Monday, October 22, 2018

In Haunted Christchurch



NZSA (Canterbury)


Invitation


We flew down for this event. Partly from curiosity, I must confess. I haven't really spent any time in Christchurch since the earthquake (though Bronwyn has), and I wanted to see what it was like.



Latimer Square by Night (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


Also, the hotel we were staying at, Rydges Latimer, was the scene of a haunting a few years ago, when Pakistani cricketer Haris Sohail had his bed shaken by an invisible something, so that constituted a bit of a temptation, too.



Church of St. Michael & All Angels (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


Nothing like that happened to us, but when we compared notes later, we realised that each of us had woken up during the night to find the room bathed with light from the clock radio beside the bed (this despite the fact that I'd covered it with a pillow before going to sleep). The pillow was certainly still there, in place, next morning - what can have led us to think that it had shifted, or been lifted off, by something or someone, in the middle of the night, then?



Keep out! (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


Perhaps these are mysteries we'll never understand. Valiant Christchurch is still in many ways a troubled city, though: witness many of the poems and stories read out at the awards ceremony.



Bell tower (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


Not only that, but it's also an intensely atmospheric one to wander around at night.



Tree (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


For the rest, we certainly had a great time while we were there, doing touristy things around the Square and the Avon, and then (next day) taking the bus out to Lyttelton and the Tannery.



Phone box (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)




Bridge of Remembrance (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


It seemed strangely appropriate to have ended up in a restaurant called "Original Sin' - certainly their pasta was to die for!



Original Sin (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


The event itself was run very smoothly and professionally by the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. Every reader stuck to their allotted time - perhaps because the sheer splendour of the surroundings made us all determined to mind our p's and q's.



Reading from my novel (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


Here's the fiction shortlist:
NZSA Canterbury Heritage Book and Writing Awards 2018

Judge: Fiona Farrell
  1. Harvest by Christine Carrell (Nugget Stream Press 2017)
  2. The Life of De’Ath by Majella Cullinane (Steele Roberts Publishers, 2018)
  3. Finding by David Hill (Puffin 2018)
  4. This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman (Vintage Penguin Random House 2018)
  5. The Annotated Tree Worship: List of Topoi / Draft Research Portfolio by Jack Ross (Paper Table 2017)
  6. Gone to Pegasus by Tess Redgrave (Submarine Press 2018)
No fewer than 18 novels were entered for this part of the competition, apparently - along with 24 in the non-fictional book category, and many poems and essays. The judges certainly had their work cut out for them.



by the door (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)


The winner was Dame Fiona Kidman's powerful novel about capital punishment in New Zealand, This Mortal Boy. The runner-up was David Hill's wonderful YA historical novel Finding. I was more than a little surprised, then, when Fiona Farrell announced that she'd insisted on creating a special category for my novel The Annotated Tree Worship, since (as she said) experimental fiction has a vital place in the literary firmament, too.

So here I am, looking proud as punch, with my 'Highly Commended' certificate. Thanks, Fiona:



Inside the church (Bronwyn Lloyd: 18/10/18)




Certificate


Sunday, October 14, 2018

SF Luminaries: Ursula K. Le Guin



Charles Vess: The Books of Earthsea (2018)

i.m. Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
(21 October 1929 - 22 January 2018)


It's hard to think of a time when I hadn't read Ursula Le Guin's work. I suppose I can date it fairly precisely if I think about it. A Wizard of Earthsea was lent to my sister Anne by her standard four teacher, a thin, dark-haired, intense young woman whose name escapes me now. And since Anne was only a year ahead of me at school, that would make it 1971, when the book (first published in 1968) was only a few years old. That means I've been reading Le Guin for roughly 47 years - amazing, really, when you think about it.



Ursula Le Guin: A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)


Already a fan of such writers as Alan Garner, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien, I could see that this was something quite different: different, but equally valid.

The Tombs of Atuan (1971), which we all read next, was a very different kettle of fish: more layered, subjective and intensely personal. I didn't like it as much as the more objective, epic voice of A Wizard of Earthsea, but (once again), even at that age, I could see it was just as valid.



Ursula K. Le Guin: The Lathe of Heaven (1971)


The Farthest Shore (1972), when it came out the next year, seemed to combine the best features of the two styles.

By then I was hopelessly hooked, and - soon after - started my long, slow immersion in her early science fiction: first The Lathe of Heaven (which my father had in a scruffy little paperback edition: still possibly my favourite among all of her books), then the far more difficult Left Hand of Darkness - which still terrifies as much as it enthuses me - and finally her wonderful 'ambiguous Utopia', The Dispossessed.



