''The New American Poetry 1945–1960'' is a
poetry anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...
edited by
Donald Allen and published in 1960. It aimed to pick out the "third generation" of American
modernist
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
poets, and included quite a number of poems fresh from the little magazines of the late 1950s. In the longer term it attained a classic status, with critical approval and continuing sales. It was reprinted in 1999. As of the anthology's 65th anniversary in 2025,
Edward Field and
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...
are the only contributors still living.
Overview
In 1958, Allen began work on ''The New American Poetry'' anthology. Following the
Pound
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* A bas ...
/
Williams tradition, Allen hoped to present the range of experimental writing produced in the United States since the Second World War. The project took two years to complete and required extensive correspondence with poets, editors, and literary agents. The book was finally published in 1960, and, in addition to the poems, included a brief ''Preface'' by Allen, position-statements by some of the contributors, biographical notes, and an ''Index''. Other considerations were taken into account in the organization of this anthology, as the following quotation illustrates:
At the time of its publication, it increased the recognition for the Black Mountain poets - especially Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, Paul Blackburn, and Charles Olson - by identifying their contributions to a distinct literary movement, making them recognized figures in what was then an emerging ''countertradition''. Allen originally planned to publish revised anthologies every two or three years. However, he produced only two such books over the next twenty years: ''New American Writing'' (Penguin, 1965), and ''The Postmoderns'' (Grove, 1965).
The anthology was also influential in Canada. "It affected the writing of at least one generation of Canadian poets", according to ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. The anthology influenced many Canadian poets to turn away from British influences and toward American models.
[Barbour, Douglas, and D.M.R. Bentley, W. J. Keith, Michael Gnarowsk]
"The New Generation: After 1960"
article in ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', retrieved February 8, 2009
See also
*
Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Beat Reader''. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. (hc); (pbk)
Notes
External links
''Great Anthology: The New American Poetry: 1945–1960''article at "The Academy of American Poets" website
article by
Marjorie Perloff
Marjorie Perloff (born Gabriele Mintz; September 28, 1931 – March 24, 2024) was an Austrian-born American poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry.
Perloff was a professor at Catholic University, the University of ...
to Donald M. Allen''at Empty Mirror Books website
from ''Silliman's Blog: June 11, 2007''. Writes Silliman: "unquestionably the most influential single anthology of the last century. It’s a great book, an epoch-making one in many ways."
{{DEFAULTSORT:New American Poetry 1945-1960
1960 poetry books
American poetry anthologies
American poetry
20th-century American literature