Z-siteA Companion to the Works of Louis Zukofsky

Primary Editions Used in Notes

“A”. Berkeley: U of California P, 1978. Rpt. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1993; New Directions, 2011 [with some textual corrections].

A Test of Poetry. NY: C.Z. Publications, 1980. Rpt. Wesleyan UP, 2000.

Arise, Arise. NY: Grossman, 1973.

Autobiography. NY: Grossman, 1970.

Bottom: on Shakespeare. Austin, TX: Ark Press, 1963. Rpt. Berkeley: U of California P, 1987; Wesleyan UP, 2002.

Collected Fiction. Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive, 1990.*

Complete Short Poetry. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1991. Rpt. Anew: Complete Shorter Poetry, New Directions, 2011.

Prepositions +: The Collected Critical Essays. Wesleyan UP, 2000.

A Useful Art: Essays and Radio Scripts on American Design. Wesleyan UP, 2003.

The Writing of Guillaume Apollinaire/ Le Style Apollinaire (with Rene Taupin). Ed. with introduction by Serge Gavronsky. Foreword by Jean Daive. Wesleyan UP, 2003 [bi-lingual edn. of Le Style Apollinaire (1934)].

Pound/Zukofsky: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky. Ed. Barry Ahearn. NY: New Directions, 1987.

The Correspondence of William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukofsky. Ed. Barry Ahearn. Wesleyan UP, 2003.

The Selected Letters of Louis Zukofsky. Ed. Barry Ahearn. Z-site, 2013. Online here.

* There are two distinct printings of the Dalkey Archive edition of Collected Fiction, which affects some of the pagination (see note).

Complete Book and Broadside Publications

As with many experimental poets, particularly during the period of the Depression and World War II, LZ long experienced difficulties finding publishers for his books: his first book of poems, although ready by 1935, was published in 1941, and it was not until 1965, with the publication of the first volume of All by Norton, that anything like a major publisher picked him up. On the other hand, he was fortunate that during the last 15 years of his life virtually all of his works were published or reissued, with the complete “A” and 80 Flowers in press at the time of his death in May 1978. Also during this period, there were numerous small limited editions of new and old work, often of very high quality and produced by younger poets; see Notes on Limited Editions for descriptions of these various publications.

An “Objectivists” Anthology. Ed. LZ. Le Beausset, Var, France and NY: To, Publishers, 1932

Le Style Apollinaire, with René Taupin. Trans. René Taupin. Paris: Les Presses Modernes, 1934. Rpt. The Writing of Guillaume Apollinaire/Le Style Apollinaire, Wesleyan UP, 2003.

First Half of “A” 9. NY: privately printed, 1940 [poem with source materials].

55 Poems. Prairie City, IL: The Press of James A. Decker, 1941.

Anew. Prairie City, IL: The Press of James A. Decker, 1946.

A Test of Poetry. NY: The Objectivist Press, 1948; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952. Rpt. NY: Jargon/Corinth Books, 1964; NY: C.Z. Publications, 1980; Wesleyan UP, 2000 (Foreword by Robert Creeley) [all reprints are essentially facsimiles of the original Objectivist Press edition].

Some Time. Stuttgart, Germany: Jonathan Williams/Jargon, 1956.

5 Statements for Poetry. San Francisco: SF State College, 1958.

Barely and widely. NY: C.Z. [Celia Zukofsky], 1958.

“A” 1-12 (with an essay on poetry by LZ and a final note by WCW). Kyoto, Japan: Origin Press, 1959.

It Was. Kyoto, Japan: Origin Press, 1961 [short fiction].

16 Once Published. Edinburgh, Scotland: The Wild Hawthorn Press, 1962. [selection by CZ from 55 Poems, Anew, Some Time, and Barely & widely].

I’s (pronounced eyes). NY: Trobar Press, 1963.

Bottom: on Shakespeare, 2 volumes. Austin, TX: The Ark Press/Humanities Research Center, U of Texas P, 1963. [Volume 2 is CZ’s musical setting of Shakespeare’s Pericles]. Rpt. Berkeley: U of California P, 1987 [first volume only]; Wesleyan UP, 2002 (Foreword by Bob Perelman).

