Selected Letters
1st Edition
Published on 21. February 2001
532 pages
978-0-520-91800-9 (ISBN)
Description
For Charles Olson, letters were not only a daily means of communication with friends but were at the same time a vehicle for exploratory thought. In fact, many of Olson's finest works, including Projective Verse and the Maximus Poems, were formulated as letters. Olson's letters are important to an understanding of his definition of the postmodern, and through the play of mind exhibited here we recognize him as one of the vital thinkers of the twentieth century.
In this volume, edited and annotated by Ralph Maud, we see Olson at the height of his powers and also at his most human. Nearly 200 letters, selected from a known 3,000, demonstrate the wide range of Olson's interests and the depth of his concern for the future. Maud includes letters to friends and loved ones, job and grant applications, letters of recommendation, and Black Mountain College business letters, as well as correspondence illuminating Olson's poetics. As we read through the letters, which span the years from 1931, when Olson was an undergraduate, to his death in 1970, a fascinating portrait of this complex poet and thinker emerges.
In this volume, edited and annotated by Ralph Maud, we see Olson at the height of his powers and also at his most human. Nearly 200 letters, selected from a known 3,000, demonstrate the wide range of Olson's interests and the depth of his concern for the future. Maud includes letters to friends and loved ones, job and grant applications, letters of recommendation, and Black Mountain College business letters, as well as correspondence illuminating Olson's poetics. As we read through the letters, which span the years from 1931, when Olson was an undergraduate, to his death in 1970, a fascinating portrait of this complex poet and thinker emerges.
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Charles Olson | Ralph Maud
Selected Letters
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02/2001
1st Edition
University of California Press
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Persons
Charles Olson (1910-1970) is best known for his book on Melville, Call Me Ishmael; his poetic manifesto, Projective Verse; and The Maximus Poems. He was the dynamic leader of what has come to be known as the Black Mountain school of poets, named for Black Mountain College, the experimental school where Olson was a presence from 1948 until its closing in 1956.
The University of California Press has published several books of Olson's poetry, including The Maximus Poems (1983), The Collected Poems of Charles Olson (1987), and Selected Poems (1993), as well as Olson's Collected Prose (1997). Also available from California is A Guide to the Maximus Poems of Charles Olson by George F. Butterick (1978).
Ralph Maud has been reading and teaching Olson ever since he met the poet in 1963, at the beginning of the two years they both taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Maud is the author of Charles Olson's Reading: A Biography (1995) and What Does Not Change: The Significance of Charles Olson's "The Kingfishers" (1997). He is Emeritus Professor of English and Associate of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia.
The University of California Press has published several books of Olson's poetry, including The Maximus Poems (1983), The Collected Poems of Charles Olson (1987), and Selected Poems (1993), as well as Olson's Collected Prose (1997). Also available from California is A Guide to the Maximus Poems of Charles Olson by George F. Butterick (1978).
Ralph Maud has been reading and teaching Olson ever since he met the poet in 1963, at the beginning of the two years they both taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Maud is the author of Charles Olson's Reading: A Biography (1995) and What Does Not Change: The Significance of Charles Olson's "The Kingfishers" (1997). He is Emeritus Professor of English and Associate of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia.
Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Introduction
- Library Sources for the Charles Olson Letters in This Volume
- A Chronology of Charles Olson's Life and Correspondence
- Letters I
- 1. To Charles Joseph Olson (1931)
- 2. To the Rhodes Scholarship Committee (1931)
- 3. To Wilbert Snow (1932)
- 4. To John Finch (1935)
- 5. To Barbara Denny (1936)
- 6. To Anne Bosshard (1936)
- II
- 7. To Dorothy Norman (1938-1939)
- 8. To F. O.Matthiessen (1939)
- 9. To Carl Van Doren and Van Wyck Brooks (1940)
- 10. To Waldo Frank (1940)
- 11. To Constance Wilcock (1941)
- 12. To Homer and Viola Barrett (1941)
- 13. To the Office of Strategic Services (1942)
- III
- 14. To Alfred Stieglitz (1945)
- 15. To Malcolm Cowley (1945)
- 16. To Oscar Lange (1945)
- 17. To William H. Tripp (1945)
- 18. To Winfred Overholser and Mary Rudge (1946)
- 19. To Robert Hannegan (1946)
- 20. To Ezra Pound (1946)
- 21. To Adam Kulikowski (1946)
