Revolutionary Memory

by Cary Nelson

Revolutionary Memory is the most important book yet to be published about the vital tradition of leftwing American Poetry. As Cary Nelson shows, it is not only our image of the past but also our sense of the present and future that changes when we recover these revolutionary memories. Making a forceful case for political poetry as poetry, Nelson brings to bear his extraordinary knowledge of American poets, radical movements, and social struggles in order to bring out an undervalued strength in a literature often left at the canon's edge. Focused in part of the red decade of the 1930s, Revolutionary Memory revitalizes biographical criticism for writers on the margin and shows us for the first time how progressive poets fused their work into a powerful chorus of political voices. Richly detailed and beautifully illustrated with period engravings and woodcuts, Revolutionary Memory brings that chorus dramatically to life and set a cultural agenda for future work.

Genres: Poetry

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Margaret Devadason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nelson’s prose is clear and incisive, and unabashedly opinionated. I enjoyed his attention to the materiality of the texts he wrote about (through mentioning how he came by the physical materials), and his cento-collage Poem Choruses included in the last two chapters.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Cary Nelson and all of his loveliness.