The Age of Olson

The recovery of archival materials by and about Charles Olson for the University of New Mexico Press’s Recencies series sets the stage for a critical reassessment of this mid-century American poet. Recent titles include his correspondences with fellow American writer Robert Duncan and British poet J.H. Prynne, a collection of Duncan’s lectures on Olson, and ethnopoetic translator and writer Dennis Tedlock’s posthumously published study of Olson’s “Mayan Letters.” Together, these works implicitly argue for the centrality of Olson’s self-described projective verse poetics to Cold War poetry. They also compel a reimagining of what the term “projective verse” meant to both Olson and his compeers.