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The Work |
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In addition to the cluster of friendships and correspondence which united the various “Objectivist” writers beginning in the late 1920s, this group was also connected by their mutual interests in one another’s poetry. Through a series of little magazines, publishing ventures, and other schemes, these writers spent considerable time and effort reading, publishing, and reviewing one another’s work, with many continuing to send each other their publications up to forty years after their initial association.
While the first “Objectivist” poems as such would have appeared in the February 1931 issue of Poetry and the subsequent An “Objectivists” Anthology, most of the poets included in that group had already been publishing their writing for some time. In fact, William Carlos Williams, the oldest of the group by more than a decade, published his first collection, Poems, in 1909, just a year after George Oppen, the youngest of the core group, was born. Apart from Williams, who published poetry and prose more or less continuously from 1909 until his death in 1963, the remainder of the “Objectivists” had two distinct periods of intense publication activity (from 1928-1934, and from 1962-1978) interrupted by an almost 30 year period of near total silence.
In addition to the explicitly named “Objectivist” publications already referenced,1 members of this group operated or were concentrated in a handful of little magazines and plotted or participated in several other publication schemes between 1928 and 1935.
Ezra Pound’s The Exile, which consisted of four issues published in 1927 and 1928, might properly be considered the first proto-‘Objectivist’ publication.2 A look at the writers published in the final three issues of Pound’s magazine does show a remarkable degree of overlap with Zukofsky’s editorial selection, with Pound publishing work by Zukofsky,3 Rakosi,4, Williams,5 Robert McAlmon,6 and Howard Weeks,7 each of whom Zukofsky would include in the “Objectivist” issue of Poetry magazine.
Charles Henri Ford’s magazine …
[Pound performed a small editorial function for Samuel Putnam’s New Review in Paris. And so Zukofsky wrote on 25 April 1931 to ask Pound to convince Putnam to publish an anthology of “Objectivists” which he would edit—and also, to improve Zukofsky’s reputation, a book of his poetry.
Putnam would not have been antagonistic to the idea. Zukofsky had included his sonnet in the “Symposium” of the “Objectivists” issue, and Putnam had already accepted for publication in the spring issue of the New Review Zukofsky’s “‘A’, Third and Fourth Movements,” and “Imagism,” Zukofsky’s review of René Taupin’s L’Influence du Symbolisme Français sur le Poésie American (de 1910 à 1920). This issue also included a poem by Donal McKenzie, criticism by Pound, and a long editorial by Putnam, “Black Arrow.”]
Robert McAlmon and William Carlos Williams met at a party hosted by Lola Ridge while living in New York City in 1920. The two men quickly became friends, and before long, joint publishers of a little magazine, which they called Contact. McAlmon and Williams published four issues of Contact between December 1920 and the summer of 1921, when McAlmon left for Paris. Williams published a fifth and final issue of Contact‘s first run with Monroe Wheeler June 1923.8
After moving to Paris in 1921, McAlmon founded the Contact Publishing Company and published important modernist writing under the Contact Editions imprint, including books by his wife Bryher (Annie Ellerman), Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Williams and himself.
In 1932, Williams revived Contact, and while McAlmon was listed as an “associate editor” on the masthead and contributed to the magazine, his involvement in the actual editing and publishing of the second run of the magazine was nil. Instead, Williams managed the second run of Contact with the novelist Nathanael West. The impetus (and funding) for the magazine’s revival had been provided by Sally and Martin Kamin and David Moss, ambitious but inexperienced publishers who had revived McAlmon’s Contact Editions imprint the year previous in order to publish West’s novel The Dream Life of Balso Snell in New York City. The second run of Contact consisted of just three issues, all of which were published in 1932 (February, May, and October), and the magazine folded when West left for Hollywood and Williams resigned as an editor.9
At Pound’s urging, Zukofsky was given editorial power over a single issue of Harriet Monroe’s Poetry magazine in early 1931, and however awkwardly or unwillingly, used the issue to present ‘Objectivists’ 1931. The issue’s chief critical statements were authored by Zukofsky singly, but the issue contained work by 23 individual contributors,10 several of whom (Oppen, Reznikoff, Rakosi, Williams, and Zukofsky) met semi-regularly in New York City as a mutually supportive coterie.
