Long recognized as a masterpiece of modern American poetry, WIlliam Carlos Williams' Paterson is one man's testament and vision, "a humanist manifesto enacted in five books, a grammar to help us life" (Denis Donoghue).
Paterson is both a place—the New Jersey city in whom the person (the poet's own life) and the public (the history of the region) are combined. Originally four books (published individually between 1946 and 1951), the structure of Paterson (in Dr. Williams' words) "follows the course of teh Passaic River" from above the great falls to its entrance into the sea. The unexpected Book Five, published in 1958, affirms the triumphant life of the imagination, in spite of age and death. This revised edition has been meticulously re-edited by Christopher MacGowan, who has supplied a wealth of notes and explanatory material.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Despite its epic scope, Paterson is often chosen by nonspecialists, such as the social critic Robert Coles, as the way in to a discovery of Williams' exuberant and humane career as a poet. The going is made easier and the way is clarified by this invaluable new edition, for in it Williams' achievement can be seen in its proper context. His social concern, for instance, in contrast to that of other modernists, becomes more apparent. Misprints have been corrected, fugitive verses or sources have been tracked down, tab spaces have been restored and the crowded typography of recent editions has been opened up. Textual notes are thorough. We learn, for instance, that Williams changed the phrase "seldom dig" in a letter of Allen Ginsberg's excerpted here to "seldom did," probably because the older poet did not know the Beat usage. Williams at his strongest is as good an American poet as there has been; still, it must be noted that not all of the five books of Paterson (plus fragments of a sixth) are up to that level. Yet, with this edition, the important project of re-editing Williams' poetry is skillfully completed. The work of an experimental master is laid out in a definitive edition.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
With this appearance of his magnum opus, the publisher's laudable project of republishing Williams's poetic oeuvre in modern scholarly editions has been completed. The high quality of the two volumes of Collected Poems ( LJ 7/88; LJ 10/86) is replicated here. MacGowan's fine edition sorts out the poem's complicated textual history. His notes will be most useful to future readers, students, and scholars, as they elucidate difficulties and clarify the provenance of the many prose excerpts from various sources included in this unique work. A modernist classic, Paterson is a nativist's answer to the cosmopolitan Pound and Eliot, "a reply to Greek and Latin with the bare hands." By exploring the local, Williams sought to descry the universal and to find in city and landscape symbolic analogues for the essential issues of human life. Highly recommended.
- Frank J. Lepkowski, Oakland Univ., Rochester, Mich.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Frank J. Lepkowski, Oakland Univ., Rochester, Mich.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Paterson is a book-length poem that tells you everything you need to know about America. If it appears complex and impenetrable then you need to put the thing down for a day or two, and then try again, because this is really a joy, there's nothing impenetrable about it! Read it when you really have some time to think and skip the commentary (by this I mean read it first without consulting literary criticism, I do not mean that you should ignore any part of the work itself). This poet will teach you that literary forms are just tools and that what really matters is whether the writer has insight and is able to communicate it in the necessary way. This book is worth your precious time.
13 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I had forgotten until I finished reading this poem this morning (on a train rolling through Newark, New Jersey) just how great an achievement this is.
If you haven't read it. Do it now. If you only read it when you were young, then read it as an adult. You'll be amazed at what you missed. I was.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Williams's Paterson is a long poem. Williams originally intended the poem to be published In five separate books which it was between 1946 and 1958. The poem has been made availabe in one complete volume. In the poem Dr Williams compares his life to the flowing course of the Passaic River; especially its waterfalls. The poem is quite lengthly but well worth the read. I think that the poem Paterson is Williams's signature work. I also recommend Williams's Selected Essays & Selected Poems.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Change of Life
Speak better, live better than the crowd, move along at full sail, kiss the babies, wink the eye, lay about the grassy lawns reading Paterson, till dusk closes your lids firm and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Louis J. Profeta
5.0 out of 5 stars
William Carlos Williams' EPIC long poem
Williams' "Paterson" is the long poem that brought William Carlos Williams into the American Poetic spotlight. Read more
Published on December 14, 2008 by P. Gallagher
4.0 out of 5 stars
He stole it from me... every word.
Yeah. It's a damn fine book. Poetry or prose? who cares? Its the story of a man through the story of a town, a little rhythm, a little newspaper clipping, definately Modernist and... Read more
Published on January 18, 2008 by Steven M. Fregeau
3.0 out of 5 stars
Probably not worth the effort
Even for a fan of WCW like myself, this is a tough one to read. Williams is still Williams, but not the Williams of the brevity of "This is just to say". Read more
Published on August 26, 2003 by J. Ott
3.0 out of 5 stars
Should have been a collection instead of a single piece.
William Carlos Williams, Paterson (New Directions, 1963)
To hear the staff at New Directions tell it, Paterson is the be-all and end-all of the American long poem; there is no... Read more
Published on November 8, 2002 by Robert P. Beveridge
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read it if you know what's good for you...
Although I do not care so much for the prose portions of this classic, I take them as a necessary component in the overall concept Williams cultivates in generating this book -... Read more
Published on November 6, 2000 by G. Busy
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