The Unruly Garden Robert Duncan and Eric Mottram - Letters and Essays

«This generous correspondence between Robert Duncan and Eric Mottram reveals a rich, transatlantic friendship between a major U.S. poet and an important U.K. critic. Duncan’s obvious respect for Mottram, who wrote extensively on contemporary American writers, permits him an intellectual and critical expansiveness that illuminates many aspects of his poetry. Mottram’s keen understanding of Duncan’s work and the political and cultural life of the U.S. during the 1970s provides an incisive look at literary culture during the late days of the Vietnam era. Amy Evans and Shamoon Zamir’s superb introduction and textual notes make this volume an essential complement to Duncan’s work.» (Michael Davidson, author of ‘The San Francisco Renaissance’ (1989), ‘Ghostlier Demarcations’ (1997) and ‘Guys Like Us’ (2003))
«These letters chart a decade of incredible discoveries and remorseless entrenchments for Duncan; it’s amazing to read here a record of the ideas that found their way into the first volume of Ground Work. The Unruly Garden, wild as it appears, is nothing less than a well-plotted labyrinth into this late, great work.» (Peter O’Leary, author of ‘Gnostic Contagion: Robert Duncan and the Poetry of Illness’ (2002))

The Editors: Amy Evans is a Teaching Fellow in American Studies at King’s College London where she is completing a doctoral thesis on Robert Duncan. Shamoon Zamir is a Reader in American Studies at King’s College London. His publications include Dark Voices: W.E.B. Du Bois and American Thought, 1888-1903 as well as articles on American fiction, poetry and photography. He co-founded and co-edited Talus, an international journal of contemporary writing and cultural studies, and Talus Editions, a poetry small press.