A Collection of Nineteen Works ; Including: The Maximus Poems; Projective Verse; The Special View of History; Anecdotes of the Late War

various: various, 2000. 18 volumes and ephemeral items in various formats including hardcovers, wrappers, broadsides, and proofs. Condition generally fine or near fine. Notable items include Anecdotes of the Late War (1955)-Jargon Broadside I, inscribed by Olson to his wife and son; The Maximus Poems / 1-10 and 11-22 (1953, 1956)-first editions with calligraphic covers by Jonathan Williams, the first volume in original publisher's stamped wrapping paper; The Maximus Poems combined edition (1960)-one of 101 hardcover copies, unmarked "Presentation" copy; Projective Verse (1959)-first separate edition of the foundational essay; The Special View of History (1970)-uncommon hardcover issue; plus broadsides, ephemera, and the uncorrected proof of Mayan Letters first English edition. Olson's theoretical and poetic work fundamentally reconceived the possibilities of American verse in the postwar period. His 1950 essay "Projective Verse" articulated principles of composition by field and the poetic line determined by breath rather than meter, providing the theoretical foundation for what would become known as Black Mountain poetics and influencing poets from Robert Creeley to the Language writers. Olson rejected the closed forms and New Critical precepts that dominated academic poetry, instead proposing an open field poetics where the typewriter's spatial possibilities and the poet's physiological rhythms determined form. His insistence on the poem as energy transfer between poet and reader challenged prevailing assumptions about poetry as aesthetic object.