 Cover of 1960 edition | |
| Author | Richard Brautigan |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Publisher | Carp Press |
Publication date | 1960 |
| Pages | 20 |
| Preceded by | Lay the Marble Tea |
| Followed by | All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace |
The Octopus Frontier is a 1960 poetry collection by American writer Richard Brautigan. It is Brautigan's fourth poetry publication and his second collection of poetry, and it includes 22 poems.
The Octopus Frontier includes 22 poems:
All but 5 of the poems were republished in the 1968 collection, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster . [1]
In the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Caroline Bokinsky said the collection "continues Brautigan's creation of order and meaning from objects in the literal world by using them to construct a fantasy world within his own imagination." [2] Citing several examples, she describes the ways in which Brautigan makes connections and associations to lead readers through his imagination, acting "as a painter, in a meticulous step-by-step process, putting each object in a specific place to create a painting." [2]
Fellow poet Richard McClure said the poems "are filled with large simple images of vegetables and pumpkins floating on the tide, a poem about Ophelia, and poems about childhood." According to McClure, it was at this point in Brautigan's writing that there emerged "a recognizable Brautigan style [...] but there is no indication that this work is greatly above the level of much North Beach poetry." [3]
The Octopus Frontier is the first Brautigan work to feature a photograph on the cover. [3] The image, by San Francisco-based photographer Gui de Angelo, shows a person's feet standing on a six-foot octopus tentacle Brautigan bought for the purpose from a Chinatown fishmonger and carried to the roof of a building in North Beach. It has been described as being "striking and just misses being sinister". [3] [4]
William Bliss Carman was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years.
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Richard Gary Brautigan was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. A prolific writer, he wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four books of poetry. Brautigan's work has been published both in the United States and internationally throughout Europe, Japan, and China. He is best known for his novels Trout Fishing in America (1967), In Watermelon Sugar (1968), and The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 (1971).
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All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is Richard Brautigan's fifth poetry publication. Like several of his early works, the entire edition was distributed for free. The title poem envisions a world where cybernetics has advanced to a stage where it allows a return to the balance of nature and an elimination of the need for human labor. All thirty-two of the poems in this collection were republished in The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster.
Donald Merriam Allen was an American editor, publisher and translator of American literature. He is best known for his project The New American Poetry 1945-1960 (1960), one of the anthologies of contemporary American writing he released.
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"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" is a poem by Richard Brautigan first published in his 1967 collection of the same name, his fifth book of poetry. It presents an enthusiastic description of a technological utopia in which machines improve and protect the lives of humans. The poem has counterculture and hippie themes, influenced by Cold War-era technology. It has been interpreted both as utopian and as an ironic critique of the utopia it describes. It is Brautigan's most frequently reprinted poem.
This is a list of publications by Richard Brautigan (1935-1984), an American writer known for his poetry, novels, and short stories.
June 30th, June 30th is a poetry collection published in 1978 by American writer Richard Brautigan. It was his eighth book of poetry and the last released in his lifetime. It contains 77 poems that Brautigan wrote in 1976 during his seven-week stay in Japan, presented in a diary-like format. The title is the date he planned to leave the country.
Lay the Marble Tea is a 1959 poetry collection by American writer Richard Brautigan. It is Brautigan's first collection and third poetry publication.
The Return of the Rivers is the first work of poetry released by American writer Richard Brautigan. It was first published in 1957 by Inferno Press. Several of Brautigan's poems had been published as early as 1952, when "The Light" appeared in the Eugene High School News, but The Return of the Rivers was the first formally published on its own. It is a single two-part poem printed on a broadside, wrapped in construction paper, and fitted with a label that had the name of the printer and Brautigan's signature. It was reprinted in the Berkeley Review, also in 1957, and was included in Brautigan's best known collection, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster. Caroline Bokinsky called the poem "an observation of the external world as a surreal, romanticized setting in which the cycle of life is exemplified in the river, sea, rain, and ocean."