Louis zukofsky a pdf

Louis zukofsky, lorine niedecker, and the surrealist. Selected letters of ezra pound and louis zukofsky, edited by barry ahearn. Mark scroggins scroggins very readable biography mixes impeccable scholarship with an astute sensitivity to the life of a cerebral, private man and a lucid appraisal of a poetry notable for its musicality and. Read aloud, zukofskys poems sometimes show how he used sound effects to add additional layers of meaning to the text. This is the first collection to draw on the full range of zukofskys poetry containing short lyrics, versions of catullus, and generous selections from a, his 24part poem. In this paper i address louis zukofskys london, tracing representations of the city and of europe and the development of his treatment of these subjects. Louis zukofsky and the poetry of knowledge university of.

I daresay that, for most of my readers, louis zukofsky, though an equally accomplished poet, will be a somewhat less recognizable, and more inaccessible, figure. Everyone seems to know that louis zukofsky, at the instigation of ezra pound and invitation of harriet monroe, guestedited the february 1931 issue of poetry magazine now famously known as the objectivists issue. Commentary on louis zukofskys a 17 jeffrey twitchellwaas the following. The fourteenth section of louis zukofskys massive poem, a, a14 contains a passage that deserves to be called the first poetic erasure in en glish, composed. This commentary examines the triangular relationship between zukofsky, pound and williams and consists of three parts. Louis zukofsky and the transformation of a modern american. Words ranging forms a reading of louis zukofskys a. The career of louis zukofsky 19041978 has been overlooked by all but the most fervent students of american poetry, a situation that legendary house new directions hopes to correct with its doublebarreled publication of zukoskys booklength epic a and anew, a somewhat less menacing companion volume of shorter poems.

This is conceived as a collaborative project, and all additions, corrections and suggestionshowever smallare appreciated. Poet, translator, fiction writer, essayist, anthologist, critic, teacher, wpa worker, and binding force of the objectivist poets, zukofsky was born in new york city and lived in or near the city his whole life. Louis zukofskys late poetry in the book a constitutes a kind of intratext, a poem that resides between two languages, dependent on a source text, but. Louis zukofsky january 23, 1904 may 12, 1978 was an american poet.

The zukofsky era johns hopkins university press books. While grounded in personal experience and the everyday, his work holds itself aloof from traditional modes of selfexpression in poetry. In 1927, an aspiring young poet from new york sent some of his. Notable writers included within the issue are william carlos williams admittedly the most tame of the submissions, charles reznikoff, zukofsky himself, and translations of charles rimbaud all the other poets included, however, are nothing to. I think you should go ahead and buy the work of the important poets.

Reproduced by permission c cid corman, literary executor for lorine niedecker. Viewing louis zukofsky as a reader, writer, and innovator of twentiethcentury poetry, sandra stanley argues that his works serve as a crucial link between american modernism and post modernism. Page edited by jenny penberthy and typeset by patrick f. The collection documents the life and writing career of the twentieth century american poet and editor. An inventory of his collection at the harry ransom center descriptive summary creator zukofsky, louis, 19041978 title louis zukofsky collection 19101985 dates. This companion to the works of the american modernist poet louis zukofsky 19041978 is a site in progress, and for a quick overview of the current state of its contents, see the editors notes. Inaugurated in 1931 by louis zukofsky, objectivist the zukofsky era johns hopkins university press books.

A detailed reading of the first seven movements of zukofskys a, paying particular attention to the original published version of the texts and the poets conception of the formal coherence of his long poem. Inaugurated in 1932 by louis zukofsky, objectivist poetry gave expression to the complex contours of culture and politics in america during the great depression. His graduate degrees in creative writing and literature were from cornell university. A reminiscence louis zukofsky wasnt as old as my father or my mother for all of that but he was the first poet of their generation who offered friendship and a particular model of what it meant to be a poet against the odds and with a persistence approaching the heroic. Zukofsky, oppen, and niedecker wrote with a diversity of formal strategies but a singularity of purpose. The collected shorter poems, zukofskys writing includes one of the major booklength poem sequences of american modernism, a, and a massive theoretical work, bottom. He was one of the founders and the primary theorist of the objectivist group of poets and thus an important influence on subsequent generations of poets in america and abroad. An excessive formalist rigor is present in the early movements. That issue would become part of literary history not only for zukofskys contributions, and those of basil bunting, george oppen, charles reznikoff, kenneth rexroth, john. My aim in this thesis is to examine louis zukofskys poetry in relation to his stated objectivist principles using those principles and zukofskys unpublished statements as a test for his theory and practice. Jennisons account focuses on niedecker, oppen, and zukofsky, although it clearly provides a useful basis for further.

