American Poetry since 1950: Innovators and Outsiders Book

"American Poetry Since 1950" is a new map of the territory, an array of known and unknown contemporary classics. It is full of strange texts and startling procedures, histories and natural histories, high lyricism and extended meditations-- extraordinary works that challenge our notions of what a poem ought to be.

Since Whitman and Dickinson, most of the major poetry in the United States has been written against the literary establishments and prevailing canons of taste, and often far from the cultural centers. This is the first anthology in many years to gather the work from this continuing tradition of innovators and outsiders, presenting poets and poems that are still excluded from the academic collections.

Opening with the last poems of the Modernist masters Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and H.D., the book follows through four generations of writers who have been the primary figures of the new poetries and poetics since 1950. With a historical afterword, complete bibliographies, and generous selections from each of the thirty-five poets, this anthology is the only available introduction to the poets connected with such groups and movements as the Objectivists, the Beats, Black Mountain, the New York School, the San Francisco Renaissance, and ethnopoetics.

Publishers Weekly

Gathering 35 poets, Weinberger ( Outside Stories ) claims he chose 1950 as his starting point because it was when Charles Olson's ``The Kingfishers'' appeared in a magazine--a choice as idiosyncratic as everything else in this hefty but insubstantial anthology. Olson's predecessors (Williams, Pound, H.D.) don't need inclusion in one more textbook. Many of his contemporaries (Levertov, Creeley, Duncan) have been similarly absorbed into the mainstream. And however much light Olson's work might shed on those who came later (Susan Howe, Clark Coolidge, Michael Palmer), the volume never achieves the ``hubbub of conversations'' its editor intended. Only John Cage, Langston Hughes and Muriel Rukeyser are presented in an unexpected context of experimental poetry. Weinberger keeps his introductory comments to a minimum, but his historical synopsis at book's end is another enigma. One moment he seems to be talking to a group of high school kids with comments such as ``the Hippies were the spiritual children of the Beats'' while the next moment he's addressing literary aesthetes familiar with the names of obscure writers and publications. And while this epilogue gives insights into the lives of the poets included, wouldn't insights into their work have been more valuable? (May)