{"product_id":"charles-olson-call-him-ishmael-paperback","title":"Charles Olson: Call Him Ishmael - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003ePaul Christensen\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\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life and work.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePaul Christensen draws upon a wide variety of source materials-from letters, unpublished essays, and fragments and sketches from the Olson Archives to the full range of Olson's published prose and poetry.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\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 278\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.63 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 01, 1978\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42724366417983,"sku":"9780292739987","price":60.37,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/0eff19412e51d70a11534b5192b31ba2_7aa2da85-69ae-4875-ab52-999a7d9c6731.webp?v=1765102415","url":"https:\/\/dhlswag.com\/products\/charles-olson-call-him-ishmael-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}