In addition to their involvement in a network of little magazines published during the era, the members of this loose alliance were also united for a short time in a pair of publishing ventures which released books: first under the imprimatur of TO, Publishers and later as The Objectivist Press.
TO, Publishers was operated and funded by George and Mary Oppen from Le Beausset, a small village in the south of France near Toulon, and employed Zukofsky as its salaried editor before folding late in 1932. Though it proved short lived as a publishing concern, TO, Publishers managed to print and distribute two prose works: William Carlos Williams’ A Novelette and Other Prose (in February 1932) and Ezra Pound’s Prolegomena 1: How to Read, Followed by The Spirit of Romance, Part 1 (in June 1932), as well as An ‘Objectivists’ Anthology, which was printed in August 1932 from Dijon. TO, Publishers was nothing if not an ‘Objectivist’ publishing venture: funded and operated from France by the Oppens, it employed Zukofsky as the managing editor, and in addition to An ‘Objectivists’ Anthology published (or planned to publish) work by Williams, Pound, Zukofsky, Reznikoff, Oppen, Bunting, Rakosi, and Rexroth.11
Edited by Zukofsky, the An “Objectivists” Anthology was divided into three sections: lyric (section 1), epic (section 2), and collaborations (section 3) and contained work by 14 poets,11 more than half of whom also had work featured in the “Objectivists” 1931 issue of Poetry in the previous year.12
Chastened but not discouraged by this failure of TO, Publishers, Zukofsky next proposed the creation of a writer’s union to be called Writers Extant with a publishing arm to be called W.E., Publishers.13 Zukofsky circulated this proposal among several friends and allies, including both Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. Williams replied in early April 1933 by sending a simplified version of Zukofsky’s prospectus which included renaming the proposed group THE WRITERS PUBLISHERS, Inc.14 Williams ultimately expressed his dissatisfaction with the proposed venture shortly before Zukofsky left for a trip to Europe, where he met with Serly, Taupin, Pound, and Bunting. By September 1933, Zukofsky was back in New York City, and had arranged a meeting on 24 September 1933 at the Oppens’ apartment on Columbia Heights, Brooklyn. In attendance were Zukofsky, Williams, Reznikoff, and George and Mary Oppen. The group discussed and ultimately adopted a simplified version of the earlier prospectus, considered several names (including Writers-Publishers and Cooperative Publishers) before settling on The Objectivist Press, drew up a plan to request subscriptions, and organized an editorial board with Zukofsky as the executive secretary. The press would begin by publishing a book of Williams’ and two of Reznikoff’s, and Zukofsky wrote to Pound of their plans to publish work by Bunting and Rakosi in the first year. When Williams’ Collected Poems 1920-1930 was published (the first book issued under the imprint of the newly organized venture), it listed the press’ advisory board as consisting of Williams, Pound and Zukofsky (sec’y) and gave the following list of writers to be published: Basil Bunting, George Oppen, Carl Rakosi, Charles Reznikoff, René Taupin, Louis Zukofsky, Tibor Serly and others.” Williams’ book was a modest success (it nearly sold out its initial edition of 500 copies, which would have netted a small profit for the press), and was followed in the same year by two of Reznikoff’s books, which Reznikoff financed himself. The press published an additional two books by Reznikoff and Oppen’s Discrete Series before folding sometime in 1934. [How to read Zuk’s disavowal of leadership of any movement in 1934: He had tried to start a group/movement: halfheartedly, at first, and with some resistance. He really had tried, however, and had devoted a great deal of energy to trying to form a two publishing collectives, and had served as editor for them. Pound writes about hearing of others’ total lack of confidence in his business sense by 1931, the Oppens cut him off after failing to sell many books by 1933, and the new venture never quite convinces WCW, and doesn’t even manage to bring out his own book. Hard not to see this as Zuk trying, but failing, and the disavowal of the ‘movement’ as a function of anger/embarrassment at that failure.]
The back cover of the dust jacket for George Oppen’s Discrete Series, with publication information for The Objectivist Press
In September 1933, following the Oppens’ return to Brooklyn from France, Zukofsky, Williams, Reznikoff, and the Oppens reached an agreement to jointly establish The Objectivist Press, whose editorship was collective. Though Zukofsky had initially proposed the formation of Writers Extant, an ambitious collaborative scheme which would operate under a far more detailed prospectus, the group eventually settled on Reznikoff’s simple statement of purpose, printed on the dust wrapper of their first books: “The Objectivist Press is an organization of writers who are publishing their own work and that of other writers whose work they think ought to be read.” The press’s advisory board consisted of Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, with Zukofsky as secretary, and listed its address as 10 West 36th Street, located two blocks northeast of the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan.
