Flag of Ecstasy: Selected Poems

by Charles Henri Ford

Flag of ecstasy; selected Charles Henri Flag of ecstasy; selected Black Sparrow FIRST First Edition, First Printing. Published by Black Sparrow Press, 1972. Octavo. Paperback. Book is very good with price written on front cover. Great copy of this compelling collection of poetry. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 350175 Poetry We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!

Genres: Poetry

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1972

About the author

Charles Henri Ford was an American poet, novelist, filmmaker, photographer, and collage artist best known for his editorship of the Surrealist magazine View (1940-1947) in New York City, and as the partner of the artist Pavel Tchelitchew. His very informative obituary of record is here.

"The simplest summation of Mr. Ford's life and work may be that he did exactly what he wanted, and seemingly knew everyone."

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Henri Ford is the uber-cool poet of the late 40's. Southern born I believe, but NYC bound and lived - he worked on the important and the essential VIEW publication - that basically was the outlet for the Surrealists who were in NYC due to the war in Europe. He was also really young at this time. I think a teenager! They don't make teenagers like that anymore. Black Sparrow Press put this book out, and it maybe the only collection of his work in one edition. He's important figure in the arts and was active to the 70's (and maybe beyond?) Good friends with Parker Tyler.

[Kitap Yakıcı · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked Flag of Ectasy out from the University library because of a passing reference on the RAWIllumination blog on a post (citing yet another blog post) involving "those" books,

the ones that have melded into your DNA somehow, they've had an almost demonic power over you at times; it seems that, though some of them may be less than 250 pages, their contents are, for you, inexhaustible.

According to the keeper of RAWIllumination, one of those books for him is

Flag of Ecstasy by Charles Henri Ford (a collection of the best material from about a couple of decades from an American surrealist poet I discovered years ago while reading an anthology of surrealist poetry.)

I admit up front that I am not that familiar with poetry, apart from the drivel I wrote whilst in college, but that I am constantly encouraged by good friends to dive deeper into this art form. So for me Flag of Ecstasy was a real challenge. I discovered plowing through this volume that Ford's longer work bored me, while many of his shorter poems were vivid and immediate in their impact. (I copied many of these in the hopes of committing them to memory, as one should with good poetry, or so I have been told.)

While I don't think these poems will haunt me with demonic power, I see where the blogger was coming from. This volume is definitely worth revisiting.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the introduction of this collection of Ford's poems, an Edward B. Germain makes a grand pronouncement: "when he began publishing in 1929, Ford was unique: America's surrealist poet. In retrospect, he is seminal." And yet he doesn't seem to have much a reputation these days (though, really, none of the American surrealists--with the possible exception of Joseph Cornell--managed to establish legacies on the level of their European counterparts), which is a shame, because he can be striking poet. Beginning as a self-made and self-conscious prodigy of sorts--he founded an important literary magazine after dropping out of high school--and a member of the European ex-pat community in the 30's and 40's, this collection spans Ford's entire body of poetry up to the early 1970's. It's a bit uneven (several late long poems dedicated to Edith Sitwell in particular are ponderous bores), and Ford works with rhyming much more than most of his contemporaries, but each poem holds at least a dazzling turn of phrase or two. At the very least. It's a shame more of his work isn't more widely available.

"What kind of poem would I like to write?
One in which the images are new
and yet fill one with pleasure, like a face
that's strange but which we recognize with joy
mixed with nostalgia."

-from "Sonnet (for Pavlik's exhibition, Rome 1950)"

[John Ervin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Henri Ford born in Brookhaven, Mississippi (1913), later moved to hazelhurst after the civil-war. was Good friends with Albert camus, Jean Coctaeu, Andre Breton<> and other surrealists from France and around the world. He moved from Mississippi to France.