{"product_id":"charles-olson-call-him-ishmael-9780292739987","title":"Charles Olson: Call Him Ishmael","description":"\u003cp\u003eCharles Olson was an important force behind the raucous, explicit, jaunty style of much of twentieth-century poetry in America. This study makes a major contribution to our understanding of his life and work.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePaul Christensen draws upon a wide variety of source materials-from letters, unpublished essays, and fragments and sketches from the Olson Archives to the full range of Olson's published prose and poetry. Under Christensen's critical examination, Olson emerges as a stunning theorist and poet, whose erratic and often unfinished writings obscured his provocative intellect and the coherence of his perspective on the arts.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSoon after World War II, Olson emerged as one of America's leading poets with his revolutionary document on poetics, \"Projective Verse,\" and his now-classic poem, \"The Kingfishers,\" both of which declared a new set of techniques for verse composition. Throughout the 1950s Olson wrote many polemical essays on literature, history, aesthetics, and philosophy that outlined a new stance to experience he called objectism.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA firm advocate of spontaneous self-expression in the arts, Olson regarded the poet's return to an intense declaration of individuality as a force to combat the decade's insistence on conformity. Throughout his life Olson fought against the depersonalization of the artist in the modern age; his resources, raw verve and unedited tumultuous lyricism, were weapons he used against generalized life and identity.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis volume begins with an overview of Olson's life from his early years as a student at Harvard through his short-lived political career, his rectorship at Black Mountain College, and his retirement to Gloucester to finish writing the \u003ci\u003eMaximus\u003c\/i\u003e poems. Christensen provides a systematic review of Olson's prose works, including a close examination of his brilliant monograph on Melville, \u003ci\u003eCall Me Ishmael\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsiderable attention is devoted to Olson's theory of projectivism, the themes and techniques of his short poems, and the strategies and content of his major work, the \u003ci\u003eMaximus\u003c\/i\u003e series. In addition, there is a critical survey of the works of Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Paul Blackburn, and other poets who show Olson's influence in their own innovative, self-exploratory poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Paul Christensen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Texas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/01\/1978\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 244\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.91lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780292739987","brand":"University of Texas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44259412705417,"sku":"9780292739987","price":27.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_14c58995-f22e-4c54-8571-bb1371a44f73.jpg?v=1749543334","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/charles-olson-call-him-ishmael-9780292739987","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}