Eecchhooeess

by N.H. Pritchard

An exacting facsimile of Umbra protagonist Norman H. Pritchard’s long-rare 1971 collection of visually kinetic poetry American poet Norman H. Pritchard’s second and final book, EECCHHOOEESS was originally published in 1971 by New York University Press. Pritchard’s writing is visually and typographically unconventional. His methodical arrangements of letters and words disrupt optical flows and lexical cohesion, modulating the speeds of reading and looking by splitting, spacing and splicing linguistic objects. His manipulation of text and codex resembles that of concrete poetry and conceptual writing, traditions from which literary history has mostly excluded him. Pritchard also worked with sound, and his dynamic readings―documented, among few other places, on the album New Jazz Poets (Folkways Records, 1967)―make themselves heard on the page.

EECCHHOOEESS exemplifies Pritchard’s formal and conceptual sensibilities, and provides an entryway into the work of a poet whose scant writings have only recently achieved wider recognition. DABA’s publication of EECCHHOOEESS is unabridged and closely reproduces the design of the original 1971 volume.

Norman H. Pritchard (1939–96) was affiliated with the Umbra group, a predecessor to the Black Arts Movement. He taught writing at the New School for Social Research and published two The Poems 1960–1970 (Doubleday, 1970) and EECCHHOOEESS (New York University Press, 1971). His work was anthologized in publications including The New Black Poetry (1969), In a Time of Poems from Our Third World (1969), Dices or Black Black Voices of the Seventies (1970), Ishmael Reed's 19 Necromancers from Now (1970), Text-Sound Texts (1980) and others.

Genres: Poetry

66 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Norman Henry Pritchard, or N. H. Pritchard was an American poet. He was a member of the Umbra poets, a collective of Black writers in Manhattan's Lower East Side founded in 1962.

Reviews

[Güel Almeréida · Rating 5 out of 5]

N.H. Pritchard was the shit!

[Cory Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really didn't expect to sit with this thing for as long as I did. I just kept rereading and lingering. Every letter, space, page, had me searching for meaning that may or may not be there. Or maybe the meaning was in constant flux as my mind wandered and brushed upon ideas spurred on by the page.
To me, these felt inherently anarchic, but not towards the reader, but towards the form of the 'book' itself, and the role it plays in humanity's past and present. I feel like the 'book' as a concept can operate in a completely new space of public consciousness after reading this collection.

wo
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edit: Just read it again and found new potential meanings and ways of interacting with this. What's going on?

[Yara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope no one giggles when they read this word I am about to use, but I found this riveting. This was playful and engaging. I was fully immersed in my first experience of concrete poetry. I was worried that this being abstract would be an obstacle in a way that meant I couldn't enjoy or appreciate it in any way. But the obstacles were great puzzles and brain storming opportunities. Sure is a thinker and something I will return to :-)

My favourite was The Watch and I loved Via. All exceptional poems, even if I do not know what is going on.

[Christopher Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most exciting poetry I’ve read in ages. EECCHHOOEESS is a short but exhilarating collection of startling originality by an unfortunately neglected poet, and you’d do well to give this a look. The poem “VIA” alone makes it worth the price of admission. Major props to the folks at DABA Press for bringing this back into print.

Incredible work. Highly, highly recommended.

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Watch
r are wat chth atre aps t hesum o fmir t h

a ll g row ingkno w n

& sim plybi r t h

di dspri ngit sda rken edli ghtt owea r

t h ehu mble omen o facar e

& istha the ightso r o und ofmi g h t

t h atfo rsom etim e

aft erwa r d s

t here

wer e

onl y

s mallso und s (25)

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're into concrete poetry, this'll be your cup of tea, if not, not. I took a concrete poetry seminar in grad school and I get the aesthetic, but I didn't plug in with what Pritchard's doing.

[cy · Rating 4 out of 5]

genius… 4 stars bc im not quite smart enough to get it all the way

[edmondegreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Book

[ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

when language destroys itself into fractured semiotic values, it looks like this and its stunning

[Mikael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meeengggeeemmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaskan