Spearhead: 10 Years' Experimental Writing in America

by James Laughlin (Editor/Contributor), Robert Lowry (Contributor), Muriel Rukeyser (Contributor)

The best of the first ten years of the annual New Directions in Prose & Poetry—American authors only, mostly experimental and avant-garde writings.

The toy balloon / Robert Lowry --
Five poems / Muriel Rukeyser --
The labyrinth / Anais Nin --
Two poems / Oscar Williams --
Aunt Julia's Caesar / Maud Hutchins --
At the foot of the page / Lionel Abel --
The phoenix & the tortoise / Kenneth Rexroth --
The Mohammedans / H.J. Kaplan --
Xmas gift / Charles Henri Ford --
The facts of life ; A ceremonial ; The commodity embodied in bread / Paul Goodman --
The Greenberg manuscripts / Samuel Greenberg --
The Prairie Avenue piano recital ; The unmusical consequences of the Italian orgeltochter / Montagu O'Reilly --
Four poems / Marianne Moore --
The inhabitants / Wright Morris --
Azeff Wischmeier, the Bolshevik bureaucrat / Georg Mann --
Five poems / Randall Jarrell --
The cosmodemonic rigolade / Henry Miller --
Ten poems / Jose Garcia Villa --
The mugging / Jack Jones --
27 wagons full of cotton / Tennessee Williams --
A dead one / David Kerner --
Five poems / John Wheelwright --
The pool game / William Saroyan --
Six poems ; The House of the Frowning Heart / Kenneth Patchen --
Flight / Selden Rodman --
Hurry, hurry! / Eleanor Clark --
Three poems / Kay Boyle --
Statement of Ashby Wyndham / Robert Penn Warren --
Seven poems / E.E. Cummings --
The imaginary Jew / John Berryman --
Four cantos / Ezra Pound --
Daniel Webster ; A water-fall and a piano / Gertrude Stein --
Watchman, what of the night? / Djuna Barnes --
A selection from Let us now praise famous men / James Agee & Walker Evans --
From Paterson ; Ten little poems ; Night ; Perpetuum mobile, the city / William Carlos Williams --
Seven poems / Josephine Miles --
Every man his own private detective ; Freud of Assisi / Parker Tyler --
Twelve poems / James Laughlin --
Vertigralist pamphlet / Eugene Jolas --
Four poems / Karl Shapiro --
In dreams begin responsibilities ; A selection from Genesis ; Two lyrics / Delmore Schwartz.

Genres: Poetry

604 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

James Laughlin was an American poet and literary book publisher who founded New Directions Publishing.

One of Laughlin's most anthologized works is "Step on His Head", a poem about his relationship with his children.

Reviews

[Rand]

A sound investment for readers of early 20th century American experimental and modernist literature and/or Buried authors.

There's some good stuff in here and then there's some that probably won't appeal to you. Thankfully there's plenty to pick and choose from. Most of it is quite good and will lead you to other delights.

My copy is falling apart at the binding. When I am fully and finally "done" reading it—but does one ever really finish reading a book or do we simply take a break?—I will bury it in my backyard.