The first complete collection of the poetry of Delmore Schwartz, "the
most underrated poet of the twentieth century" (John Berryman).
When Delmore Schwartz published his first short story, "In Dreams Begin
Responsibilities," in Partisan Review in 1937, he became an instant
literary celebrity. After the appearance of his first book (by the same
name), he was inundated with praise. The famed poet Allen Tate wrote to
him, "Your poetic style is beyond any doubt the first real innovation
that we've had since Eliot and Pound," and T. S. Eliot himself wrote
Schwartz a letter asking him to compose more poetry. The brilliant start
of his career is matched perhaps only by its tragic end, a lonely death
after an extended period of alcoholism, depression, and derangement.
Today, more than fifty years after his death in 1966, Schwartz is often
remembered for the tragedy of his life rather than for the innovation
and sad brilliance of his greatest work.
This book brings together all of Schwartz's poetry for the very first
time, from his groundbreaking debut collection to his unpublished late
work, which he kept writing until his death. Accompanied by Ben Mazer's
illustrative notes and introduction, The Collected Poems of Delmore
Schwartz offers readers the long-awaited opportunity to rediscover one
of the most influential and original poets of the twentieth century. As
Mazer writes in his introduction, "It is the poems that count now. And
it is the glory of the poems that survives here, awaiting new life."