Various (Bertholf, Robert (Editor); Dorn, Ed; Duncan, Robert; Enslin, Ted; Metcalf, Paul; Oppenheimer, Joel et al.)

Credences 4 (Vol. 2 No. 1, March 1977)

Burton, OH: The Credences Press, 1977. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. A literary journal edited by Robert Bertholf (1940-2016), a celebrated scholar and bibliographer of works by the noted San Francisco Renaissance poet, Robert Duncan (1919-1988). In addition to the panoply of “West Coast” Beat affiliations that might well be cited in discussions of Duncan’s life and work, another strain affected its development equally. This one, as scholars of Mid-Century American Literature well know, relates, integrally to the work of Charles Olson (1910-1970); to the sense of poetics Olson began to prismatically codify in the essay of 1950, “Projective Verse.” The development of Olson’s personal literary-theoretic world did not happen in a vacuum, however. Olson’s project, in this sense, was like a plane that had to be refueled to keep going. Correspondence with other writers — including, perhaps most integrally, both Robert Duncan & Robert Creeley (1926-2005) — was a necessary element for its ultimate victory. Readers and scholars thus are wise to remember that, like the Beat tradition, that arising from the world of Black Mountain College (in its glorious, dilapidated twilight) was born of, and nursed by, the epistolary. The letter as a form — and the fact of interpersonal entanglement in the development of lives and art — conspire in the creation of the new. Duncan, as Bertholf himself knew better than anybody, was an active contributor to this world, which renders him responsible (variously, albeit), for many of its offerings. This second world of Duncan — that surrounding Olson, and the literary tradition of Black Mountain College in its hazy, blue-eyed dusk — that’s the world of this journal (Bertholf, C265, pg. 182). This accounts for the presence of a confederacy of Olsonians in Credences 4, Vol. 2, No. 1. Names like Paul Metcalf (1917-1999); Joel Oppenheimer (1930-1988); Ed Dorn (1929-1999); and Theodore [“Ted”] Enslin (1925-2011), for example, people the contents page of Credences 4, and allude to the literary-theoretical element highlighted previously. All in all, a strong, well-presented collectible. From the collection of Albert Glover, the acclaimed American poet, author, bibliographer, editor & publisher whom we're honored to be acquainted with, & who is the foremost living authority on Charles Olson [1910-1970], 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). Small-format literary journal in stapled wrappers: the first-&-likely only printing of Credences Vol. 2, No. 4. In generally fine condition with only minute-to-mild shelf-wear, some light bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; a few exhibits of mild-to-moderate rubbing variously present at same; moderate-to-enunciated rusting to staples at exterior and interior, though a strikingly minimal apportionment of bleeding present at same; otherwise, clean. Fine. [Item #8603]

Price: $40.00 save 15% $34.00