Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry & Prose (LOA #96)

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in a body of work of astonishing profusion and exuberance, poems that have remained an inspiration and influence for generations of poets and readers. Now, for the first time, the works of Americas supreme poet of the imagination are collected in one authoritative Library of America volume.Here are all of Stevenss published books of poetry, side-by-side for the first time with the haunting lyrics of his later years and early work that traces the development of his art. From the rococo inventiveness ofHarmonium, his first volume (including such classics as Sunday Morning and Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird), through Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction, Esthtique du Mal, The Auroras of Autumn, and the other large-scale masterpieces of his middle years, to the austere final poems of The Rock, Stevenss poetry explores with unrelenting intensity the relation between the world and the human imagination, between nature as found and nature as invented, and the ways poetry mediates between them. The volume presents over ninety poems uncollected by Stevens, including early versions of often-discussed works like The Comedian as the Letter C and Owls Clover.Also here is the most comprehensive selection of Stevenss prose writings.The Necessary Angel(1951), his distinguished book of essays, joins nearly fifty shorter pieces, many previously uncollected: reviews, speeches, short stories, criticism, philosophical writings, and responses to the work of T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, and other poets. The often-dazzling aphorisms Stevens gathered over the years are included, as are his plays and selections from his poetic notebooks. Rounding out the volume is a fifty-year span of journal entries and letters, newly edited from manuscript sources, which provide fascinating glimpses of Stevenss thoughts on poetry and the creative process.The volume also contains explanatory notes, a detailed chronology of Stevens life, and an essay on textual selection.LIBRARY OF AMERICAis an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nations literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, Americas best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.