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The Revisionist and The Astropastorals: Collected Poems
MacArthur “genius” Douglas Crase is best known for his invocations and revisions of Whitmanian transcendentalism. Out of print since 1987, his book The Revisionist has still been enough in some opinions to establish him as one of the most important poets of his generation; on its strength, says the Oxford Book of American Poetry, "rests a formidable underground reputation." Now, by combining The Revisionist with Crase's chapbook The Astropastorals in a new collection, Nightboat Books presents his formidable reputation to a wider public for the first time in thirty-two years.
- GenresPoetry
160 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2019
2 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Douglas Crase
12 books8 followersDouglas Crase is known for a single book of poems, The Revisionist.
Born in 1944, Crase grew up on a farm in Michigan, went to Princeton, and planned a career in law. In response to the political turmoil of 1968 he abandoned law school to write the report of the Political Reform Commission of the Michigan Democratic Party. He subsequently served as speechwriter to the Democratic candidate for governor of the state.
As noted in The Oxford Book of American Poetry, he is the Doug in James Schuyler's poem Dining Out with Doug and Frank. For many years he earned a living as a free-lance speechwriter for Eastman Kodak, General Electric, and other corporations. The poems he wrote at the time are informed, according to the Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets, by an "interest in rhetoric" not traditionally associated with poets of that school. When The Revisionist appeared in 1981 its unusual rhetorical address was widely recognized.
Crase followed The Revisionist with essays on favorite writers, including Emerson, Ashbery, and Niedecker. His commonplace book, Amerifil.txt, was published in 1996 and became an example of possibilities in the form. Likewise unusual was Both, his dual biography of artist Dwight Ripley and botanist Rupert Barneby, lifelong partners whose rediscovered story sheds new light on the mid-century art scene in New York.
On his departure from law school Crase was called to the dean's office for an explanation. When he remarked that his classes were boring the dean countered, "My son, ninety per cent of life is boring." Since that interview, he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers' Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship for his work. Committed to the city - he was for three years a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities – he also makes time for a mountain stream in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Born in 1944, Crase grew up on a farm in Michigan, went to Princeton, and planned a career in law. In response to the political turmoil of 1968 he abandoned law school to write the report of the Political Reform Commission of the Michigan Democratic Party. He subsequently served as speechwriter to the Democratic candidate for governor of the state.
As noted in The Oxford Book of American Poetry, he is the Doug in James Schuyler's poem Dining Out with Doug and Frank. For many years he earned a living as a free-lance speechwriter for Eastman Kodak, General Electric, and other corporations. The poems he wrote at the time are informed, according to the Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets, by an "interest in rhetoric" not traditionally associated with poets of that school. When The Revisionist appeared in 1981 its unusual rhetorical address was widely recognized.
Crase followed The Revisionist with essays on favorite writers, including Emerson, Ashbery, and Niedecker. His commonplace book, Amerifil.txt, was published in 1996 and became an example of possibilities in the form. Likewise unusual was Both, his dual biography of artist Dwight Ripley and botanist Rupert Barneby, lifelong partners whose rediscovered story sheds new light on the mid-century art scene in New York.
On his departure from law school Crase was called to the dean's office for an explanation. When he remarked that his classes were boring the dean countered, "My son, ninety per cent of life is boring." Since that interview, he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers' Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship for his work. Committed to the city - he was for three years a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities – he also makes time for a mountain stream in Northeast Pennsylvania.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 22, 2021
Douglas Crase, de vrijwel vergeten dichter uit de naoorlogse New York School-beweging, is een tough nut to crack. Deze bundel verzamelt de enige twee bundels die hij tijdens zijn leven heeft uitgebracht. Ik kon me soms moeilijk overgeven aan de combinatie van wetenschappelijke kennis en natuurlyriek, maar soms kwam het opeens helemaal binnen:
‘Though we never reached it together, this world / we planned is the only one in which I can imagine you. / As a result, and despite our separation, I have never / relented my right to plot the coordinates which might / have got us there, so that even my memories of you as is / take shape in the width of once possible days.’
*2,5
‘Though we never reached it together, this world / we planned is the only one in which I can imagine you. / As a result, and despite our separation, I have never / relented my right to plot the coordinates which might / have got us there, so that even my memories of you as is / take shape in the width of once possible days.’
*2,5
May 2, 2021
Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. THE REVISIONIST lives up to the hype on the jacket copy about Crase being a crucially important poet who needs to be reintroduced to the reading public. "The Revisionist" in particular is absolutely fantastic; "The Astropastorals" (uncollected poems post-Revisionist) is great but take a pause between reading the two -- because everything pales in comparison to that first long poem.
August 4, 2020
It has a brilliant start, with an elevated discursive style, reminiscent of both Rilke of the Duino elegies and mid-period Ashbery (roughly from Rivers and Mountains to Houseboat Days). The subject is often landscape, informed by a more than a superficial command of history. In other cases, the poems are bricollaged from the language or gray discourse of commerce and institutions. Sometimes the poems falter and lack concretion, and the references can be so private the dramatic platform gets shaky. But there's enough here that I would return to it. The later chapbook, The Astropastorals, seems too fragmented and to lack fire.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews