New Collected Poems

Oppen George

George Oppen's "New Collected Poems" gathers all of the poet's books published in his lifetime (1908-1984). It adds previously uncollected poems and a selection of his unpublished work. One of America's most vigorous modernists, he was a member of the Objectivist group that flourished in the 1930s, which also included William Carlos Williams, Charles Reznikoff, Carl Rakosi and Louis Zukofsky. Ezra Pound called him "a serious craftsman, a sensibility which is not every man's sensibility and which has not been got out of any other man's book". This edition includes generous annotation and a full introduction.

About the Author

George Oppen was born in New Rochelle, New York. His first book of poems, "Discrete Series" (1934), was published by the Objectivist Press. Then for nearly a quarter of a century he fell poetically silent, becoming a political activist, choosing exile in Mexico in the 1950s. When he began writing poetry again, it was with a maturity and a spiritual and political clarity rare at any time of day. Michael Davidson teaches at the University of California, San Diego. The essayist and translator Eliot Weinberger provides an important memoir. George Oppen was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry in 1969.

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