Olson, Charles; Glover, Albert; Blaser, Robin; Butterick, George F.; Clarke, John; Drummond, Hadley;Duncan, Robert; Hadley, Drummond; Hollo, Anselm; Koller, James; Kyger, Joanne; Lansing, Gerrit; McClure, Michael; Notely, Alice; Sanders, Edward; Thorpe, John; Wieners, John et al.

A Curriculum of the Soul

Canton, NY: Institute of Further Studies, 2010. Limited First Edition. Hardcover in Slipcase. “After becoming enamored with the work of poet Charles Olson sometime in the mid-1990s, I began occasionally coming across a series of chapbook-sized pamphlets that all had Olson’s letter/poem/manifesto “A Plan for the Curriculum of the Soul” emblazoned across the insides of the front and back cover. Each of these fascicles (as I would later learn was the favored term for referring to them) was numbered (0-28) with a separate title (Matter, Homer’s Art, Dance, Mind, et al) and individual author (Alice Notley, Lewis MacAdams, Michael Boughn, John Thorpe, et al) I only sometimes recognized the name of. On the back cover the publisher was identified as “the institute for further studies” with an address in Canton, NY. More often than not, it was noted that the odd bit of abstract cover art was by the mysterious-seeming artist Guy Berard and usually the subtitle “a curriculum of the soul” appeared on the cover and/or inside title page. While I gleaned that these slim yet hefty works rather obviously had some connection to Olson, the exact nature of that connection was not clear, although obviously it had something to do with this fascinating document of his, “A Plan for the Curriculum of the Soul.” In a blog post for the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet poet Joanne Kyger describes this text of Olson’s as “a distinctive map with 223 names, subjects, ideas, topics, strewed across the page at all angles.” Olson directs the reader in every imaginable direction, covering a wide-ranging, diverse amount of territory from the arts to the historical/religious without any attempt to offer clear guidance as to where one’s reading of the text itself or any of its myriad subject areas might begin or end. It was only during the next several years as I read ever further into the massive pilings of Olson-related scholarship, historical sketches and biographical accounts concerning his late-in-life affiliation as a faculty member in the English department with the State University at Buffalo during the late 1960s that I started to uncover various pieces of the full story. And only is it now with the sumptuous two-volume paperback edition of the complete Curriculum of the Soul (after the original publication in an ultradeluxe $3,000—quite outside of my purchase range—limited fine press edition in 2010) have I finally been able for the first time to read the collected set of fascicles as a whole.”--Patrick James Dunagan, “A Curriculum for the Soul,” 2017. Charles Olson (1910-1970) was an iconic essayist who helped shape the contemporary zeitgeist, as well as an incredibly innovative poet whose work would go on to inspire and cultivate legions of die-hard poetic acolytes. In his influential essay on projective (or open) verse, Olson asserts that "a poem is energy transferred from where the poet got it (he will have some several causations), by way of the poem itself to, all the way over to, the reader. Okay. Then the poem itself must, at all points, be a high energy-construct and, at all points, an energy-discharge." Form is only an extension of content and "right form, in any given poem, is the only and exclusively possible extension of content under hand. . . . I take it that PROJECTIVE VERSE teaches, is, this lesson, that that verse will only do in which a poet manages to register both the acquisitions of his ear and the pressures of his breath." Olson’s project of “Projective Verse” rejected "academic" verse, with its closed forms and alleged artifice. Needless to say, Olson’s experimental poetic form and execution mobilized countless poets to utilize his new form and play within this new experimental framework. As a result, the famous A Curriculum of the Soul series came into being. Put out by the Institute of Further Studies–founded by Albert Glover (b. 1942), poet and foremost authority on Olson; John “Jack” Clarke, Blake Scholar, poet and jazz musician; Vancouver poet Fred Wah (b. 1939); and George Butterick (1942-1988), Olson scholar, poet, and librarian—A Curriculum for the Soul was a series of 28 chapbooks that highlighted a term as a “subject” and tasked a given poet with writing a “fascicle” about it. Offered today is the 2010 hardcover collected set of the fascicles, A Curriculum of the Soul. The authoritative collection, an ultra-deluxe limited fine press edition, this volume contains every single issue of the chapbook series including: the inaugural issue, “issue 0: Pleistocene Man” (titled “preface” in this book), by Charles Olson; “issue 1: Mushroom” by Albert Glover; "issue 3: Woman" by the legendary John Wieners (1934-2002); “issue 8: Dante” by canonical poet, Robert Duncan (1919-1988); “issue 9: Homer’s Art” by Alice Notley (1945-2025), titanic American poet; “issue 12: The Norse” by George F. Butterick; “issue 14: American Indians” by Edward Billowitz; “issue 17: Egyptian Hieroglyphs" by the ineffable Ed Sanders (b. 1939); “issue 24: Phenomenological” by Joanne Kyger (1934-2017) the Beat/Black Mountain/New York School associated poet; “issue 25: Matter” by John Thorpe; “issue 27: Sensation” by Anselm Hollo (1934-2013) Finnish poet and translator; and “issue 28: Organism” by Michael McClure (1932-2020) undeniably one of the most important poets America has ever produced. An incredibly rare collection of astonishing poetic works inspired by Olson’s poetic experimentation embodied in a stunning hardcover edition. From the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who is the foremost living authority on literary (and literal) giant Charles Olson (our favorite Maximus Obscurantist), with whom we’re honored to be acquainted. Hardcover in slip-case. Limited first edition in a series of 50 copies this as copy 41/50 as per colophon. Book in very fine condition with only the slightest wear to fine edges; slip-case in very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges and very slight smudging/staining to front/back/sides. An extra handling fee of $5.00 will be added for shipping due to the size and weight of this item. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #8138]

Price: $3,500.00