These central expositions of zukofskys own poetics, and. This, i will argue, is integral to zukofskys fugal conception of his poem, which. The poems louis zukofsky 19041978 was, along with charles reznikoff, one of the leading figures in the objectivist movement of second generation american modernist poets. This study of zukofsky and two others in the objectivist constellation, george oppen and lorine niedecker, elaborates the dialectic between the formal experimental features of their. Louis zukofsky was born in 1904 on the lower east side of new york, the child of yiddishspeaking parents who had emigrated from russia or, more precisely, lithuania, just before louis was born. Like stuart gilbert in 1930, under cover of criticism. Over the past twenty years, louis zukofskys sestina mantis and its companion poem, mantis, an interpretation, have come to occupy a prominent position in the reception of the poets work and in general discussions of the objectivist movement. At the requests of ezra pound and harriet monroe, louis zukofsky decided to act as temporary editor of the february 1931 issue of poetry magazine.

Louis zukofsky was the son of russianjewish immigrants and was reared on the lower east side of new york city. The son of immigrant russian jews, he was born into the jewish ghetto of the lower east side of manhattan in. Like ezra pound, zukofsky saw himself as a participant in the transformation of a modern american poetics. Louis zukofsky, a statement for poetry, prepositions. His father, a religious and deeply sensitive man, was a presser in a clothing. To call zukofsky an acquired taste would be an understatement. A selection by his wife from 55 poems, anew, some time, barely and widely 19251958.

This is conceived as a collaborative project, and all additions, corrections and. He is the author of louis zukofsky and the poetry of knowledge u of alabama p, 1998 and the poem of a life. Here is the complete musicfilled arc of louis zukofskys shorter verse collected in one volume. Louis zukofsky, a modernist american poet with a long career spanning from the 1920s to the 1960s, is known primarily today for his formalist experimentation, which inspired later generations of poets including robert creeley and charles bernstein.

The collected critical essays, published first in 1967 and then in an expanded edition in 1981, was a definitive set of critical statements by louis zukofsky, one of the most important poets of the 20th century. The primary theorist of objectivism, an avantgarde poetry movement of the 1930s, zukofsky paradoxically remained the most obscure objectivist. By 1929, he had made himself known to ezra pound, who liked his work and encouraged the editors of poetry magazine to have zukofsky edit a special edition. Mark scroggins is a poet, biographer, and literary critic. The first chapter introduces zukofskys poetic principles and examines the relationship between his work and ezra pounds imagism. This is the first collection to draw on the full range of zukofsky s poetry containing short lyrics, versions of catullus, and generous selections from a, his 24part poem.

Return to the contents list jerome rothenberg louis zukofsky. From pound to pastoral richard parker the university of gaziantep, turkey the literary london journal, volume 11 number 1 spring 2014 abstract. I first tracked down a library copy of leggotts book not long after its own publication in 1989, but i didnt read it, really, just her citations. Almost two years older than rexroth, zukofsky had spent all his life in new york city, where he had received a columbia m. First, there is a biographically based discussion of zukofskys relationships with both pound and williams, then an examination of. With an ear tuned to the most delicate musical effects, an eye for exact and heterogeneous details, and a mind bent on experiment, louis zukofsky was preeminent among the radical objectivist poets of the 1930s.

Zukofsky, protege and friend of both ezra pound with whom he shared a lenghty correspondence. A detailed reading of the first seven movements of zukofsky s a, paying particular attention to the original published version of the texts and the poets conception of the formal coherence of his long poem. Read aloud, zukofsky s poems sometimes show how he used sound effects to add additional layers of meaning to the text. As objectivists, their work has been said to be patterned after jewish culture, judaism, jewishness, and other denominations for that denomination. Louis zukofsky spent fortysix years writing his masterwork a, and died before he could see the completed version published. The son of immigrant russian jews, he was born into the jewish ghetto of the lower east side of manhattan in 1904. To louis zukofsky louis zukofsky first contacted kenneth rexroth in november 1930, soliciting poetry for the 1931 objectivists issue of poetry magazine. In louis zukofskys epic a, this shift in sensibility is displayed in his turn away from both formalism and a marxist theory of value. He is perhaps bestknown for a, a monumental poem in 24 parts, and for inventing the term objectivists to describe himself and a looseknit group of avantgarde poets. As the harriet blog reported, the digerati have already responded by putting louis zukofskys famous long work a online in full pdf format to be downloaded as a deliberate screw you to pz. Richard powers is an accomplished novelist whose five soon to be six novels plumb the controversies, latent and teeming, inherent to our highly technological milieu. April 1997 zukofsky conference in buffalo two essays by lorine niedecker. First, there is a biographically based discussion of zukofsky s relationships with both pound and williams, then an examination of.