Boughn, Michael; Glover, Albert; Olson, Charles

Three Lectures and a Postscript

Toronto, CAN: Shuffaloff / Eternal Network, 2010. Limited First Edition, First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. Inscribed and signed by Michael Boughn to Albert Glover. “[Charles] OIson's push in Proprioception is to find a way to unfold his claim for a "secularization that loses nothing of the divine," a proposal he makes in "the hinges of civilization to be put back on the door," emphasizing this as America's threatened inheritance. If this echoes with Whitehead's "urgent requisite" for a secular theory of god, it moves beyond it by immediately displacing "god" with something Olson calls "the divine," a quality rather than a thing. Proprioception seems a strange title for such an undertaking. Defined as the 'unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself, it is a word more often found in texts on kinesthetics than on poetry. The crucial word in the definition is "body." It sits there, seeming to refer to something so familiar that we don't even question its meaning, But this is precisely what Olson does, launching immediately into a rethinking of that word—body— that opens into a rethinking of the world in order to open up the possibility of a new poetics beyond his earlier thinking in "Projective Verse” (p. 9). A collection of critical essays on the great American essayist and poet, Charles Olson (1910-1970), among the greatest American authors of all time & a huge influence on the development of mid-century American verse. One among several distinguishing characteristics of this essay is the manner in which its author relates the verse and critical prose of Charles Olson to the American Transcendentalist tradition he inherited as pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). For those interested in Olson’s wider relation to the American literary tradition pioneered by those men, this collectible is for you. Medium-format chapbook in stapled wrappers: one of “99 copies / published / in December / 2010,” per colophon. This copy is additionally signed by the author to Albert Glover at half-title page. Boughn’s inscription, in thin, black pen ink, reads: “for Al — / a little memento of the year / that was… / With love, / Michael Boughn.” From the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the acclaimed American poet, author, bibliographer, editor & publisher whom we're honored to be acquainted with, & who is the foremost living authority on Olson, the canonical American poet among the most Gigantic (literally & literarily) men-of-letters of the twentieth century—our favorite Maximus Obscurantist. Glover studied with & was anointed by the Maximus Master himself, & has outstandingly served as his bibliographer & editor (see for example our item No. 8126). In fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear, light bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge at select locales; otherwise, clean. Fine. [Item #8323]

Price: $50.00