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The Boundry
Limited to 200 copies, this early Edson collection was designed and published by the author.
16 pages, Pamphlet
First published January 1, 1964
6 people want to read
About the author
Russell Edson
49 books113 followersRussell Edson (December 12, 1928 – April 29, 2014) was an American poet, novelist, writer, and illustrator. He was the son of the cartoonist-screenwriter Gus Edson.
He studied art early in life and attended the Art Students League as a teenager. He began publishing poetry in the 1960s. His honors as a poet include a Guggenheim fellowship, a Whiting Award, and several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Russell Edson was born in Connecticut in 1935 and lived there with his wife Frances. Edson, who jokingly has called himself "Little Mr. Prose Poem," is inarguably the foremost writer of prose poetry in America, having written exclusively in that form before it became fashionable. In a forthcoming study of the American prose poem, Michel Delville suggests that one of Edson's typical "recipes" for his prose poems involves a modern everyman who suddenly tumbles into an alternative reality in which he loses control over himself, sometimes to the point of being irremediably absorbed--both figuratively and literally--by his immediate and, most often, domestic everyday environment. . . . Constantly fusing and confusing the banal and the bizarre, Edson delights in having a seemingly innocuous situation undergo the most unlikely and uncanny metamorphoses. . . .
Reclusive by nature, Edson has still managed to publish eleven books of prose poems and one novel, The Song of Percival Peacock (available from Coffee House Press).
He studied art early in life and attended the Art Students League as a teenager. He began publishing poetry in the 1960s. His honors as a poet include a Guggenheim fellowship, a Whiting Award, and several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Russell Edson was born in Connecticut in 1935 and lived there with his wife Frances. Edson, who jokingly has called himself "Little Mr. Prose Poem," is inarguably the foremost writer of prose poetry in America, having written exclusively in that form before it became fashionable. In a forthcoming study of the American prose poem, Michel Delville suggests that one of Edson's typical "recipes" for his prose poems involves a modern everyman who suddenly tumbles into an alternative reality in which he loses control over himself, sometimes to the point of being irremediably absorbed--both figuratively and literally--by his immediate and, most often, domestic everyday environment. . . . Constantly fusing and confusing the banal and the bizarre, Edson delights in having a seemingly innocuous situation undergo the most unlikely and uncanny metamorphoses. . . .
Reclusive by nature, Edson has still managed to publish eleven books of prose poems and one novel, The Song of Percival Peacock (available from Coffee House Press).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 29, 2018
Is this Russell Edson's commentary on FOX news? It certainly appears that's the case.
THE DUMMIES
A contortionist had twisted himself in such a way as to be suddenly sitting on his own knee.
His wife said: What's that on your knee?
Embarrassed, the twisted contortionist said, It my dummy.
Why is it sitting on your knee?
I'm making it talk.
And what is it saying? she said.
It's saying what I give it to say.
But why do you need a dummy, when anything it says you're saying anyway? she said.
Because I'm a ventriloquist.
But every time the dummy speaks you both move your lips. So who can tell which dummy is the dummy who's making the other dummy speak?
June 6, 2012
His 3rd chapbook (and last self-published book before working with New Directions), Edson's Boundry feels more moody and muddy when compared to his other early work. Some of his great woodcuts alongside each poem. I'm lucky to have one of the 200 printed.
April 11, 2020
Not all of the texts included in The Boundry are top-level, but some of them certainly justify the whole work; namely "The Toy Maker", "Sunset" or "A Goodbye to Goodbye". In these three in particular, as well as in some parts of others, I feel that Edson sublimates his style. When he uses his usual themes and creative techniques (nonsense, the macabre, the twisting of standard reality) with a further somehow philosophical sense, he is actually writing masterpieces. Besides, this book is a work of handcraft in itself, a little treasure.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews