Larry Eigner (August 7, 1927 – February 3, 1996), also known as Laurence Joel Eigner, was an
American poet
The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I–J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
* George Quasha (born 1942)
R
S
T
U–V
...
of the second half of the twentieth century and one of the principal figures of the
Black Mountain School.
Eigner is associated with the Black Mountain poets and was influential among
Language poets
The Language poets (or ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scal ...
. Highlighting Eigner's influence on the "Language School" of poetry, his work often appeared in the journal ''
L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'', and was featured on the front page of its inaugural issue in February 1978.
Ron Silliman
Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946) is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wr ...
dedicated the 1986 anthology of
Language poetry
The Language poets (or ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scalap ...
, ''In the American Tree'', to Eigner. In the introduction to ''In the American Tree,'' Silliman identifies Eigner as a poet who has "transcended the problematic constraints" of Olson's speech-based projectivist poetics. Eigner has himself pointed out that his poetry originates in 'thinking' rather than speech.
During his lifetime, Eigner wrote dozens of books and published poems in more than 100 magazines and collections.
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...
once called him the "greatest living poet."
Life and work
Eigner was critically palsied as a result of a bungled forceps delivery at birth. He grew up in
Swampscott, Massachusetts. Despite his impairments, Eigner's mother, Bessie, was an advocate for his education. Eigner began writing poetry around the age of 8, which he transcribed to his mother and brother, Richard. He attended middle school at Massachusetts Hospital School and completed high school and some college (at the University of Chicago) through correspondence. His first works were published at age 9. As he matured into an artist, Eigner overcame many physical obstacles and limitations to achieve a mastery over the material text, producing his typescripts on a 1940
Royal manual typewriter using only his right index finger and thumb.
Perhaps the best realization to date of the idea of "composition by field" proposed by
Charles Olson
Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modern American poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York ...
in his landmark essay "Projective Verse," the physical act of writing took tremendous effort from Eigner.
Larry Eigner authored more than 40 books, among them ''From the Sustaining Air'' (1953), ''Another Time in Fragments'' (1967), ''Country/Harbor/Quiet/Act/Around-selected prose''
(1978), and ''Waters/Places/a Time'' (1983). His work appeared in well over a hundred magazines and collections, most notably ''
Origin
Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Comics and manga
* ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002
* ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...
'', ''The Black Mountain Review'', L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, and in
Don Allen's anthology ''
The New American Poetry''. In 2010, Stanford University Press published ''The Collected Poems of Larry Eigner'', Volumes 1–4 (Vol. I: 1937–1958; Vol. II: 1958–1966; Vol. III: 1966–1978; Vol. IV: 1978–1995). The four volumes were edited by
Robert Grenier and Curtis Faville.
Larry Eigner died from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
and other complications on February 3, 1996.
Poet Jennifer Bartlett is currently working on a biography of Eigner.
[''The Larry Eigner Project'' Kickstarter](_blank)
/ref>[Jennifer Bartlett]
''Jennifer Bartlett, Poet''. November 17, 2015.
Jon David Polansky is currently the acting executor for the literary estate of Larry Eigner.
References
External links
;Eigner exhibits, sites and homepages
Larry Eigner Author Homepage at EPC
housed at Stanford University
Larry Eigner Papers
housed at th
Kenneth Spencer Research Library
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
Eigner Author Page at Stanford University Press
The publisher of ''The Collected Poems of Larry Eigner, Volumes 1-4'' offers extensive resources on Eigner's life to include reviews, descriptions, and a pdf file of editor Robert Grenier's "Introduction"
include audiofiles of readings and interviews
of the Larry Eigner Papers
hosted by Online Archive of California (OAC)
Larry Eigner Papers
a
Brown University Library
;Selected online publications, poems and poetry
Originally published by Black Sparrow Press
Black Sparrow Press is a New England based independent book publisher, known for literary fiction and poetry.
History
Black Sparrow was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1966 by John Martin in order to publish the works of Charles Bukowski ...
in 1968 and long out of print, the text is presented here on-line and complete
"how many years / without death": Larry Eigner's memento mori
five poems from ''readiness / enough / depends / on'', then a brief essay
;Reviews and perspectives
essay on Eigner's poetry in Jacket
Reading Eigner and ''readiness / enough / depends / on''
Poet and indefatigable blogger Ron Silliman
Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946) is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wr ...
discusses a recent Eigner (posthumous) publication
Missing Larry: The Poetics of Disability in Larry Eigner
This online essay makes up Chapter 5 of poet and scholar Michael Davidson's book ''Concerto for the Left Hand; Disability and the Defamiliar Body'', published by University of Michigan Press in 2008.
Born from the Head - Larry Eigner's 1st Published Poem in 1952
this essay is by Curtis Faville, who coedited Eigner's ''Collected''
Here began a controversy surrounding the 2010 publication of Eigners ''Collected'' initiated by Steven Fama. Fama argues that the editors and publishers of the ''Collected'' have not shown the requisite fidelity to the spacing & visual presentation of Eigner's typescripts. In the comment section after the article, a coeditor of the ''Collected'', Curtis Faville, defends the editorial decisions made to bring a ''Collected'' Eigner into print.
Ron Silliman's first response to the publication of Eigner's ''Collected''. Silliman also weighs in on the publication controversy surrounding the layout of the ''Collected''.
;Obituaries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eigner, Larry
1927 births
1996 deaths
Jewish American poets
Language poets
Black Mountain poets
People from Swampscott, Massachusetts
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American Jews