Hadley, Drummond

Broadside: A Cattle Inspector is Just Like a Woman

n/p: n/p, n/d. unknown. Single Sheet. A Cattle Inspector is Just Like a Woman is a poem by Drummond "Drum" Hadley (1938-2015), friend of Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), Gary Snyder (b. 1930), Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021) & mentee of Charles Olson (1910-1970). These connections run through the New American Poetry scene of the 1960s. Hadley started writing around the early '60s, and then attended the two landmark gatherings of that world: the Vancouver Poetry Conference in 1963 and the Berkeley Poetry Conference in 1965. These events were where the Black Mountain, Beat Generation, and San Francisco Renaissance poets converged, and it's where Hadley was taken up by that circle. From these events, Hadley became a protégé of Olson, who mentored his work. Hadley would even go on to write the 21st fasicle of Olson's Curriculum of the Soul (see Item No. 8341), Visions (see Item No. 9253). Olson was the chief theorist of the Black Mountain school and the author of the 1950 essay Projective Verse (See Item No. 6612), which argued for "open field" composition, a poetic line measured by the breath and the speaking voice rather than by inherited meter and rhyme, which Hadley adopted into most of his writing. Hadley would eventually leave academia altogether to become a cowboy in the Arizona–New Mexico–Sonora borderlands, and spent forty years there as a cowboy, then rancher and conservationist. His poetics are documentary and oral. He "listened" for poetry in the actual speech of vaqueros and old ranch hands, then set it down preserving the dialect, the repetitions, and the rhythms of spoken storytelling. A Cattle Inspector is Just Like a Woman is a classic piece of cowboy folk-wit with its sardonic ranch aphorisms. For more from Hadley, please see Item No.s 6540, 8796, 9246 et al. From the collection of Albert Glover (1942-2026), the esteemed American poet, editor, bibliographer, publisher & academician who was the foremost remaining authority on Charles Olson (1910-1970). Glover was a student of & anointed by the Maximus Master himself at SUNY Buffalo during the 1960s, & had ever since served outstandingly to bear the Olsonian Torch. A facsimile of the poet's signature is printed at the bottom right hand corner (printed) "Drum Hadley." Single Sheet Broadside (appx: 11" x 17"): presumed first edition, first printing, due to its provenance, though no reference to either is present. A most collectible broadside with relevant association & distinguished provenance. In relatively very fine condition with very mild bumping to corners, otherwise essentially mint. Very Fine. [Item #9270]

Price: $75.00 save 10% $67.50