George Oppen's New Collected Poems gathers in one volume all of the
poet's books published in his lifetime (1908-84), as well as his
previously uncollected poems and a selection of his unpublished work.
Oppen, whose writing was championed by Ezra Pound when it was first
published by The Objectivist Press in the 1930s, has become one of
America's most admired poets. In 1969 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his
collection Of Being Numerous, which The New Yorker recently said is
"unmatched by any book of American poetry since." The New Collected
Poems is edited by Michael Davidson of the University of California at
San Diego, who also writes an introduction about the poet's life and
work and supplies generous notes that will give interested readers an
understanding of the background of the individual books as well as keys
to references in the poems. The award-winning essayist and translator
Eliot Weinberger offers a personal remembrance of the poet in his
preface, "Oppen Then." This newly revised paperback edition also
includes a generous CD of the poet reading from each of his poetry
collections.