Found Objects 1962-1926. Georgetown, KY: H.B. Chapin (A Blue Grass Book), 1964 [selection of 12 poems].

After I’s. Pittsburgh, PA: Boxwood Press/Mother Press, 1964.

Finally a Valentine. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: The Piccolo Press, 1965 [single sheet twice-folded into a card].

ALL: The Collected Short Poems,1923-1958. NY: Norton, 1965; London: Jonathan Cape, 1966 [collects short poems in 55 Poems, Anew and Barely and widely].

An Unearthing. Cambridge, MA: Adams House & Lowell House Printers, 1965.

I Sent Thee Late. Cambridge, MA: Adams House & Lowell House Printers, 1965.

Iyyob. London: Turret Books, 1965.

“A” Libretto. NY: privately printed, 1965 [excerpts from movements of “A” composed up to that date: “A” 1-20, skipping “A”-15, 18 and 19, with designated voices: Chorus, Narrator, Male and Female].

“a”-9. Stuttgart, Germany: futura 5, edition hansjörg mayer, 1966 [single sheet folded; prints Cavalcanti’s “Donna mi priegha” with two halves of “A”-9 and a brief introduction in German, which LZ noted was an incorrect translation].

ALL: Collected Short Poems, 1956-1964. NY: Norton, 1966; London: Jonathan Cape, 1967 [collects short poems in Some Time, I’s (pronounced eyes) and After I’s].

“A” 1-12 (Foreword by LZ and “A Note” by Robert Creeley). London: Jonathan Cape, 1966; Garden City, NY: Doubleday (Paris Review Editions), 1967.

“A”-14. London: Turret Books, 1967. Printed by Villiers Publ. Ltd, London.

Prepositions: The Collected Critical Essays of Louis Zukofsky. London: Rapp & Carroll, 1967; NY: Horizon, 1968.

Little: a fragment for careenagers. LA: Black Sparrow Press, 1967 [complete work published 1970].

From Thanks to the Dictionary. Buffalo, NY: Gallery Upstairs, 1968 [broadside].

Ferdinand, including It Was. London: Jonathan Cape, 1968; NY: Grossman, 1968 [stories].

Catullus Fragmenta, with CZ and music by PZ. London: Turret Books, 1968. Designed and printed by Trigram Press, London (100 copies).

“A” 13-21. London: Jonathan Cape, 1969; NY: Doubleday (Paris Review Editions), 1969.

Catullus (Gai Valeri Catulli Veronensis Liber), with Celia Zukofsky. London: Cape Goliard, 1969; NY: Grossman, 1969.

The Gas Age. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Ultima Thule Book, 1969 [“LZ at the American Embassy, London. May 21, 1969.” LZ notes that he included these remarks in the expanded edition of Prepositions (1981) because of the “mangled transcription” of this “unauthorized” publication].

A Bibliography of Louis Zukofsky [Celia Zukofsky]. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1969.

Autobiography (with CZ). NY: Grossman,1970 [selected short poems set to music by CZ].

AN ERA. Santa Barbara, CA: Unicorn Press, 1970 [postcard].

Initial. NY: The Phoenix Book Shop, 1970.

Little: for Careenagers. NY: Grossman, 1970 [novel].

ALL: The Collected Short Poems, 1923-1964. NY: Norton, 1971. [paperback edition combining All: The Collected Short Poems, 1923-1958 and All: The Collected Short Poems, 1956-1964].

From “A”-22. Illustrated by Karyl Klopp. Cambridge, MA: Pomegranate Press, 1972 [broadside].

“A” 24. NY: Grossman, 1972.

Arise, Arise. NY: Grossman, 1973 [play].

“A” 22 & 23. NY: Grossman, 1975; London: Trigram Press, 1977.

“A”. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978; rpt. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1993; NY: New Directions, 2011 (Introduction by Barry Ahean and with some corrections to the text).

