Collected Prose

✍ Scribed by Charles Olson, Donald Merriam Allen, Benjamin Friedlander

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 458
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The prose writings of Charles Olson (1910-1970) have had a far-reaching and continuing impact on post-World War II American poetics. Olson's theories, which made explicit the principles of his own poetics and those of the Black Mountain poets, were instrumental in defining the sense of the postmodern in poetry and form the basis of most postwar free verse.The Collected Prose brings together in one volume the works published for the most part between 1946 and 1969, many of which are now out of print. A valuable companion to editions of Olson's poetry, the book backgrounds the poetics, preoccupations, and fascinations that underpin his great poems. Included are Call Me Ishmael, a classic of American literary criticism; the influential essays "Projective Verse" and "Human Universe"; and essays, book reviews, and Olson's notes on his studies. In these pieces one can trace the development of his new science of man, called "muthologos," a radical mix of myth and phenomenology that Olson offered in opposition to the mechanistic discourse and rationalizing policy he associated with America's recent wars in Europe and Asia.Editors Donald Allen and Benjamin Friedlander offer helpful annotations throughout, and poet Robert Creeley, who enjoyed a long and mutually influential relationship with Olson, provides the book's introduction.

✦ Table of Contents

Collected Prose......Page 1
CONTENTS......Page 4
EDITORS' PREFACE......Page 7
INTRODUCTION......Page 9
CALL ME ISHMAEL......Page 16
CONTENTS......Page 19
FIRST FACT AS PROLOGUE......Page 20
First Fact......Page 21
PART ONE— CALL ME ISHMAEL......Page 25
Call Me Ishmael......Page 26
What Lies under......Page 30
Usufruct......Page 38
PART TWO— SHAKESPEARE......Page 43
Shakespeare, or the discovery of Moby-Dick......Page 45
A note of thanks......Page 48
American Shiloh......Page 49
Man, to man......Page 51
Lear and Moby-Dick......Page 53
A Moby-Dick Manuscript......Page 57
Ahab and his fool......Page 63
Shakespeare, concluded......Page 67
FACT #2 IS DROMENON......Page 74
Fact 2......Page 75
PART THREE— MOSES......Page 76
The book of the law of the blood......Page 77
PART FOUR— CHRIST......Page 81
Christ......Page 83
A LAST FACT......Page 95
A Last Fact......Page 96
PART FIVE— NOAH......Page 97
What the Pacific was to HM:......Page 99
ON MELVILLE, DOSTOEVSKY, LAWRENCE, AND POUND......Page 104
David Young, David Old......Page 105
1......Page 109
2......Page 112
Equal, That is, to the Real Itself......Page 116
Dostoevsky and the Possessed......Page 122
D. H. Lawrence and the High Temptation of the Mind......Page 131
1......Page 134
2......Page 135
This is Yeats Speaking......Page 137
2......Page 141
3......Page 142
4......Page 144
5......Page 145
7......Page 146
8......Page 147
HUMAN UNIVERSE......Page 148
I......Page 149
II......Page 154
Footnote to HU (Lost in the Shuffle)......Page 161
1:......Page 162
2:......Page 164
for Jean Riboud......Page 168
Cy Twombly......Page 169
Proprioception......Page 173
Proprioception......Page 175
Logography......Page 178
Postscript to Proprioception & Logography......Page 179
Theory of Society......Page 180
Bridge-Work......Page 182
The Hinges of Civilization to be Put Back on the Door:......Page 183
Grammar—a ''Book"......Page 185
A Plausible 'Entry,' Like......Page 190
A Work.......Page 191
Place; & Names......Page 194
THE PRESENT IS PROLOGUE......Page 197
''The Present is Prologue"......Page 198
Stocking Cap......Page 201
Mr. Meyer......Page 206
The Post Office......Page 210
POETRY & POETS......Page 229
I......Page 230
II......Page 237
Letter to Elaine Feinstein......Page 241
"On Poets and Poetry"......Page 244
Notes on Language and Theater......Page 247
II......Page 249
III......Page 250
Against Wisdom as Such......Page 251
II......Page 254
Theocritus......Page 256
A Foot Is to Kick With......Page 260
Quantity in Verse, and Shakespeare's Late Plays......Page 261
I......Page 263
II......Page 267
Introduction to Robert Creeley......Page 274
Robert Creeley's For Love: Poems 1950–1960......Page 276
Paterson, Book V......Page 279
"Ed Sanders' Language"......Page 282
SPACE AND TIME......Page 283
Introduction to The Sutter-Marshall Lease......Page 284
A Bibliography on America for Ed Dorn......Page 286
Billy the Kid......Page 300
2......Page 301
3......Page 302
Brooks Adams' The New Empire......Page 304
Captain John Smith......Page 307
Five Foot Four, but Smith Was a Giant......Page 311
The Contours of American History......Page 313
The Vinland Map Review......Page 315
OTHER ESSAYS, NOTES, AND REVIEWS......Page 325
Ernst Robert Curtius......Page 326
It Was. But it Ain't.......Page 329
Homer and Bible......Page 332
Bill Snow......Page 336
A House Built by Capt. John Somes 1763......Page 338
The Advantage of Literacy Is That Words Can Be on the Page......Page 340
Review of Eric A. Havelock's Preface to Plato......Page 342
A Further Note on the Critical Advantages of Eric Havelock's Preface to Plato......Page 346
Statement for the Cambridge magazine......Page 347
A comprehension (a measure, that......Page 348
"Clear, Shining Water," De Vries says......Page 351
II......Page 352
What's Back There......Page 354
The Animate versus the Mechanical, and Thought......Page 355
1st Addition, after some slight studies into present scientific understanding of "gravity," to The A.........Page 358
Continuing Attempt to Pull the Taffy off the Roof of the Mouth......Page 360
ABBREVIATION......Page 362
A NOTE ON OLSON'S SOURCES......Page 364
EDITORS' NOTES......Page 365
B......Page 451
D......Page 452
H......Page 453
L......Page 454
N......Page 455
P......Page 456
T......Page 457
Z......Page 458