Ursula K. Le Guin et al.: The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)


After those early books came a long period of disappointment for me. Her early work seemed to me to constitute a touchstone of excellence in speculative fiction that only the greatest could hope to equal. But what was I to make of The Eye of the Heron or Buffalo Gals?

It seemed to me as if (to quote C. S. Lewis's witty denunciation of H. G. Wells) she "had sold her birthright for a pot of message." The wonderfully subtle and nuanced gender relations in books such as The Left Hand of Darkness or the original Earthsea Trilogy had been traded in for the strident excesses of militant feminism.



Ursula K. Le Guin et al.: The Eye of the Heron (1978)


The thing about addicts, though, is that it's very hard for them to break free from their addictions. By now the habit was formed, and I dutifully read book after book of hers, hoping against hope for a return to form. This even after she'd dared to politicise the pristine fantasy world of her own Earthsea with the bitter pill of Tehanu (1990).



Ursula K. Le Guin et al.: Tehanu (1990)


The years came and went, the books piled up: particularly the collections of short stories, a form which has always seemed particularly congenial to her. Eventually even I, the stupid mule, began to get it, began to read back with a bit more insight, began to see how my adolescent judgements of her work simply betokened a lack of political maturity.

Now even those novels and stories of her middle period seem to me clearly integrated into her work as a whole - it makes me blush to realise how blindly stuck in my ways I must have been to think otherwise: to fail (for instance) to see the merits of such a wonderful story as 'Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight.'



Ursula K. Le Guin: Always Coming Home (1985)


Interestingly enough, I didn't share the adverse reaction to Always Coming Home when it first came out - after, that is, I'd learned that it had to be read straight through: songs, folklore, ethnologies, etymologies and all, if one was to have any hope of understanding the narrative all those things frame. Do they exist for the story, or does the story exist for them? It's an interesting question, but one - by its very nature - which remains unanswerable.



Always Coming Home remains her most ambitious novel: the one which really betrays how much she was her father's daughter: Alfred L. Kroeber (1876-1960), one of the most influential ethnologists who ever lived, famous (or infamous, depending on how you read it) as one of the protagonists of the so-called Ishi saga, the story of which was eventually written as Ishi in Two Worlds (1961) by Theodora Kroeber, Ursula's mother - who never met Ishi himself - after her husband's death.



Theodora Kroeber: Ishi in Two Worlds (1961)


Always Coming Home, for those of you who haven't read it, is a strange combination of a fantasy novel set in the near (or far) future, and an ethnography of a people called the Kesh, inhabitants of what is now Northern California. It includes accounts of their religious rituals, castes and guilds, stories and poems, their diet, and virtually the whole of their life-style from birth to death. It’s a hugely ambitious text, involving the creation of a whole imaginary future people, but – of course – also aspires to be a readable story.



Alfred L. Kroeber: Handbook of the Indians of California (1925)


It’s always seemed obvious to me that it was, at least in part, inspired by her father's work: his Handbook of the Indians of California, or one of his many, many other works on Native American culture and folklore, such as Indian Myths of South Central California (1907) or the posthumously published Yurok Myths (1976).

Her mother's influence is just as strong, though: perhaps a unique case of a novelist daughter influenced by her linguist and anthropologist father and her biographer mother - who followed up her first, more scholarly book Ishi in Two Worlds with a more popular, lightly fictionalized version, Ishi: Last of His Tribe - in creating a work which can really only be described as ethno-speculative-fiction.



Ursula K. Le Guin: Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand (1991)


Whether or not you agree with that reading, it's clear that all three of these writers, mother, father and daughter do have in common a deep kinship with the region they live in: the North-West Coast of the United States.

Perhaps her most potent expression of this feeling came in the book Searoad, an innovative book of linked short stories which combine to create the sense of a single place: Klatsand, a small town on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Given this unity of conception, I've classed it as a novel in my bibliography of her work below, but actually it would fit just as well in the list of books of short stories.

That's quite characteristic of Le Guin, actually. She defies simple classification into genres. Her potted biography on Amazon.com reads as follows:
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry, and four of translation.
Given that they go on to say: "Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia [2008], Words Are My Matter, an essay collection [2016], and Finding My Elegy, New and Selected Poems [2012]," one can't help wondering how up-to-date these statistics are actually meant to be.

Myself, I count 13 'adult' novels alongside 9 for YA readers, which I would say adds up to 22. Given the doubts I've already signalled about Searoad, however, as well as the fact that The Word for World is Forest (1977) and Very Far Away from Anywhere Else (1976) are really more novella than novel-length, albeit published as stand-alone volumes, one could certainly argue for any figure around the 20s.

