Selected letters of one of the great American modernist poets, selected and edited by Ralph Maud, who has dedicated his career to Charles Olson.

Charles Olson (1910-1970) is best known for his book on Melville, Call Me Ishmael, his poetic manifesto, Projective Verse, and the Maximus Poems, two volumes of which were published before Olson's untimely death and one volume posthumously. He was the dynamic leader of what has come to be known as the Black Mountain school of poets, named for Black Mountain College, the experimental school where Olson was a presence from 1948 until its closing in 1956. Ralph Maud has been reading and teaching Olson ever since he met the poet during the period 1963-1965, when they overlapped at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is Emeritus Professor of English and Associate of the Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia

Introduction

xv

Library Sources for the Charles Olson Letters in This Volume

xxiii

A Chronology of Charles Olson's Life and Correspondence

xxvii

Letters

I

To Charles Joseph Olson (1931)

3

(2)

To the Rhodes Scholarship Committee (1931)

5

(4)

To Wilbert Snow (1932)

9

(3)

To John Finch (1935)

12

(1)

To Barbara Denny (1936)

13

(3)

To Anne Bosshard (1936)

16

(5)

II

To Dorothy Norman (1938--1939)

21

(3)

To F. O. Matthiessen (1939)

24

(3)

To Carl Van Doren and Van Wyck Brooks (1940)

27

(2)

To Waldo Frank (1940)

29

(1)

To Constance Wilcock (1941)

30

(4)

To Homer and Viola Barrett (1941)

34

(2)

To the Office of Strategic Services (1942)

36

(5)

III

To Alfred Stieglitz (1945)

41

(1)

To Malcolm Cowley (1945)

41

(1)

To Oscar Lange (1945)

42

(2)

To William H. Trip (1945)

44

(3)

To Winfred Overholser and Mary Rudge (1946)

47

(2)

To Robert Hannegan (1946)

49

(4)

To Ezra Pound (1946)

53

(2)

To Adam Kulikowski (1946)

55

(2)

To Ruth Benedict (1946)

57

(3)

To John Berryman (1947)

60

(3)

To Harvey Breit (1947)

63

(1)

To Eleanor and Harry Metcalf (1947)

64

(1)

To Douglas Fox (1947)

65

(2)

To Edward Dahlberg (1947)

67

(1)

To Monroe Engel (1947)

68

(3)

To Muriel Rukeyser (1947)

71

(1)

To the Guggenheim Foundation (1948)

72

(3)

To Ezra Pound (1948)

75

(6)

IV

To the Western Playing Card Company (1948)

81

(2)

To Edward Dahlberg and Caresse Crosby (1948)

83

(4)

To Henry Murray (1948)

87

(3)

To Josef Albers (1948)

90

(2)

To Caresse Crosby and Robert Payne (1949)

92

(3)

To Kitue Kitasono (1949)

95

(1)

To Albert Erskine (1949)

96

(1)

To Ben Shahn (1949)

97

(2)

To Michael Lekakis (1949)

99

(3)

To Ray B. West (1950)

102

(3)

To Vincent Ferrini (1950)

105

(4)

To Robert Creeley (1950)

109

(3)

To Jay Leyda (1950)

112

(4)

To Robert Giroux (1950)

116

(2)

To Frances Boldereff (1950)

118

(1)

To Carl O. Sauer (1950)

119

(2)

To Cid Corman (1950)

121

(3)

To Rainer Gerhardt (1951)

124

(7)

V

To Robert Wauchope (1951)

131

(1)

To Fielding Dawson (1951)

132

(2)

To Stuart Z. Perkoff (1951)

134

(2)

To Ben Shahn and W. H. Ferry (1951)

136

(9)

To the Fulbright Committee (1951)

145

(2)

To Henry Murray (1951--1952)

147

(11)

To Frank Moore (1952)

158

(2)

To Merton Sealts (1952)

160

(13)

To Merce Cunningham (1952)

173

(1)

To Connie Olson (1952)

174

(6)

To Carl Jung (1952)

180

(3)

To Edgar Anderson (1953)

183

(1)

To Worcester Classical High School (1953)

184

(2)

To Jonathan Williams (1953)

186

(4)

To Paul Blackburn (1953)

190

(4)

To Bernard Kneiger (1953)

194

(3)

To Ronald Mason (1953)

197

(5)

To Frederick Merk (1953)

202

(4)

To Robert Duncan (1953)

206

(11)

VI

To Irving Layton (1954)

217

(3)

To the Department of Public Instruction (1954)

220

(3)

To Gerald van de Wiele (1954)

223

(1)

To William Carlos Williams (1954)

224

(5)

To Vincent Ferrini (1954)

229

(4)

To Raymond Souster (1955)

233

(3)

To Larry Eigner (1956)

236

(1)

To Edward Marshall (1956)

237

(2)

