George Oppen: Selected Poems - Softcover

Oppen, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811215571 ISBN 13: 9780811215572

Publisher: New Directions, 2003

Synopsis

A selection of innovative poems by the groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize winner.

The Selected Poems is a unique selection of Oppen's work from the seven books he published during his lifetime. Edited by one of our most respected contemporary poets, Robert Creeley, who provides an informative introduction, George Oppen's Selected Poems includes Oppen's only known essay, "A Mind's Own Place," as well as "Twenty-Six Fragments" which Oppen wrote on envelopes and scraps of paper and posted to his wall, edited by Stephen Cope. Also incorporated is a helpful chronology and bibliography of his writings by Rachel Blau DuPlessis, celebrated editor of Oppen's letters. On his death, Hugh Kenner wrote, "George Oppen, gentlest of men...prized what took time, found the grain of materials, exacted accuracy." Oppen's Selected Poems is the perfect text for teaching and a remarkable window into a world of lasting light and clarity.

About this title

About the Author:

GEORGE OPPEN (1908–1984) was born in New Rochelle, New York. Often associated with the Objectivists, Oppen abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism, and later moved to Mexico to avoid the House Un-American Activities Committee. He returned to poetry―and to the United States―in 1958 and received a Pulitzer Prize for his work in 1969.

Review:

"In 1934, (Oppen) published a book of stunning, elliptical lyrics about "big-Business" and American capita ism.... His Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Of Being Numerous, published in 1968 (is) to a degree unmatched by any book of American poetry since."

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0811215571
• ISBN 13: 9780811215572
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Creeley Robert