How did John Martin, the founder of Black Sparrow Press, come to publish Charles Reznikoff’s poetry? Here’s a possible answer, from Ron Padgett’s Ted: A Personal Memoir of Ted Berrigan (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1993):
It’s possible Ted read By the Waters of Manhattan simply because it was a New Directions book. He told me I had to read Reznikoff immediately. Soon we discovered Testimony, which we loved. We didn't know much about Reznikoff’s life, though, or even if he were still alive.I remember seeing Charles Reznikoff’s self-published books from the Tens and Twenties in the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago in 1988, well after Black Sparrow had begun to publish his work. Signed copies, on the shelves, there for the borrowing. But I didn’t dare.
During a benefit reading for the McCarthy presidential campaign in 1968, a girl I had known in high school came up to say hello to me and to ask Ted if one of his lines (“BY THE WATERS OF MANHATTAN”) referred to Charles Reznikoff. We were both surprised — relatively few people knew of Reznikoff at that time. It turned out that Reznikoff was her uncle (or great uncle) by marriage. Would we like to meet him? She would have us all to dinner. We happily accepted.
When it came time for the dinner, though, Ted couldn’t make it, and Bill Berkson filled in. We had a lovely dinner with “Uncle Charles,” who gave us copies of his books he had printed (and hand-corrected) at his own expense. He was modest and sweet, and I was upset that such a wonderful poet would have to resort to publishing himself at the age of, what, eighty?
That’s why I put a notice in the Poetry Project Newsletter, which I was editing, urging someone to publish him. Not long after — and this may have been a coincidence — he got a letter from Black Sparrow, which eventually began reissuing his work. But this story makes it sound as if I deserve some credit. If any credit is due, it’s to Ted.
[Testimony: The United States, in two volumes, is a documentary project: poetry made from court records. It’s astonishing, harrowing reading.]
comments: 2
That's a good story about those volumes on the shelves at the University of Chicago. The world would have been a poorer place without New Directions, Black Swallow and some other small presses.
I’ve always been surprised to see what libraries will leave on the shelves. In another university library I found Lorine Niedecker’s New Goose on the shelf. When I borrowed it, something went wrong, and when I returned it, there was no record of my having borrowed it. Yikes.
Post a Comment