Maximum security ward and other poems

by Ramon Guthrie

NY 1984 1st (stated) Persea Press. Edited by Sally M. Gall. Octavo, 213pp., index, hardcover. Fine in Near Fine DJ.

Genres: Poetry

213 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Ramon Guthrie (January 14, 1896 – November 22, 1973) was a poet, novelist, essayist, critic, painter and professor of French and comparative literature. He published five collections of poetry, and two novels, translated three volumes of French nonfiction, edited two standard anthologies of French literature and published numerous reviews, essays and individual poems.

Reviews

[Wendell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Ramon Guthrie's masterpiece,Maximum Security Ward, yearly since its publication in 1972 and I am always surprised by its revelations. I think it has been neglected and should become to 20th century American poetry what Moby Dick eventually became to our 19th century fiction. This opinion, of a former student of Guthrie's. was also that of the prominent 20th century critic, Malcolm Cowley, who had this to say about Guthrie's triumph in his memoirthe View from 80:

Among the talented writers I have known, the most curiously neglected is the poet and scholar Ramon Guthrie. He started out with the famous writers of the World War I generation, Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and others, some of whom were his good friends. His best writing was on a level with theirs, if never so widely known. Indeed, he produced some admirable and lasting work during a career that was full of adventures, public rewards of a limited sort, and private frustrations. At the end he achieved a triumph, but only by force of will and only after the doctors had given up hope for him.

This edition has an excellent selection of Guthrie's late lyrics and well as the complete text of MSW.