History in Verse
13. February 2008 00:53
America, a History in Verse, Volumes 1-5, The 20th Century, Has been Completed
Edward Sanders has completed, after ten years of work, America, a History in Verse, Volumes 1-5, The 20th Century. Over 1,500 pages in length, this poem traces 100 crucial years of the history of the United States.
Inspired by the writing of Charles Olson, especially his manifesto Projective Verse, by writers such as William Carlos Williams (his Paterson ) and by the history-suffused verse of Allen Ginsberg, Sanders in the 1970s composed his own manifesto, Investigative Poetry. This manifesto, published by City Lights Books, plus additional essays on poetics by Sanders, such as Creativity and the Self-Fulfilling Bard, supply the intellectual framework for writing histories in verse.
He began in the mid-1990s to compose a series of book-length histories and biographies in verse. The first was a verse-biography of the great Anton Chekhov, published in 1995. Then in 1997, 1968, a History in Verse, followed by The Poetry and Life of Allen Ginsberg, in 1999.
Meanwhile, in early 1998 Sanders began his epic 9-volume history of the United States in verse. After ten years, America, The 20th Century is ready. It is a unique creation, the first of its kind, and will be published in its entirety in a special CD edition in 2008, designed by the noted digital artist Austin Metze.
The remaining four volumes of America will trace in verse the 19th, 18th, 17th and 16/15th centuries.
Information on America, a History in Verse, will be posted on the website Americahistoryinverse.com