a williams interlude

I wanted to write a poem: the autobiography of the works of a poet
William Carlos Williams

I picked up this little book at Book Traders in New Haven recently. It’s charming. And contains many surprises!

• Kora in Hell: Improvisations is a book composed of free writing “improvisations” paired with remarks interpeting them.
• Spring and All: “Nobody ever saw it–it had no circulation at all -but I had a lot of fun with it. It consists of poems interspersed with prose, the same idea as Improvisations. It was written when all the world was going crazy about typographical form and is really a travesty on the idea. … The prose is a mixture of philosophy and nonsense.”
• In the American Grain sounds like a history book. Has chapters on Eric the Red, Columbus, Tenochtitlan, Ponce de Leon, Cotton Mather, Poe, and Lincoln.
• Williams translated Phillippe Soupault’s Last Nights of Paris from the French. Soupault was “all wound up in Dadaism.”
• He describes A Novelette and Other Prose as automatic writing, “I sat and faced the paper and wrote. The same method as in the Improvisations but the material has advanced; it is more sophisticated.”
• He was impressed with the plight of the poor. “I felt furious at the country for its lack of progressive ideas.”
• Williams acted with Mina Loy in a play produced in the Village.
• White Mule is a work of prose written serially (like Dickens) and it’s about — a baby! “I was crazy about babies, the contempt that all babies have for adults. They don’t give a damn what goes on and they let go with everything they have and sometimes it’s not too attractive.”

Williams had fun with his writing. He wrote a lot of prose. I need to take a look at some of these books. I’m especially curious about the White Mule! He was very interested in the physical beauty of poems, and books, producing some very fine limited editions. And such a connection with free writing! I’m sure the practice helped develop his poetic style.

So much richness, a life’s work packed into a Red Wheelbarrow!