Glover, Albert (Olson, Charles)

A Curriculum of the Soul No. 1: The Mushroom with: Ephemera

Canton, NY: Institute of Further Studies, 1985. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. “Sometime after Charles Olson’s death in January 1970, I told Jack Clarke I wanted to publish some kind of tribute to Olson. He responded by sending me a copy of “A Plan for a Curriculum of the Soul,” which Olson had sent to us for publication in The Magazine of Further Studies  No. 5. On the copy Jack had selected 28 terms as “subjects” and to each one he had written the name of a poet who might write a ‘fascicle’ using the term as a title. We agreed that he would request the text and forward it to me and that I would publish and distribute it. I imagined that the project would take about two years, but in fact it took thirty. Many of the fascicles were printed mimeograph, texts and covers. But as the decades passed, I began to employ commercial printers. The issues were sold by subscription or through book dealers. Press runs were usually close to 300 copies. After the final issue (“one’s own Language,” by Lisa Jarnot [a/k/a Issac Jarnot]) appeared in 2002, I began editing the whole toward a single volume limited edition of 51 copies designed and produced by Michael Russem at Kat Ran Press and bound in Japanese silk by Sarah Creighton. The book was released in 2010 at the Charles Olson Centennial celebration in Vancouver. In 2016 a two-volume trade edition was published by Spuyten Duyvil press” (Albert Glover [b. 1942], from the “Curriculum of the Soul” entry on Steve Clay, of Granary Books’ “From a Secret Location” website). This issue (or “fascicle”), titled The Mushroom, is the first in the series, and comes directly from the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who is the foremost living authority on literary (& literal) Giant Charles Olson (our favorite Maximus Obscurantist). It is a completely unopened, original mimeographed copy, as Glover refers to above — which is maximally significant, of course — but We at TMB also have a copy of the super-limited edition hardcover [one volume] edition mentioned by Glover in the above quotation, so we’re able to pull a quote directly from the text that gives you a little more insight about what this work is about. The “mushroom” in its title refers to the amanita muscaria mushroom, as the following quote from the text itself attests. Glover writes, “Soma: the Divine Mushroom of Immortality. Gordon Wasson furthered a thesis I'd first encountered in The Mythmakers by Mary Barnard; that is, that myths begin in trance or ecstasy resulting from the ingestion of various plant agencies. According to Wasson, amanita muscaria lay behind the composition of the Rig Veda. Shamanism is interesting not simply as an anthropological classification but as an experience which lies at the roots of poetry” (p. 11). And so, it goes — making this work not only of supreme interest to Olsonians, but to those interested in the relationship between poetry, myth, and the psychedelic experience, writ large. From the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who is the foremost living authority on literary (& literal) Giant Charles Olson (our favorite Maximus Obscurantist), with whom we're honored to be acquainted. In as new condition, quite literally in the original publisher’s wrapping, still. Lastly: two pieces of related ephemera accompany this lot. Both are letter-sized, single sheets (printed only on recto) & folded at center. The first contains a list of all 28 issues within the “Curriculum of the Soul” series, of which this (per the above) is the first volume/issue. The second, also folded at center, contains a reproduction of the actual drawing, or “chart” (by Olson, himself) that provided the inspiration for the series. Both pieces of ephemera are in generally near fine condition, with expected light edgewear & some light bumping to fine-edges & corners; otherwise, clean. Very Fine. [Item #7966]

Price: $325.00