Blaser, Robin (Duncan Robert)

Preface to the Early Poems of Robert Duncan

Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Shuffaloff Press, 1995. Limited First Trade Edition. Stapled Wrappers. “What do I want to say about Robert Duncan’s early poems? Waiting for the morning news, waiting to write an answer to my own question, I hear on the radio that someone who’s read Joyce’s Ulysses could win a Chevrolet, because practically nobody has: “Do you know what it means? Write us. Frankly, we haven't a clue.” The broadcaster is, I suppose, competent from his window on things–that is, as they may be. Still, I’m grateful for his meddling even before I reach to turn him off. He’s led me, willy-nilly, back to 1946, to a donut shop on Telegraph Avenue, and into a conversation with Duncan who would gather a group of us to read Finnegans Wake with him; he read aloud, and we, frightened and enchanted by the language, pooled whatever our youth had of knowledge and experience to get through one passage and then another, joyously.”--Robin Blaser, pg. 1. Robin Blaser (1925-2007) was an American-born Canadian poet and playwright. The author of numerous collections of poetry, Blaser’s works include: Nomad (Slug Press, 1995), Syntax (Talonbooks, 1983), Cups (Four Seasons Foundation, 1968), and The Moth Pœm (Open Space, 1964). Blaser’s poetry and prose has been collected into a series of volumes: The Fire: Collected Essays of Robin Blaser (University of California Press, 2006), and Even on Sunday: Essays, Readings, and Archival Materials on the Poetry and Poetics of Robin Blaser, to name a few. Offered today is the 1995 work of commentary, Preface to the Early Poems of Robert Duncan. Originally written for the first volume of The Collected Works of Robert Duncan, Preface to the Early Poems of Robert Duncan (which was scraped from the aforementioned work) appeared in A Symposium of the Imagination: Robert Duncan in Word and Image (1993) and is a work of commentary and criticism centered around Robert Duncan’s (1919-1988) early poetic work. Blaser analyzes, with a studied and masterful eye, Duncan’s stylistic development in his early period, as well as his approach to structure. Illuminating Duncan's influences and his anachronistic, often experimental foundation that led him to becoming a noted poet in the tradition of American letters. From the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who is the foremost living authority on literary giant Charles Olson (1910-1970; our favorite Maximus Obscurantist), with whom we're honored to be acquainted. Stapled wrappers. First limited trade edition “published in an edition of 500 copies of which 50 are sewn by hand, numbered, and signed by the author” as stated at colophon page. In very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges, slight smudging/staining to front and back covers. Interior in very fine condition with no perceptible wear. Very Fine. [Item #8279]

Price: $40.00 save 15% $34.00