To Ruth Witt-Diamant (1957)

239

(2)

To Robin Blaser (1957)

241

(5)

To Michael Rumaker (1957)

246

(5)

VII

To Vincent Ferrini (1957)

251

(1)

To Betty Olson (1957)

252

(2)

To Philip Whalen (1957)

254

(4)

To Allen Ginsberg (1958)

258

(3)

To Gael Turnbull (1958)

261

(3)

To Elaine Feinstein (1959)

264

(2)

To John Wieners (1959)

266

(1)

To David Ignatow (1960)

267

(4)

To Michael McClure (1960)

271

(1)

To Gordon Cairnie (1960)

272

(1)

To Donald Allen (1960)

273

(4)

To Kenneth McRobbie (1960)

277

(3)

To Anselm Hollo (1960)

280

(1)

To Gilbert Sorrentino (1961)

281

(1)

To Alfred Mansfield Brooks (1961)

282

(1)

To Harry Levin (1962)

283

(2)

To Hank Chapin (1962)

285

(1)

To Florence Williams (1963)

286

(3)

To George Bowering (1963)

289

(3)

To Wesley Huss (1963)

292

(5)

VIII

To Robert Kelly (1963)

297

(1)

To Timothy Leary (1963)

298

(1)

To Eric Havelock (1963)

299

(1)

To Ralph Maud (1963)

300

(4)

To LeRoi Jones (1964)

304

(3)

To Mac Hammond (1964)

307

(1)

To Edward Van Aelstyn (1964)

308

(5)

IX

To Robert Creeley and Vincent Ferrini (1964)

313

(2)

To Richard Sassoon (1964)

315

(1)

To Suzie Cardone (1964)

316

(1)

To Harvey Brown (1964)

317

(2)

To Harry Martin (1965)

319

(2)

To Edward Dorn (1965)

321

(4)

To Mary Shore and Vincent Ferrini (1965)

325

(1)

To Suzanne Mowat (1965)

326

(5)

To Albert Glover (1965)

331

(1)

To John Clarke (1965)

332

(3)

To Ralph Maud (1965)

335

(1)

To Andrew Crozier (1965)

336

(1)

To Albert Cook (1965)

337

(4)

To the Gloucester Daily Times (1965)

341

(3)

To Betty Smith (1965)

344

(3)

To Henry Rago (1966)

347

(2)

To Bruce Loder (1966)

349

(1)

To Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1966)

350

(1)

To John L. Sweeney (1966)

351

(2)

To Albert Glover (1966)

353

(4)

To Robert Hogg (1966)

357

(2)

To Frank Davey (1966)

359

(1)

To Ed Sanders (1966)

360

(1)

To Jeremy Prynne (1966)

361

(1)

To Edward Dorn (1966)

362

(2)

To Tom Raworth (1966)

364

(2)

To Constance Bunker (1966)

366

(2)

To Joyce Benson (1966)

368

(4)

To Walter Lowenfels (1966)

372

(1)

To Bill Berkson (1966)

373

(1)

To Pamela Millward (1966)

374

(1)

To Alan and Diane Marlowe (1966)

375

(1)

To Zoe Brown (1966)

376

(1)

To George Starbuck (1966)

377

(4)

X

To Kate Olson and Harvey Brown (1966)

381

(2)

To T. L. Kryss (1966)

383

(1)

To Robert Creeley (1966)

384

(2)

To Mary Shore (1967)

386

(1)

To Chad Walsh (1967)

387

(2)

To Harvey Brown (1967)

389

(1)

To Donald Sutherland (1967--1968)

390

(3)

To Martin Duberman (1967)

393

(3)

To Robert Duncan (1968)

396

(2)

To Joel Oppenheimer (1968)

398

(2)

To the Gloucester Daily Times (1968)

400

(2)

To George Butterick (1968)

402

(1)

To Thorpe Feidt (1968)

403

(1)

To Barry Hall (1968)

404

(3)

To Gordon Cairnie (1968)

407

(1)

To Joseph Garland (1968)

408

(2)

To Donald Allen (1968)

410

(5)

XI

To Robert Creeley (1969)

415

(1)

To Anna Shaughnessy (1969)

415

(4)

To Barry Miles (1969)

419

(1)

To Kate Olson (1969)

420

(1)

To Frances Boldereff (1969)

421

(1)

To John and Mary Clarke (1969)

422

(1)

To James Laughlin (1969)

423

(2)

To Vincent Ferrini (1969)

425

(1)

To Donald Allen (1969)

425

(1)

To Joyce Benson (1969)

426

(1)

To Wilbert Snow (1969)

427

(1)

To Peter Anastas (1969)

428

(1)

To Harvey Brown (1969)

429

(1)

To Inga Loven (1969)

430

(1)

To Nimai Chatterji (1969)

431

(2)

Bibliography

433

(16)

Annotated Index

449

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