- 22. To Ruth Benedict (1946)
- 23. To John Berryman (1947)
- 24. To Harvey Breit (1947)
- 25. To Eleanor and Harry Metcalf (1947)
- 26. To Douglas Fox (1947)
- 27. To Edward Dahlberg (1947)
- 28. To Monroe Engel (1947)
- 29. To Muriel Rukeyser (1947)
- 30. To the Guggenheim Foundation (1948)
- 31. To Ezra Pound (1948)
- IV
- 32. To the Western Playing Card Company (1948)
- 33. To Edward Dahlberg and Caresse Crosby (1948)
- 34. To Henry Murray (1948)
- 35. To Josef Albers (1948)
- 36. To Caresse Crosby and Robert Payne (1949)
- 37. To Kitue Kitasono (1949)
- 38. To Albert Erskine (1949)
- 39. To Ben Shahn (1949)
- 40. To Michael Lekakis (1949)
- 41. To Ray B.West (1950)
- 42. To Vincent Ferrini (1950)
- 43. To Robert Creeley (1950)
- 44. To Jay Leyda (1950)
- 45. To Robert Giroux (1950)
- 46. To Frances Boldereff (1950)
- 47. To Carl O. Sauer (1950)
- 48. To Cid Corman (1950)
- 49. To Rainer Gerhardt (1951)
- V
- 50. To Robert Wauchope (1951)
- 51. To Fielding Dawson (1951)
- 52. To Stuart Z. Perkoff (1951)
- 53. To Ben Shahn and W. H. Ferry (1951)
- 54. To the Fulbright Committee (1951)
- 55. To Henry Murray (1951-1952)
- 56. To Frank Moore (1952)
- 57. To Merton Sealts (1952)
- 58. To Merce Cunningham (1952)
- 59. To Connie Olson (1952)
- 60. To Carl Jung (1952)
- 61. To Edgar Anderson (1953)
- 62. To Worcester Classical High School (1953)
- 63. To Jonathan Williams (1953)
- 64. To Paul Blackburn (1953)
- 65. To Bernard Kneiger (1953)
- 66. To Ronald Mason (1953)
- 67. To Frederick Merk (1953)
- 68. To Robert Duncan (1953)
- VI
- 69. To Irving Layton (1954)
- 70. To the Department of Public Instruction (1954)
- 71. To Gerald van de Wiele (1954)
- 72. To William Carlos Williams (1954)
- 73. To Vincent Ferrini (1954)
- 74. To Raymond Souster (1955)
- 75. To Larry Eigner (1956)
- 76. To Edward Marshall (1956)
- 77. To Ruth Witt-Diamant (1957)
- 78. To Robin Blaser (1957)
- 79. To Michael Rumaker (1957)
- VII
- 80. To Vincent Ferrini (1957)
- 81. To Betty Olson (1957)
- 82. To Philip Whalen (1957)
- 83. To Allen Ginsberg (1958)
- 84. To Gael Turnbull (1958)
- 85. To Elaine Feinstein (1959)
- 86. To John Wieners (1959)
- 87. To David Ignatow (1960)
- 88. To Michael McClure (1960)
- 89. To Gordon Cairnie (1960)
- 90. To Donald Allen (1960)
- 91. To Kenneth McRobbie (1960)
- 92. To Anselm Hollo (1960)
- 93. To Gilbert Sorrentino (1961)
- 94. To Alfred Mansfield Brooks (1961)
- 95. To Harry Levin (1962)
- 96. To Hank Chapin (1962)
- 97. To Florence Williams (1963)
- 98. To George Bowering (1963)
- 99. To Wesley Huss (1963)
- VIII
- 100. To Robert Kelly (1963)
- 101. To Timothy Leary (1963)
- 102. To Eric Havelock (1963)
- 103. To Ralph Maud (1963)
- 104. To LeRoi Jones (1964)
- 105. To Mac Hammond (1964)
- 106. To Edward Van Aelstyn (1964)
- IX
- 107. To Robert Creeley and Vincent Ferrini (1964)
- 108. To Richard Sassoon (1964)
- 109. To Suzie Cardone (1964)
- 110. To Harvey Brown (1964)
- 111. To Harry Martin (1965)
- 112. To Edward Dorn (1965)
- 113. To Mary Shore and Vincent Ferrini (1965)
- 114. To Suzanne Mowat (1965)
- 115. To Albert Glover (1965)
- 116. To John Clarke (1965)
- 117. To Ralph Maud (1965)
- 118. To Andrew Crozier (1965)
- 119. To Albert Cook (1965)
- 120. To the Gloucester Daily Times (1965)
- 121. To Betty Smith (1965)
- 122. To Henry Rago (1966)
- 123. To Bruce Loder (1966)
- 124. To Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1966)
- 125. To John L. Sweeney (1966)
- 126. To Albert Glover (1966)
- 127. To Robert Hogg (1966)
- 128. To Frank Davey (1966)
- 129. To Ed Sanders (1966)
- 130. To Jeremy Prynne (1966)
- 131. To Edward Dorn (1966)
- 132. To Tom Raworth (1966)
- 133. To Constance Bunker (1966)
- 134. To Joyce Benson (1966)
- 135. To Walter Lowenfels (1966)
- 136. To Bill Berkson (1966)
- 137. To Pamela Millward (1966)
- 138. To Alan and Diane Marlowe (1966)
- 139. To Zoe Brown (1966)
- 140. To George Starbuck (1966)
- X
- 141. To Kate Olson and Harvey Brown (1966)
- 142. To T. L. Kryss (1966)
- 143. To Robert Creeley (1966)
- 144. To Mary Shore (1967)
- 145. To Chad Walsh (1967)
- 146. To Harvey Brown (1967)
- 147. To Donald Sutherland (1967-1968)
- 148. To Martin Duberman (1967)
- 149. To Robert Duncan (1968)
- 150. To Joel Oppenheimer (1968)
- 151. To the Gloucester Daily Times (1968)
- 152. To George Butterick (1968)
- 153. To Thorpe Feidt (1968)
- 154. To Barry Hall (1968)
- 155. To Gordon Cairnie (1968)
- 156. To Joseph Garland (1968)
- 157. To Donald Allen (1968)
- XI
- 158. To Robert Creeley (1969)
- 159. To Anna Shaughnessy (1969)
- 160. To Barry Miles (1969)
- 161. To Kate Olson (1969)
- 162. To Frances Boldere. (1969)
- 163. To John and Mary Clarke (1969)
- 164. To James Laughlin (1969)
- 165. To Vincent Ferrini (1969)
- 166. To Donald Allen (1969)
- 167. To Joyce Benson (1969)
- 168. To Wilbert Snow (1969)
- 169. To Peter Anastas (1969)
- 170. To Harvey Brown (1969)
- 171. To Inga Lovén (1969)
- 172. To Nimai Chatterji (1969)
- Bibliography
- Annotated Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
