Jonathan Williams (poet)
Jonathan Williams (March 8, 1929 – March 16, 2008) was an
Overview
Williams was born in
Also in 1951, Williams founded Jargon Books (later
Once described as "a busy gadfly who happened somehow to pitch on a slope in western North Carolina," Williams was a living link between the experimental poets of
Well, as you know, a lot of my poetry is found and that's, I think, because I think I'm quite a good listener and I'm willing to lay back and listen, and I think it's something do with living in the country. I mean, this place, Skywinding Farm, there are times when Tom Meyer and I will only see somebody from the outside world once or twice a week. And we've known each other so long that we don't talk as much as we might. Tom can talk up a storm, He's up there in the Duncan/Olson class. So I like to listen and I like to hear things, so if you listen carefully then you do find things. I do it all the time. I mean, you know the early book, Blues and Roots, which was done in the course of walking a big piece of the Appalachian Trail, I listened to mountain people for over a thousand miles and I really heard some amazing stuff. And I left it pretty much as I heard it. I didn't have to do anything but organize a little bit, crystallize it, you know. That's the thing I love about found material, you wake it up, you "make" it into something.
The literary critic
Williams was also a longtime contributing editor of the photography journal Aperture.
Williams divided his time between England and Scaly Mountain, North Carolina. He died March 16, 2008, in Highlands, North Carolina, from pneumonia.[7] He was survived by his longtime partner, Thomas Meyer.
Selected bibliography
- An Ear in Bartram's Tree: Selected Poems 1957-1967 (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1969; New Directions, 1972).
- Mahler (Grossman/Cape Goliard Press, 1969).
- The Loco Logodaedalist in Situ: Selected Poems 1968-70 (Cape Goliard Press, 1971).
- Elite/Elate Poems: Selected Poems 1971-75 (Jargon Society, 1979).
- The Magpie's Bagpipe: Selected Essays (North Point Press, 1982).
- Blues & Roots/Rue & Bluets: A Garland for the Southern Appalachians, revised edition (Duke University Press, 1985).
- Jubilant Thicket: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)[8]
References
- ^ The Poetry Foundation
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
- ^ "Jonathan Williams and Black Mountain by Ross Hair". BMCS. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
- ISBN 9780190201098.
- ^ "The Jargon Society". jargonbooks.com. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
- ^ Biography of Jonathan Williams Archived January 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Jonathan Williams, Publisher, Dies at 79", The New York Times article (March 30, 2008)
- ^ "Jubilant Thicket: New & Selected Poems by Jonathan Williams".
External links
- Jonathan Williams Tribute Page at the Electronic Poetry Center
- Tales of a Jargonaut an interview with Jonathan Williams by Jeffery Beam
- The Jargon Society links include current updates and musings from Williams
- Biography Page @ncwriters.org w/bibliography
- Tales of a Jargonaut the only slightly edited full Rain Taxi interview with Jonathan Williams by Jeffery Beam
- A Snowflake Orchard a personal history of Jargon by poet Jeffery Beam which appeared originally in the North Carolina Literary Review w/bibliography
- The Passing of a Poet: Jonathan Williams, 79, Avant-garde Poet, Publisher, and Photographer
- The Lord of Orchards: Jonathan Williams at 80, edited by Jeffery Beam and Richard Owens. An appreciative survey of Williams' life and work including some never before published photos by Williams, and many new and recovered essays about his life and work as a poet, photographer, critic, art collector, and publisher.
- A life in pictures: Jonathan Williams A series of photographs documenting Jonathan Williams' life
- Jonathan Williams Photographs. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.