11 volumes of short stories does sound correct to me (including, as it should, her 2001 book Tales from Earthsea). The four collections of essays is hopelessly out-of-date, however. I count at least seven major volumes of these - although one could easily expand that to 8 if one included the British collection Dreams Must Explain Themselves (or, for that matter, 9, with the addition of the posthumous volume of Conversations on Writing with David Naimon).

The 12 books for children have risen to 13, the 6 books of poetry to 12, but the 4 of translation still seems accurate. By my count, then, 72 books (ignoring - mind you - a number of the chapbooks listed on her Wikipedia bibliography page), plus at least 10 volumes of collected works, ranging from the various editions of the Earthsea series to the four-volume Library of America collection - now (in 2020) projected to grow to an eventual 8).

It's an impressive total. It's not so much how many there are as how many masterpieces there are among them, though. She really was one of a kind.



Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels & Stories (2017)






Dana Gluckstein: Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018)

Select Bibliography
(1966-2018)

    Novels:

  1. Rocannon's World. 1966. A Star Book. London: W. H. Allen & Co., Ltd. 1980.
  2. Planet of Exile / Thomas M. Disch. Mankind under the Leash. Ace Double. New York: Ace Books, Inc., 1966.
  3. City of Illusions. 1967. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1973.
  4. The Left Hand of Darkness. 1969. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1975.
  5. The Lathe of Heaven. 1971. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1974.
  6. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. 1974. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1975.
  7. The Word for World is Forest. 1977. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1980.
  8. Malafrena. 1979. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1981.
  9. Threshold. [As ‘The Beginning Place’, 1980]. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1982.
  10. Always Coming Home. Artist: Margaret Chodos. Composer: Todd Baron. Geomancer: George Hersh. 1985. London: Victor Gollancz, 1986.
  11. Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand. 1991. London: Victor Gollancz, 1992.
  12. The Telling. 2000. London: Gollancz, 2003.
  13. Lavinia. 2008. Mariner Books. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.

  14. Short Stories:

  15. The Wind's Twelve Quarters. 1975. 2 Vols. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1978.
  16. Orsinian Tales. 1976. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1978.
  17. Virginia Kidd, ed. The Eye of the Heron and Other Stories. By Ursula K. Le Guin et al. [As ‘Millennial Women’, 1978]. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1980.
  18. Le Guin, Ursula K. The Compass Rose: Short Stories. 1982. London: Victor Gollancz, 1983.
  19. Buffalo Gals, and Other Animal Presences. 1987. A Plume book. New York: New American Library, 1988.
  20. A Fisherman of the Inland Sea. 1994. London: Vista, 1997.
  21. Four Ways to Forgiveness. 1995. HarperPrism. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
  22. Unlocking the Air and Other Stories. 1996. HarperPerennial. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
  23. The Birthday of the World and Other Stories. 2002. London: Gollancz, 2003.
  24. Changing Planes: Stories. Illustrated by Eric Beddows. Orlando, Fl: Harcourt, Inc., 2003.

  25. YA Fiction:

  26. A Wizard of Earthsea. 1968. Drawings by Ruth Robbins. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
  27. The Tombs of Atuan. 1971. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
  28. The Farthest Shore. 1972. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
  29. A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else. [As ‘Very Far Away from Anywhere Else’, 1976]. Peacock Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
  30. Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea. London: Victor Gollancz, 1990.
  31. Tales from Earthsea. 2001. London: Orion Children’s Books, 2002.
  32. The Other Wind. 2001. London: Orion Children’s Books, 2002.
  33. Gifts. Annals of the Western Shore, 1. 2004. Orlando, Fl: Harcourt, Inc., 2006.
  34. Voices. Annals of the Western Shore, 2. 2006. Orion Children's Books. London: Orion Publishing Group Ltd., Inc., 2007.
  35. Powers. Annals of the Western Shore, 3. 2007. Orion Children's Books. London: Orion Publishing Group Ltd., Inc., 2008.

  36. Children's Books:

  37. Leese Webster. Illustrated by James Brunsman (1979)
  38. The Adventure of Cobbler's Rune. Illustrated by Alicia Austin (1982)
  39. Solomon Leviathan's Nine Hundred and Thirty-First Trip Around the World. Illustrated by Alicia Austin (1983)
  40. A Visit from Dr. Katz. Illustrated by Ann Barrow (1988)
  41. Fire and Stone. Illustrated by Laura Marshall (1988)
  42. Catwings. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (1988)
  43. Catwings Return. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (1989)
  44. Fish Soup. Illustrated by Patrick Wynne (1992)
  45. A Ride on the Red Mare's Back. Illustrated by Julie Downing (1992)
  46. Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (1994)
  47. Jane On Her Own. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (1999)
  48. Tom Mouse. Illustrated by Julie Downing (2002)
  49. Cat Dreams. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler (2009)

