Wednesday, September 25, 2013

LORINE NIEDECKER'S PERSONAL LIBRARY OF BOOKS ~








This is a very good start to things — someone should now dig into this study and added commentary, perspective and contact to Lorine Niedecker's life and poetry.

Imagine one day the availability of having individual photographs of many of these books, plus the geography of the text and annotations, marginalia, since the poet was a careful reader.

Once upon a time I stood with this library in its stout bookcase and just the surrounding aura of a poet's personal library, the over used spines and sore edges, is some of the context missing so far from understanding just what we have here. Poet as auto didactic, poet as self-learner, poet in the remote reaches (where she still remains).

There are three books listed by Lorine Niedecker's then literary executor Cid Corman, more than twice that by Louis Zukofsky, and maybe the most titles by William Carlos Williams. No, hold on, he's one short of George Santayana.

The value of this start is invaluable.



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Friends of Lorine Niedecker
209 Merchants Avenue
Firt Atkinson, WI. 53538