The Fiery Hunt and Other Plays (Writing 36)

Bolinas, California: Four Seasons Foundation, 1977. Trade Paperback. Very Good. 8x5x0. Rear cover soiled. 1977 Trade Paperback. xxi, 125 pp. This volume makes available for the first time all the known plays and verse-dramas which Charles Olson wrote throughout his career as poet. Included is Apollonius of Tyana, written at Black Mountain College and one of the most important summarizations of the poet's thought to be had, with a central character who stands forth as a fascinating analogue to Maximus himself. All the other plays are published from among the papers left behind at the poet's death in 1970. Some are choreographic scripts such as The Fiery Hunt based on Moby-Dick, in which Ahab and Ishmael fiercely confront each other once again over the White Whale, or The Born Dancer, drawn from an episode in the life of the great Russian dancer Nijinksy. Others, like the lightly-spun Fluff, are morality farces. All show the poet's characteristic energy and inquisitiveness, his willingness to explore alternatives to inherited concepts of language and theater. Highly experimental, these dramatic pieces continue Olson's insistence that art be not passive description but enactment. Together, they provide an additional dimension to one of the major poets of our time.--rear cover