Letter For Melville 1951: Written To Be Read Away From The Melville Society’s ‘One Hundredth Birthday Party’ For Moby-Dick at Williams College, Labor Day Weekend, Sept 2-4, 1951.
Black Mountain, North Carolina: (Black Mountain College Press), 1951. First edition. One of approximately 50 copies printed. Boughn A6. Butterick A 4. Presentation copy, inscribed by Olson to his mentor Edward Dahlberg at the end of the poem: “for Edward (Melville’s & my / Ned / with the love of another battler Charles / Dec 51, for his Laurels for Borrowers.” (See Olson to Dahlberg, letter of Dec. 19, 1951, in In Love, In Sorrow: the Complete Correspondence of Charles Olson and Edward Dahlberg pp. 192-195.) Olson’s long poem, a fiery diatribe against professional academicians and Melville scholars, was a great hit with the students at Black Mountain, and was printed at their expense at the Black Mountain College press. Front cover evenly sunned, otherwise in very good condition. An important association copy. Long sheets, folded and tipped into a printed folder. More