Tuesday, August 18, 2020

New Book! Poems (1920) by Charles Reznikoff


Poems was published 100 years ago by Samuel Roth of the New York Poetry Book Shop in 1920. The back cover included the information that their book series was “privately printed by V. Di Caprio at 19 Christopher St.” Each volume in the series sold for $1.

Poems includes the two small books Charles Reznikoff printed himself for his friends when he was 24 years old: Rhythms (1918) and Rhythms II (1919). Later editions of his poetry included these same poems further edited to included additional lines and different titles.

This volume includes the poem “Epidemic” (page 14), which for Reznikoff occurred in 1918 and today’s readers are experiencing in 2020.

Charles Reznikoff continued to compose poetry throughout his life. The powerful and influential collections Holocaust (1975) and Testimony Parts 1 & 2 (1978 & 1979) were published by Black Sparrow Press and remain in print today.



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