  50. Non-fiction:

  51. From Elfland to Poughkeepsie (1973)
  52. The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction. Ed. Susan Wood. 1979. Rev ed. London: The Women’s Press, 1989.
  53. Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. London: Victor Gollancz, 1989.
  54. Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew. Portland, Oregon: The Eighth Mountain Press, 1998.
  55. The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2004.
  56. Cheek by Jowl: Talks & Essays on How & Why Fantasy Matters. Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2009.
  57. Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a Writer’s Week. Northampton, Mass: Small Beer Press, 2016.
  58. No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters (2017)
  59. Dreams Must Explain Themselves and Other Essays: 1972–2004 (2018)
  60. Conversations on Writing: Ursula K. Le Guin with David Naimon (2018)

  61. Poetry:

  62. Wild Angels. 1975. In The Capra Chapbook Anthology. Ed. Noel Young. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1979.
  63. Hard Words and Other Poems (1981)
  64. Wild Oats and Fireweed: New Poems (1988)
  65. Going out with Peacocks and Other Poems (1994)
  66. [with Diana Bellessi] The Twins, The Dream: Two Voices / Las Gemelas, El Sueño: Dos Voces (1997)
  67. Sixty Odd (1999)
  68. Incredible Good Fortune (2006)
  69. Four Different Poems (2007)
  70. Out Here: Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country. Photographs by Roger Dorband (2010)
  71. Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems (2012)
  72. Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014 (2015)
  73. So Far So Good: Final Poems 2014-2018 (2018)

  74. Translation:

  75. Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. A Book about the Way & the Power of the Way. Translated with J. P. Seaton. 1997. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1998.
  76. Gabriela Mistral. Selected Poems (2003)
  77. Angelica Gorodischer. Kalpa Imperial (2003)
  78. Gheorghe Săsărman. Squaring the Circle: A Pseudotreatise of Urbogony. Translated with Mariano Martín Rodríguez (2013)

  79. Collected Editions:

  80. The Earthsea Trilogy: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1979. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
  81. The Earthsea Quartet: A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore: Tehanu. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1990. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993.
  82. Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions. 1964, 1966, 1967. An Orb Book. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1995.
  83. The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume 1: Where on Earth. 2012. Gollancz. London: Orion Publishing Group, 2014.
  84. The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume 2: Outer Space, Inner Lands. 2012. Gollancz. London: Orion Publishing Group, 2015.
  85. The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas. Saga Press. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2016.
  86. The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition – A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore: Tehanu; Tales of Earthsea; The Other Wind. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1990, 2001, 2001. Illustrated by Charles Vess. Saga Press. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2018.
  87. The Complete Orsinia: Malafrena; Stories and Songs. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 1. The Library of America, 281. 1979, 1976. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2016.
  88. The Hainish Novels & Stories, vol. 1: Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions; The Left Hand of Darkness; The Dispossessed; Stories. 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1974. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 2. The Library of America, 296. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2017.
  89. The Hainish Novels & Stories, vol. 2: The Word for World is Forest; Five Ways to Forgiveness; The Telling; Stories. 1977, 1995, 2000. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 3. The Library of America, 297. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2017.
  90. Always Coming Home: Author’s Expanded Edition. 1985. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 4. The Library of America, 315. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2019.
  91. Annals of the Western Shore: Gifts; Voices; Powers . 2004, 2006, 2007. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 5. The Library of America, 335. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2020.



Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Penguin Modern Poets 50 Years On



If you want a quick overview of twentieth century poetry, you could do worse than run your eye over the list below of Penguin Modern European Poets - as well as their English-language counterparts, the Penguin Modern Poets. I wrote a post earlier this year about the Penguin Poets in Translation series, which I've also been collecting for many years, but these two multi-volume sets are every bit as interesting, I think.



The twenty-eight volumes of Penguin Modern Poets include 81 writers - a bit like our three volumes of New Zealand Poets in Performance which contain, in all, recordings of 82 poets. They range from thirties survivors such as Lawrence Durrell and Stephen Spender to the poets of the 'Mersey Sound' (Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, and Brian Patten), who far outsold anyone else in the series - though volume 5, starring the American Beat poets Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg, was also a monster bestseller.



According to wikipedia, it was followed by a second series of 13 new "Penguin Modern Poets" in the 1990s, and yet another series had its debut in 2016, and has now reached its seventh volume. These are no doubt equally worthy - in the abstract, at any rate - but they somehow lack the excitement of that original set of black-backed books.

