Robert Edward Duncan

Robert Duncan

Robert Duncan's Groundwork, the American poet's unparalleled final masterpiece, is now available in a single volume. I am speaking now of the Dream in which America sleeps, the New World, moaning, floundering, in three hundred years of invasions, our own history out of Europe and enslaved Africa.Robert Duncan, from Groundwork Robert Duncan has been widely venerated as one of America's most essential poets: Allen Ginsberg described his poetry as "rapturous wonderings of inspiration," Gwendolyn Brooks called it "a subtle spice," and Susan Howe pointed to Duncan as "my precursor father," Lawrence Ferlinghetti said he "had the finest ear this side of Dante," and Robert Creeley called him "the magister, the singular Master of the Dance." Now Duncan's magnum opus, Groundwork, is available in one groundbreaking edition. The first volume, Groundwork I: Before the War, was published in 1984, after a fifteen-year publishing silence, and received immediate acclaim: it was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award and won the first National Poetry Award for Duncan's "lifetime devotion to the art of poetry and his grand achievement...." The second volume, Groundwork II: In the Dark, was published in February 1988, the month of Duncan's death. The internationally renowned poet Michael Palmer has written a marvelous introduction for this new edition, where "the singlemindedness of [Duncan's] life's work shows itself in the confident energy of every line" (Voice Literary Supplement).

Before the War, In the Dark

Ground Work

Albert Gelpi

Robert J. Bertholf

This volume presents the complete correspondence between two of the most important and influential American poets of the postwar period. The almost 500 letters range widely over the poetry scene and the issues that made the period so lively and productive. But what gives the exchange its special personal and literary resonance is the sense of spiritual affinity and shared conviction about the power of the visionary imagination. Duncan and Levertov explore these matters in rich detail until, under the stress of dealing with the Vietnam War in poetry, they discover deep-seated differences in the religious and ethical convictions underlying their politics and poetic stance. The issues that drew them together and those that drove them apart create a powerful personal drama with far-reaching historical and cultural significance. The editors have provided a critical Introduction, full notes, a chronology, and a glossary of names.

The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov

Shamoon Zamir

Amy Evans

Eric Mottram

Robert Duncan was a defining figure of twentieth-century American poetry. Eric Mottram was a pioneer in the ﬁeld of American Studies in the UK and a key contributor to the British Poetry Revival. In the 1970s the two men conducted a wide-ranging dialogue on poetry, politics and the religious through an exchange of intense and often expansive letters. Mottram continued the dialogue in two substantive critical examinations of Duncan's work. The Unruly Garden presents an annotated edition of the complete available correspondence along with the two essays. The ﬁrst essay was heavily edited when originally published and is included here in its restored form. The second essay appeared in a small press magazine and now receives the wider circulation it deserves.

Robert Duncan and Eric Mottram, Letters and Essays

The Unruly Garden

Robert Edward Duncan

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