With the exception of their first publication, Williams’ Collected Poems 1921-1931, which was sold by subscription, each author agreed to finance the publication of their own work. The Objectivist Press published five books in 1934: Williams’ Collected Poems, George Oppen’s Discrete Series, Charles Reznikoff’s Jerusalem the Golden, *Testimony *(a prose work), and In Memoriam: 1933. Though Zukofsky also wanted to publish his 55 Poems, he lacked the money to do so, and the collection was not published until 1941, when the James E. Decker Press of Prairie City, Illinois brought out the book in a handsome hardcover edition. The Oppens left poetry and the Objectivist Press in 1935, joining the Communist Party and dedicating themselves to direct social and political action in the face of the depression, and though Reznikoff published his collection Separate Way under the press’ imprimatur in the following year, the press would remain dormant until 1948, when Celia Zukofsky asked Reznikoff for the press’s copyright to publish Louis’ A Test of Poetry.
In 1933, Ezra Pound published his Active Anthology in Britain with Faber and Faber. Pound noted that “in this volume I am presenting an assortment of writers, mostly ill known in England, in whose verse development appears … to be taking place, in contradistinction to authors in whose work no such activity has occurred or seems likely to proceed any further,” and in the “Notes on Particular Details” at the end of the anthology, Pound wrote “I expect or at least hope that the work of the included writers will interest me more in ten years’ time than it does now in 1933.” Pound’s list of eleven authors for the anthology included a strong “Objectivist” core, as he selected work by William Carlos Williams, Basil Bunting, Louis Zukofsky, and George Oppen, and he both drew attention to the group and simultaneously sounded a note of caution by noting that “a whole school of shoal of young American writers seems to me to have lost contact with language as language. … In particular Mr Zukofsky’s Objectivists seem prone to this error, just as Mr Eliot’s followers tend toward neo-Gongorism.”15
Pound circulated a carbon copy of a call for this anthology in 23 Feb. 1933. In his letter to Zukofsky, he wrote: “I take it this is a chance to print all of THE and all of A. that is ready /
also send suggestions/ re other of yrs/ the chewing gum poem, and items of interest.
also has Rakoski anything new/ or have you any snug gestions
Oppen meritus causa?? couple of short poems?? lemme know if there are?
Basil [Bunting] seems to think Reznikoff is some good??? any piece d’evidence?
Can you help ole Bill Walrnss [Williams] to sort hiz self out.” 16
Zukofsky complied, sending work by Williams and Reznikoff. Pound’s next letter to Zukofsky, sent in April 1933, provides a fairly lucid view of his editorial views in regards to the anthology: “The Bill W[illia]ms/ is damn good. Shall prob. omit Footnote/ Ball Game / and Portrait of Lady ( the latter simply because the subject is less interestin’ than a lot of Bill’s other work.) I want another 15 Pages of him.
Your best stuuf is “The” and parts of A.
The Reznikoff will appear to the Brit. reader a mere immitation of me, and they will howl that I am merely printin my followers.
It is I think just as good as parts of Lustra (1915, 1916) neither better nor worse. Very cleanly done but no advance in methodology. ((in most of it.))
Possibly by pickin’ out the Hebe element we can get something that will arouse interest. Remember an anth. like this has got to AROUSE interest without AT ANY POINT terminating ANY of the interest it arouses.
Its the sample of next weeks film, not the giving away of the end of the story.
The title of the Anth. is “The Active Element”. If I omit H.D. how am I to put in most of the Reznikoff you have sent.
my thesis bein that the ART of writing is (is still now continuously developing.
So far Rakosi weak. Rexroth and the rest unsatisfactory.
