Various (Monroe, Harriet (Editor); H.D.; Pound, Ezra et al.)

Poetry: A Magazine of Verse Vol. V No. VI (March 1915)

Chicago, IL: Poetry Magazine, 1915. First Edition. Softcover. To conceptualize how early of an iteration of Modernism this issue of Poetry Magazine was, consider the following fact: it was published in 1915 — the year of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” In fact, “Prufrock” was published a mere three months later — in the June 1915 issue of Harriet Monroe’s (1860-1936) “Poetry.” While Eliot, himself does not appear in the “March, 1915” issue, his dedicated friend-&-appreciator, Ezra Pound (1885-1972) does. Pound was, of course by then already in correspondence with Eliot: prodding him onward, ensuring that sluggish indifference and an ineffable strain of malaise did not overtake him; did not interfere with the creations yet-to-come. The two first met on September 22, 1914 when Eliot came to visit Pound at his flat in London, having been introduced by the poet Conrad Aiken (1889-1973), who later won a Pulitzer. In fact, while Monroe’s magazine gets the historical credit for being a boundary-breaking organ of literary Modernism — which it objectively was — this was not something that came easy, and if Monroe had her way it might not have happened at all. To give just one of many examples possible: when Pound met Eliot, Eliot had already written “Prufrock,” — and it was among the poems he first showed Pound during that meeting in September 1914. Pound, for his part, had already begun his promotional project of bringing High Modernism to the masses — had already made headway in the formation of a network that could support the authors he hoped would supplant Literature’s ‘ruling order’ and crippling staleness. Monroe was one such editor: and the letters between them reveal she only published the work because of Pound. It’s kind of funny, then, that perhaps Monroe’s crowning achievement as a publisher — or one of them, anyways — is something that she didn’t even really make happen or want; it was not “her Taste” (as an editor) that guided or justified Eliot’s first masterwork being included in the June 1915 issue of her magazine. Pound’s contributions to this issue — several poems and some translations from the Chinese — serve as literary-historical timestamps of-sorts: markers for both his own growth and the cosmopolitan interests of literary Modernism, writ large. The most interesting contributor to this issue besides Pound is the curious-&-inimitable H.D. (1886-1961). Born Hilda Doolittle in Bethlehem, PA, she moved to London in 1911 and formed a key, early alliance with Pound. She wrote poetry, novels, and memoir — but many Beat readers will be familiar with HD through her “Notes on Thought and Vision,” which was first published by City Lights Books in 1982. Another curious note about H.D. lies in the fact that she is perhaps the most legitimate link between Freudian psychology and Modernist criticism-&-theory: as H.D. was a patient of Sigmund Freud’s at the end of his life, having an in-depth, generative session with the old hand on March 1, 1933. Those curious can find her report of the session/encounter online: it is certainly worth a look. To close, the appearance of these two Modernists giants at such an early stage in their development — and in the development of a truly Modern Literature — make this issue of Monroe’s “Poetry Magazine” a shimmering rarity & sure endowment to all collections and libraries. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), a renowned American author, poet, film critic, editor & academician here at the University of Michigan. Small, trade-format literary journal in wraps: the First-&-only Edition-&-Printing of the March 1915 issue. In Fair-Good condition with moderate-to-enunciated shelf-wear, bumping, creasing (of both the horizontal & vertical varieties, though usually in short, stuttering bursts) along fine-edges & corners of wraps at recto & verso sides and spine-edge; chips & partially closed tears (with minute loss of paper in one instance: along uppermost fine-edge of verso wrap; issue binding itself is quite stable—that said, the front cover is quite literally “hanging on by a thread” (well, a few threads: by a small, resolutely glued portion at center-middle of FFEP along leftmost fine-edge. For this reason, the issue is priced competitively — and we hope its eventual owner, if not an institution, is an institution unto themselves, and stewards it as carefully as a gloved librarian would. Fair-Good. [Item #6817]

Price: $75.00 save 15% $63.75