Charles. The Maximus Poems 1-10 [and] 11-22.

by OLSON

£1,250 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

OLSON, Charles. The Maximus Poems 1-10 [and] 11-22. Stuttgart: Jonathan Williams, Jargon . 1953, 1956. 4to. Two volumes; card wrappers with calligraphic design to front panel; pp. I: [viii], 46, [2]; II: [vi], 51, [3]; introduction by Robert Creeley loosely laid in to Vol. I, as issued; a few nicks, minor creasing, marginal adhesive residue to edges of Vol. II, both volumes with, at the back, the stamp of poet and doctor Gael Turnbull’s Worcester (UK) based Migrant Press 1950s, a key connection during the 1950s and 60s, as publisher and distributor, between American and British poets; a very good, sound and clean set. First printings of the first instalments of Olson’s monumental Maximus Poems ; Vol. I ( 1-10 ) limited to 300 copies, Vol. II ( 11-22 ) to 350 copies. “The modulation of a man's attentions, [t]hey are truth because their form is that issue of what is out there, and what part of it can come into a man's own body. That much is not sentimental, nor can anything be sentimental if we make it that engagement. […] At some point reached by us, sooner or later, there is no longer much else but ourselves, in the place given us. To make that present, and actual for other men, as not an embarrassment, but love” (from Robert Creeley’s introduction). Olson began writing The Maximus Poems in the mid-1940s, expanding and revising them until his death in 1970. Comparable in scope and ambition to Pound’s Cantos, Olson described the work as being "about a person and a place”. The

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.