You'll note I say '28' rather than '27' volumes. This is because of the 1983 sequel to the original Mersey Sound book, no. 10 in the series ("which, with sales of over 500,000, has become one of the best-selling poetry anthologies ever").



I liked the books, and collected them assiduously. My real enthusiasm, however, was roused by some of the volumes in the Penguin Modern European Poets series. Clarence Brown and W. S. Merwin's wonderful versions of Mandelstam were particularly revelatory, but so were the Celan selections of Michael Hamburger and Christopher Middleton.

The sheer extent and chutzpah of the series was almost breathtaking. It seemed to aspire to modernise the whole of English-language poetry by showing us what we'd been missing all these years. I don't know how far they got with their spin-off series of Penguin Latin American poets - the only one of those I've ever been able to find is their translation of the Peruvian poet César Vallejo:


Vallejo, César. Selected Poems. Trans. Ed Dorn & Gordon Brotherston. Introduction by Gordon Brotherston. Penguin Latin American Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.

They also published versions of Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz, but those were in the 'Penguin Poets' series rather than a specific Latin American offshoot.

These wonderful books gave me my first exposure to poets such as Fernando Pessoa, Marina Tsvetayeva, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Vladimir Holan. I may have cheated a little in the lists below by including a few volumes which were actually labelled "Penguin Poets" among the "Penguin Modern European Poets", so-called, but given, in that case, that I would have to have left Pablo Neruda, Boris Pasternak and Octavio Paz to one side, I'm pretty unapologetic about it. They are, in each case, clearly the same kind of book as all the others.

The first in the series seems to have been Jacques Prévert in 1958. It didn't really get going again until Apollinaire appeared in 1965. After that, though, they came thick and fast until the multi-authored Renga in 1979. I count 37 in the series proper (leaving out the three 'penguin poets' volumes mentioned above). I'd love to know if there are others I've missed. If so, they don't seem to have left much of a trace online.

The one listing I have come across, on the World Literature Forum, includes only 26 volumes to my 37. This, moreover, includes the West Indian poet Aimé Césaire, who (so far as I can see) actually falls under the cognate category of "Penguin Poets."
Césaire, Aimé. Return to My Native Land. 1956. Trans. John Berger & Anna Bostock. Introduction by Mazisi Kunene. Penguin Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.
Whatever one counts in or out of the series, it was clearly a magnificent effort, inspired to a great extent by the cosmopolitan interests of Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort, who co-founded the magazine Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) in 1965. Al Alvarez, long-time editor of the series - and author of Under Pressure - The Writer in Society: Eastern Europe and the U.S.A. (1965) - also contributed a great deal.

Between them, they succeeded (for a time, at least) in waking up the in-bred, monoglot English poetry scene to the existence of an outside world of dazzling linguistic inventfulness and engaged poetics. They certainly needed it then - but no more (I suspect) than we need it again now.



Guillevic (1974)






Penguin Modern Poets 1 (1962)

Penguin Modern Poets
(1962-1983)


  1. Penguin Modern Poets 1: Lawrence Durrell / Elizabeth Jennings / R. S. Thomas. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1962.

  2. Penguin Modern Poets 2: Kingsley Amis / Dom Moraes / Peter Porter. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1962.

  3. Penguin Modern Poets 3: George Barker / Martin Bell / Charles Causley. 1962. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966.

  4. Penguin Modern Poets 4: David Holbrook / Christopher Middleton / David Wevill. 1963. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  5. Penguin Modern Poets 5: Gregory Corso / Lawrence Ferlinghetti / Allen Ginsberg. 1963. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  6. Penguin Modern Poets 6: Jack Clemo / Edward Lucie-Smith / George MacBeth. 1964. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  7. Penguin Modern Poets 7: Richard Murphy / Jon Silkin / Nathaniel Tarn. 1965. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  8. Penguin Modern Poets 8: Edwin Brock / Geoffrey Hill / Stevie Smith. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966.

  9. Penguin Modern Poets 9: Denise Levertov / Kenneth Rexroth / William Carlos Williams. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967.

  10. Penguin Modern Poets 10: The Mersey Sound – Adrian Henri / Roger McGough / Brian Patten. 1967. Revised and Enlarged edition. 1974. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.

  11. The Penguin Poets: New Volume – Adrian Henri / Roger McGough / Brian Patten. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.

