THE MAXIMUS POEMS

First edition, first printing. Large Quarto (28 x 22 cm). Original brown cloth lettered in silver to the spine, in the dustwrapper designed by Barbara Llewellyn with a photograph of Olson by Ann Charters to the front panel. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. Light spotting to the upper edge of the page block, light surface marks to the cloth, and a few barely visible spots to endpapers. In the dustwrapper, a touch faded to the spine, with three closed tears (the longest 2.5 cm) and associated creasing to the lower edge of the front panel, and another (0.5 cm) to the upper edge of the rear panel. Light spotting to the upper edges of the wrapper (recto and verso). Not price-clipped ($35.00 to the front flap). A very presentable copy of an uncommon volume.

Charles Olson's epic 'The Maximus Poems' is one of the towering achievements of twentieth-century American poetry (and a worthy successor to Pound's Cantos). Homeric in scope, the poems were originally published across three volumes in 1960, 1968, and 1975. This complete edition, prepared by Olson's former student George Butterick, presents freshly and meticulously edited versions of all the texts. Errors in previous editions have been corrected, twenty-nine new poems added, and the order of the final poems modified in light of the editor's research among the poet's papers.