Dale M. Smith - Böcker

The correspondence of Robert Duncan and Charles Olson is one of the foundational literary exchanges of twentieth-century American poetry. The 130 letters collected in this volume begin in 1947 just after the two poets first meet in Berkeley, California, and continue to Olson's death in January 1970. Both men initiated a novel stance toward poetry, and they matched each other with huge accomplishments, an enquiring, declarative intelligence, wide-ranging interests in history and occult literature, and the urgent demand to be a poet. More than a literary correspondence, An Open Map gives insight into an essential period of poetic advancement in cultural history.

Robert Duncan’s nine lectures on Charles Olson, delivered intermittently from 1961 to 1983, explore the modernist literary background and influences of Olson’s influential 1950 essay “Projective Verse.” These transcribed talks pay tribute to Olson and expand our knowledge of Duncan’s vision of modernist writing.

Originally from Canada, Norma Cole is a revered writer and visual artist who has authored and translated over thirty books and chapbooks. Though highly esteemed internationally in both visual art and poetry circles, Cole's association with the New College of California and her influence on artists and poets has been overlooked by scholars. In "That Tongue Be Time," Dale M. Smith seeks to remedy this oversight by bringing together sixteen noted scholars, editors, and poets to examine Cole's poetry, translations, and visual art in order to place her within the larger scholarly conversation about contemporary poetry and poetics. The book also includes a number of black-and-white reproductions of Cole's art and a contextual introduction by Smith. "That Tongue Be Time" provides a groundbreaking look at Norma Cole's lasting influence on multiple generations of poets, visual artists, and scholars and should be on the shelf of anyone interested in contemporary poetry.