Hussein, An American Obsession within a month of buying the rights.

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