Author | Bruce Beaver |
---|---|
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Genre | poetry |
Publisher | South Head Press, Sydney |
Publication date | 1969 |
Media type | |
Pages | 64 pp |
ISBN | 0901760013 |
Preceded by | Open at Random : Poems |
Followed by | Lauds and Plaints : Poems (1968-1972) |
Letters to Live Poets (1969) is the fourth poetry collection by the Australian poet Bruce Beaver. It won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 1970. [1]
The collection consists of 34 poems, all of which are published in this collection for the first time. [1]
All of the poems in the collection are titled and numbered in sequence using Roman numerals, except for the first which is titled "Letters to Live Poets : Frank O'Hara". Frank O'Hara was an American poet who was killed in a car accident in 1966.
The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature called it Beaver's "major work" and noted that the book formed a "livre composé", a volume designed not as a collection of poems, but as a single poem, sustained through changing moods and verse-forms. They also note that the book was written "with obsessional purpose and speed, because Beaver believed he was losing his rationality". [2]
In a long essay examining the book's legacy and influence, Robert Savage notes, "The American influences on Letters to Live Poets, particular the influence of American confessional poetry, are well documented, and prompt James Tulip to call Letters «the most American work to have come out of Australia.»" [3]
Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure in the New York School, an informal group of artists, writers, and musicians who drew inspiration from jazz, surrealism, abstract expressionism, action painting, and contemporary avant-garde art movements.
Bruce Victor Beaver was an Australian poet and novelist.
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Thomas William Shapcott is an Australian poet, novelist, playwright, editor, librettist, short story writer and teacher.
Laurence James Duggan, known as Laurie Duggan, is an Australian poet, editor, and translator.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
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The Grace Leven Prize for Poetry was an annual poetry award in Australia, given in the name of Grace Leven who died in 1922. It was established by William Baylebridge who "made a provision for an annual poetry prize in memory of 'my benefactress Grace Leven' and for the publication of his own work". Grace was his mother's half-sister.
Nancy May McDonald was an Australian poet and editor.
The Wandering Islands (1955) is the first poetry collection by Australian poet A. D. Hope. It won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 1955.
A Counterfeit Silence : Selected Poems (1969) is a poetry collection by Australian poet and novelist Randolph Stow. It won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 1969.
Time on Fire (1961) is the debut collection of poems by Australian poet Thomas Shapcott. It won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 1961.