Charles Olson

the long version

The 1950 publication of his essay "Projective Verse" marked the emergence of Charles Olson (1910-70) as a dynamic leader of avant-garde poetry in America. His poetry and essays--including "Human Universe", In Cold Hell, in Thicket, and the nine books of Maximus Poems--resonate with an intellect that has been compared to the likes of Herman Melville, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams. Olson's poetry, packed with radical themes and a vast and eclectic spectrum of material, places extreme intellectual demands on the reader. Perhaps it was the difficult nature of his work that delayed any formal recognition of his achievement until 1988 when, 18 years after his death, he was awarded the National Book Award for The Collected Poems of Charles Olson. Eniko Bollobas's Charles Olson introduces the reader to the radically imaginative and intensely demanding world of the poet. By suggesting possible interpretations of Olson's themes while encouraging a creative interaction between the verse and the reader, Bollobas taps into the same spontaneous and holistic manners of human perception advocated by Olson and provides a fresh approach to his work. Charles Olson is a thorough and inspired introduction to the world of the poet and a valuable reference for students of avant-garde and experimental poetry.