Paterson. Published by New Directions, 1946-58. Williams’s magnum opus.
Today is the birthday of the influential American poet William Carlos Williams (1883-1963).
From the Poetry Foundation:
William Carlos Williams has always been known as an experimenter, an innovator, a revolutionary figure in American poetry. Yet in comparison to artists of his own time who sought a new environment for creativity as expatriates in Europe, Williams lived a remarkably conventional life. A doctor for more than forty years serving the New Jersey town of Rutherford, he relied on his patients, the America around him, and his own ebullient imagination to create a distinctively American verse.
Sour Grapes. Published in Boston by The Four Seas Company, 1921 First edition, first printing of Williams’ fifth book. One of 1000 copies. Signed and inscribed by Williams to close friend and fellow poet Mitchell Dawson.
A Beginning of a Short Story. Published by The Alicat Bookshop Press, 1950. First edition.
The Farmers’ Daughters. New Directions, 1961 First edition, first printing. One of 1500 copies. Publisher’s file copy with file copy stamp to front endpaper.
Collected Poems. The Objectivist Press, 1934. Williams’s first “collected” edition.
William Carlos Williams Reading his Poems. Caedmon. 1954
Typed Letter Signed “W.C. Williams” 1p, 8.5” x 11”. Rutherford, N.J., October 19, 1938.To John Crowe Ransom, Editor The Kenyon Review, Gambier, Ohio. Fine condition.“Your letter, about the Lorca article, put me right back on my feet again…”