  12. Penguin Modern Poets 11: D. M. Black / Peter Redgrove / D. M. Thomas. 1968. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  13. Penguin Modern Poets 12: Alan Jackson / Jeff Nuttall / William Wanting. 1968. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  14. Penguin Modern Poets 13: Charles Bukowski / Philip Lamantia / Harold Norse. 1969. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  15. Penguin Modern Poets 14: Alan Bronwjohn / Michael Hamburger / Charles Tomlinson. 1969. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  16. Penguin Modern Poets 15: Alan Bold / Edward Brathwaite / Edwin Morgan. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  17. Penguin Modern Poets 16: Jack Beeching / Harry Guest / Matthew Mead. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  18. Penguin Modern Poets 17: David Gascoyne / W. S. Graham / Kathleen Raine. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  19. Penguin Modern Poets 18: A. Alvarez / Roy Fuller / Anthony Thwaite. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  20. Penguin Modern Poets 19: John Ashbery / Lee Harwood / Tom Raworth. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  21. Penguin Modern Poets 20: John Heath-Stubbs / F. T. Prince / Stephen Spender. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.

  22. Penguin Modern Poets 21: Iain Crichton Smith / Norman MacCaig / George Mackay Brown. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.

  23. Penguin Modern Poets 22: John Fuller / Peter Levi / Adrian Mitchell. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.

  24. Penguin Modern Poets 23: Geoffrey Grigson / Edwin Muir / Adrian Stokes. Guest Ed. Stephen Spender. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.

  25. Penguin Modern Poets 24: Kenward Elmslie / Kenneth Koch / James Schuyler. Guest Ed. John Ashbery. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  26. Penguin Modern Poets 25: Gavin Ewart / Zulfikar Ghose / B. S. Johnson. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.

  27. Penguin Modern Poets 26: Dannie Abse, D.J. Enright, Michael Longley. Guest Ed. Anthony Thwaite. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.

  28. Penguin Modern Poets 27: John Ormond / Emyr Humphreys / John Tripp. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.








Anna Akhmatova (1969)

Penguin Modern European Poets
(c.1958-1984)


[Alphabetical]:
  1. Akhmatova, Anna. Selected Poems. Trans. Richard McKane. Essay by Andrei Sinyavsky. 1969. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  2. Amichai, Yehuda. Selected Poems. Trans. Assia Gutmann & Harold Schimmel, with Ted Hughes. Introduction by Michael Hamburger. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  3. Apollinaire, Guillaume. Selected Poems. Trans. Oliver Bernard. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.

  4. Blok, Alexander. Selected Poems. Trans. Jon Stallworthy & Peter France. 1970. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  5. Bobrowski, Johannes, & Horst Bienek. Selected Poems. Trans. Ruth & Matthew Mead. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  6. Brodsky, Joseph. Selected Poems. Trans. George L. Kline. Foreword by W. H. Auden. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.

  7. Carmi, T. & Dan Pagis. Selected Poems. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. Introduction by M. L. Rosentha. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.

  8. Celan, Paul. Selected Poems. Trans. Michael Hamburger & Christopher Middleton. 1962 & 1967. Introduction by Michael Hamburger. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.

  9. Cendrars, Blaise. Selected Poems. Trans. Peter Hoida. Introduction by Mary Ann Caws. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.

  10. Three Czech Poets: Vitezslau Nezval / Antonin Bartusek / Josef Hanzlik. Selected Poems. Trans. Ewald Osers & George Theiner. Introduction by Graham Martin. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  11. Ekelöf, Gunnar. Selected Poems. Trans. W. H. Auden & Leif Sjöberg. Introduction by Göran Printz-Pahlson. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  12. Enzensburger, Hans Magnus. Poems. Trans. Michael Hamburger & Jerome Rothenberg, with the author. Introduction by Michael Hamburger. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.

  13. Grass, Günter. Poems. Trans. Michael Hamburger & Christopher Middleton. 1966 & 1968. Introduction by Michael Hamburger. Penguin Modern European Poets. 1969. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  14. Four Greek Poets: C. P. Cavafy / Odysseus Elytis / Nikos Gatsos / George Seferis. Selected Poems. Trans. Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard. Penguin Modern European Poets. 1966. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  15. Guillevic. Selected Poems. Trans. Teo Savory. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  16. Haavikko, Paavo, & Tomas Tranströmer. Selected Poems. Trans. Anselm Hollo, & Robin Fulton. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  17. Herbert, Zbigniew. Selected Poems. Trans. Czeslaw Milosz & Peter Dale Scott. Introduction by A. Alvarez. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.