Young Oppen has sent in stuff/ think three of ’em good enough to include.”17
In the early 1930s, Kenneth Rexroth planned to found a press with his friends Milton Merlin and Joseph Rabinowitch. As they conceived it, the RMR Press (the initial letters of their last names) would publish a series of pamphlets and short books, with a special emphasis on poetry. Zukofsky, Pound, and Williams all wrote to Rexroth in support of the venture, offering selections of their own work for consideration and providing extensive lists of authors they felt might be interested in being included in the series. Zukofsky named Reznikoff, Oppen, Bunting, Rene Taupin, Whittaker Chambers/George Crosby, and Harry Roskolenko; and Pound recommended Rexroth approach Wyndham Lewis, Man Ray, Hilaire Hiler, Robert McAlmon, and Ford Madox Ford. Despite the several recommendations, RMR Press never advanced beyond the planning stage.18
Footnotes
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The February 1931 issue of Poetry, the An “Objectivists” Anthology, and the other publications of TO, Publishers and The Objectivist Press. ↩
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Tom Sharp has argued not only that The Exile was the group’s “first public meeting place,” but that the publication of work by some many writers later identified as “Objectivists” in the magazine establishes the group firmly within the Poundian poetic tradition and “expresses many of the principles, especially about the importance of group activity, that Pound continued to impress upon them” (http://sharpgiving.com/Objectivists/sections/01.history.html) ↩
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Zukofsky’s first major publication, “Poem Beginning ‘The'” appeared in The Exile 3, and the fourth and final issue of The Exile also featured another dozen or so pages from Zukofsky. ↩
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Pound published four poems by Rakosi in The Exile 2 and his poem “Extracts from A Private Life” in The Exile 4 ↩
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Williams’ “The Descent of Winter,” which Zukofsky had been instrumental in editing, was published in The Exile 4. Williams wrote to Pound on May 17, 1928: “Your spy Zukofsky has been going over my secret notes for you. At first I resented his wanting to penetrate- now listen! – but finally I sez to him, All right, go ahead. So he took my pile of stuff into the city and he works at it with remarkably clean and steady fingers (to your long distance credit be it said) and he ups and choses a batch of writin that yous is erbout ter git perty damn quick if it hits a quick ship – when it gets ready – which it aren’t quite yit. What I have to send you will be in the form of a journal, each bit as perfect in itself as may be. I am however leaving everything just as selected by Zukofsky. It may be later that I shall use the stuff differently.” (Pound/Williams, 82) Zukofsky and Wiliams had first met in April of that year, which means that Williams had known Zukofsky for less than 2 months at the time that he sent Pound this remarkable indication his editorial trust. ↩
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The Exile 2 included McAlmon’s short story “Truer than Most Accounts” and an essay of his on Gertrude Stein was included in The Exile 4 ↩
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His poem “Stunt Piece” was published in The Exile 3 ↩
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The initial run of Contact can be read here: (pdf). ↩
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Scans of much of the second run of Contact can be viewed here: (pdf). For more on McAlmon and Williams’ involvement with Contact, see Paul Mariani’s William Carlos Williams: A New World Naked, pp. 174-186 (the first run), and pp. 319-339 (the second run). ↩
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Joyce Hopkins, listed as the author of the one-line poem “University: Old-Time,” was an invented name used for Zukofsky’s poetic refashioning of a letter from his friend Roger Kaigh ↩
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The eight authors included in both publications were: Bunting, Rakosi, Reznikoff, Oppen, Williams, Zukofsky, Robert McAlmon, and Kenneth Rexroth. ↩
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Of these planned volumes, the Press would only print work by Williams and Pound before experiencing financial, import, and distribution difficulties which caused the venture to be abandoned in 1933. ↩
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In a letter to Ezra Pound describing some of his plans for the venture, Zukofsky indicated that the editorial board was to be comprised of Tibor Serly, Rene Taupin, and himself, and its members to include Reznikoff and Williams, and possibly Rexroth, Moore, and McAlmon, Mina Loy, Wallace Stevens, and others. Qtd. in Sharp’s dissertation: http://sharpgiving.com/Objectivists/sections/22.history.html?visited=1#22history-51, Zukofsky, Letter to Pound, 17 April 1933, Yale and referenced in Pound/Zukofsky, 141-142. ↩
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Williams’ more succinct version of the prospectus, which he directed Zukofsky to share with Tibor Serly, can be found in The Correspondence of William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukofsky, 156-157. Zukofsky forwarded Williams’ revisions to Pound within the week, urging ↩
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Page references for anthology needed. ↩
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Pound/Zukofsky, 143. ↩
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Pound/Zukofsky, 144 ↩
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See A Life of Kenneth Rexroth, pp. 65, 75-76 for more background on RMR. ↩