AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS) TO RONALD DUNCAN REGARDING THE IMPENDING PUBLICATION OF HIS FIRST BOOK
New York: 8 April 1946. Letter. Exceptional two-page Autograph Letter of @435 words on two separate sheets completely in the hand of and SIGNED by Charles Olson to poet, editor, and librettist Ronald Duncan, a literary acquaintance of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. In part: "I have had [T.S.] Eliot's regrets on 'our' mss, as you are gracious to call it. His letter crossed me from [Ezra] Pound urging him to publish. Eliot said he thought it ought to be published, but in America first. It looks now as though it will be. Reynal & Hitchcock plan to take it, with changes, and expansions in the second half.... The fact is England has always been more hospitable to Melville, from his own books on.... It would be luck if Eliot would consider.... Pound said: Duncan will help. Will you please--and take my thanks? I am asking Eliot, if the new plan doesn't take, to let you have the mss. Do with it what you think best. It may well be that Eliot's doubts of an English audience may obtain for others as well. I should like to think not. But you are boss. I don't think when I wrote you last, I had read the Pisan Cantos. They are beautiful, and Pound last summer, after the torture of the 'Gorilla Cage,' had more power over his line than ever. He is fretting at Laughlin for not getting his Confucius out and not pushing the Cantos more, but he is generally in better spirits, has now the privilege of games[?] in the prison yard, and reads with ease." SIGNED "Charles Olson." Magnificent content. Normal creases from folding. Near Fine and a superb letter. Item #011607
Price: $5,000.00