  18. Holan, Vladimir. Selected Poems. Trans. Jarmila & Ian Milner. Introduction by Ian Milner. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  19. Holub, Miroslav. Selected Poems. Trans. Ian Milner & George Theiner. Introduction by A. Alvarez. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. 1967. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  20. Jiménez, Juan Ramón, & Antonio Machado. Selected Poems. Trans. J. B. Trend & J. L. Gili, Charles Tomlinson & Henry Gifford. Introductions by J. B. Trend & Henry Gifford. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  21. Kovner, Abba, & Nelly Sachs. Selected Poems. Trans. Shirley Kaufman & Nurit Orchan, Michael Hamburger, Ruth & Matthew Mead & Michael Roloff. Introduction by Stephen Spender. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  22. Mandelstam, Osip. Selected Poems. Trans. Clarence Brown & W. S. Merwin. Introduction by Clarence Brown. 1973. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.

  23. Montale, Eugenio. Selected Poems. Trans. George Kay. 1964. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  24. Neruda, Pablo. Selected Poems: A Bi-lingual Edition. Ed. Nathaniel Tarn. Trans. Anthony Kerrigan, W. S. Merwin, Alastair Reid, & Nathaniel Tarn. 1970. Introduction by Jean Franco. Penguin Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.

  25. Three Painter Poets: Jean (Hans) Arp / Kurt Schwitters / Paul Klee. Selected Poems. Trans. Harriett Watts. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  26. Pasternak, Boris. Selected Poems. Trans. Jon Stallworthy & Peter France. 1983. The Penguin Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.

  27. Pavese, Cesare. Selected Poems. Trans. Margaret Crosland. 1969. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  28. Paz, Octavio. Selected Poems: A Bilingual Edition. Ed. Charles Tomlinson. The Penguin Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.

  29. Paz, Octavio, Jacques Roubaud, Edoardo Sanguineti, & Charles Tomlinson. Renga: A Chain of Poems. Foreword by Claude Roy. Introduction by Octavio Paz. 1971. Ed. & trans. Charles Tomlinson. 1972. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.

  30. Pessoa, Fernando. Selected Poems. Trans. Jonathan Griffin. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  31. Popa, Vasko. Selected Poems. Trans. Anne Pennington. Introduction by Ted Hughes. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  32. Prévert, Jacques. Selections from Paroles. Trans. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Penguin Modern European Poets. 1958. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.

  33. Quasimodo, Salvatore. Selected Poems. Trans. Jack Bevan. 1965. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  34. Rilke, Rainer Maria. Selected Poems. Trans. J. B. Leishman. 1964. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.

  35. Ritsos, Yannis. Selected Poems. Trans. Nikos Stangos. Introduction by Peter Bien. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  36. Rozewicz, Tadeusz. Selected Poems. Trans. Adam Czerniawski. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.

  37. Tsvetayeva, Marina. Selected Poems. Trans. Elaine Feinstein. Foreword by Max Hayward. 1971. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  38. Ungaretti, Giuseppe. Selected Poems. Trans. Patrick Creagh. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  39. Weöres, Sándor, & Ferenc Juhász. Selected Poems. Trans. Edwin Morgan, & David Wevill. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  40. Yevtushenko, Yevgeny. Selected Poems. Trans. Robin Milner-Gulland & Peter Levi, S.J. 1962. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.






Three Czech Poets (1971)


[By Nationality]:
    Czech:

  1. Three Czech Poets: Vitezslau Nezval / Antonin Bartusek / Josef Hanzlik. Selected Poems. Trans. Ewald Osers & George Theiner. Introduction by Graham Martin. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  2. Holan, Vladimir. Selected Poems. Trans. Jarmila & Ian Milner. Introduction by Ian Milner. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  3. Holub, Miroslav. Selected Poems. Trans. Ian Milner & George Theiner. Introduction by A. Alvarez. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. 1967. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  4. French:

  5. Apollinaire, Guillaume. Selected Poems. Trans. Oliver Bernard. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.

  6. Cendrars, Blaise. Selected Poems. Trans. Peter Hoida. Introduction by Mary Ann Caws. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.

  7. Guillevic. Selected Poems. Trans. Teo Savory. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  8. Prévert, Jacques. Selections from Paroles. Trans. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Penguin Modern European Poets. 1958. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.

  9. German:

  10. Three Painter Poets: Jean (Hans) Arp / Kurt Schwitters / Paul Klee. Selected Poems. Trans. Harriett Watts. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  11. Bobrowski, Johannes, & Horst Bienek. Selected Poems. Trans. Ruth & Matthew Mead. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  12. Celan, Paul. Selected Poems. Trans. Michael Hamburger & Christopher Middleton. 1962 & 1967. Introduction by Michael Hamburger. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.

  13. Enzensburger, Hans Magnus. Poems. Trans. Michael Hamburger & Jerome Rothenberg, with the author. Introduction by Michael Hamburger. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.

