Lorine Neidecker: Woman & Poet

by Jenny Penberthy

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. Lorine Niedecker lived most of her life (1903-1970) on Blackhawk Island, Wisconsin. Her poetry was formed by her early encounter with Surrealism and the Objectivist issue ofPoetry magazine. In the mid-1960s she recalled for Kenneth Cox that "there was an influence fromtransition and from surrealistes that has always seemed to want to ride right along with the direct, hard, objective kind of writing. The subconscious and the presence of the folk, always there."

LORINE WOMAN AND POET addresses the ambition of Niedecker's poetry and poetics. The volume includes letters, memoirs, and essays, covering all four decades of her writing career. Among the letters, those Niedecker wrote to Mary Hoard and Harriet Monroe define her early poetics. Memoirs by Jerry Reisman, Edwin Honig, and Vivien Hone extend our understanding of her life in the 1930s and 1940s. Essays by Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Marjorie Perloff, Peter Nicholls, Peter Quartermain, Michael Heller, Kenneth Cox, Douglas Crase, Donald Davie, Lisa Pater Faranda, Gilbert Sorrentino, and others, provide authoritative readings of Niedecker's work.

439 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

NPF's "(Gendered) Person and Poet" series is consistently outstanding. Focusing primarily on poets working in the "Poundian vein" of American poetics, these books provide relevant biographical background and foundational, sometimes first-generation criticism. This volume is no exception and contains important essays by Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Peter Nicholls, among others.