  14. Grass, Günter. Poems. Trans. Michael Hamburger & Christopher Middleton. 1966 & 1968. Introduction by Michael Hamburger. Penguin Modern European Poets. 1969. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  15. Rilke, Rainer Maria. Selected Poems. Trans. J. B. Leishman. 1964. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.

  16. Greek:

  17. Four Greek Poets: C. P. Cavafy / Odysseus Elytis / Nikos Gatsos / George Seferis. Selected Poems. Trans. Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard. Penguin Modern European Poets. 1966. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  18. Ritsos, Yannis. Selected Poems. Trans. Nikos Stangos. Introduction by Peter Bien. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  19. Hungarian:

  20. Weöres, Sándor, & Ferenc Juhász. Selected Poems. Trans. Edwin Morgan, & David Wevill. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  21. Israeli / Jewish:

  22. Amichai, Yehuda. Selected Poems. Trans. Assia Gutmann & Harold Schimmel, with Ted Hughes. Introduction by Michael Hamburger. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  23. Carmi, T. & Dan Pagis. Selected Poems. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. Introduction by M. L. Rosentha. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.

  24. Kovner, Abba, & Nelly Sachs. Selected Poems. Trans. Shirley Kaufman & Nurit Orchan, Michael Hamburger, Ruth & Matthew Mead & Michael Roloff. Introduction by Stephen Spender. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  25. Italian:

  26. Montale, Eugenio. Selected Poems. Trans. George Kay. 1964. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  27. Pavese, Cesare. Selected Poems. Trans. Margaret Crosland. 1969. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  28. Quasimodo, Salvatore. Selected Poems. Trans. Jack Bevan. 1965. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

  29. Ungaretti, Giuseppe. Selected Poems. Trans. Patrick Creagh. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  30. Polish:

  31. Herbert, Zbigniew. Selected Poems. Trans. Czeslaw Milosz & Peter Dale Scott. Introduction by A. Alvarez. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.

  32. Rozewicz, Tadeusz. Selected Poems. Trans. Adam Czerniawski. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.

  33. Portuguese:

  34. Pessoa, Fernando. Selected Poems. Trans. Jonathan Griffin. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  35. Romanian:

  36. Popa, Vasko. Selected Poems. Trans. Anne Pennington. Introduction by Ted Hughes. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  37. Russsian:

  38. Akhmatova, Anna. Selected Poems. Trans. Richard McKane. Essay by Andrei Sinyavsky. 1969. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

  39. Blok, Alexander. Selected Poems. Trans. Jon Stallworthy & Peter France. 1970. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  40. Brodsky, Joseph. Selected Poems. Trans. George L. Kline. Foreword by W. H. Auden. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.

  41. Mandelstam, Osip. Selected Poems. Trans. Clarence Brown & W. S. Merwin. Introduction by Clarence Brown. 1973. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.

  42. Pasternak, Boris. Selected Poems. Trans. Jon Stallworthy & Peter France. 1983. The Penguin Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.

  43. Tsvetayeva, Marina. Selected Poems. Trans. Elaine Feinstein. Foreword by Max Hayward. 1971. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  44. Yevtushenko, Yevgeny. Selected Poems. Trans. Robin Milner-Gulland & Peter Levi, S.J. 1962. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.

  45. Scandinavian:

  46. Ekelöf, Gunnar. Selected Poems. Trans. W. H. Auden & Leif Sjöberg. Introduction by Göran Printz-Pahlson. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.

  47. Haavikko, Paavo, & Tomas Tranströmer. Selected Poems. Trans. Anselm Hollo, & Robin Fulton. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  48. Spanish:

  49. Jiménez, Juan Ramón, & Antonio Machado. Selected Poems. Trans. J. B. Trend & J. L. Gili, Charles Tomlinson & Henry Gifford. Introductions by J. B. Trend & Henry Gifford. Penguin Modern European Poets. Ed. A. Alvarez. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.

  50. Neruda, Pablo. Selected Poems: A Bi-lingual Edition. Ed. Nathaniel Tarn. Trans. Anthony Kerrigan, W. S. Merwin, Alastair Reid, & Nathaniel Tarn. 1970. Introduction by Jean Franco. Penguin Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.

  51. Paz, Octavio. Selected Poems: A Bilingual Edition. Ed. Charles Tomlinson. The Penguin Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.

  52. Paz, Octavio, Jacques Roubaud, Edoardo Sanguineti, & Charles Tomlinson. Renga: A Chain of Poems. Foreword by Claude Roy. Introduction by Octavio Paz. 1971. Ed. & trans. Charles Tomlinson. 1972. Penguin Modern European Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.



Renga (1979)