80 Flowers. Lunenburg, VT: Stinehour Press, 1978.

American Friends [Celia Zukofsky]. NY: C.Z. Publications; printed by Stinehour Press, 1979.

Prepositions: The Collected Critical Essays of Louis Zukofsky. Expanded edition. Foreword by Hugh Kenner. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

Collected Fiction. Foreword by Gilbert Sorrentino and afterword by Paul Zukofsky. Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1990.

Complete Short Poetry. Foreword by Robert Creeley. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991; rpt. as Anew: Complete Shorter Poetry. NY: New Directions, 2011.

Prepositions +: The Collected Critical Essays. Additional prose ed. with introduction by Mark Scroggins. Foreword by Charles Bernstein. Wesleyan UP, 2000.

A Useful Art: Essays and Radio Scripts on American Design. Ed. with introduction by Kenneth Sherwood. Afterword by John Taggart. Wesleyan UP, 2003.

The Writings of Guillaume Apollinaire/ Le Style Apollinaire (with Rene Taupin). Ed. with introduction by Serge Gavronsky. Foreword by Jean Daive. Wesleyan UP, 2003 [bi-lingual edn. of Le Style Apollinaire (1934)].

Louis Zukofsky: Selected Poems. Ed. Charles Bernstein. NY: Library of America, 2006.

Pound/Zukofsky: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky. Ed. Barry Ahearn. NY: New Directions, 1987.

The Correspondence of William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukofsky. Ed. Barry Ahearn. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2003.

The Selected Letters of Louis Zukofsky. Ed. Barry Ahearn. Z-site, 2013. Online here.

Miscellaneous

See also Uncollected Poems

There are also miscellaneous uncollected prose pieces listed in the Composition-Publication Chronology

Albert Einstein: A Biographical Portrait. By Anton Reiser [Rudolph Kayser, Einstein’s son-in-law]. NY: Albert & Charles Boni, 1930 [translated anonymously by LZ].

“Louis Zukofsky: avantgardista amerikai költő.” Pesti Napló (Budapest), (13 Aug. 1933): 37 [“Louis Zukofsky: American Vanguard Poet,” an interview with reporter Pásztor Árpád published in Hungarian and conducted while LZ visited the musician and composer Tibor Serly in Budapest in early Aug. 1933. Sometime in the following weeks, while Zukofsky was visiting EP in Rapallo, the interview was translated extemporaneously by Tibor Serly while EP typed it out and survives among EP’s papers. The interview is summarized and extensively quoted in Charles Norman, Ezra Pound, rev. ed. (1969): 316, 318-319].

Paul R. Hanna. Youth Serves the Community. NY: D. Appleton-Century, 1936 [a publication of the Progressive Education Association as a WPA funded project; both LZ and CZ are mentioned as a researchers in the acknowledgments].

Writers Take Sides / on the question: “Are you for, or are you against Franco and Fascism?” NY: The League of American Writers, May 1938 [LZ listed under “Other Writers / who answered “For the Legal Spanish Government”].

Electrical Fundamentals: Technical Manual (No. 1–455). Washington, D.C.: War Dept., 27 Jan. 1941) [one of the technical manuals LZ worked on during the early 1940s (HRC 25.2)].

Basic. NY: Hazeltine Electronics Corp., 1943 [report on Ogden & Richards’ Basic English, rpt. revised in Prep+ 155-164].

Jacket blurb for Lorine Niedecker, New Goose. Prairie City, IL: The Press of James A. Decker, 1946.

Jacket blurb for Mina Loy, Lunar Baedecker & Time-Tables. Highlands, NC: Jonathan Williams, 1958.

“Poly’s Poetic Professor” [interview with Hugh Seidman]. Polytechnic Reporter (12 Nov. 1959) [student newspaper of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn].

USA: Poetry – Louis Zukofsky (NET film series), recorded 16 March 1966. Produced & directed by Richard O. Moore for KQED-TV, San Francisco, CA, 1966 [soundtrack available at PennSound].

“Poet in Pressed Pants” [interview by Raymond Gardner in London with photo]. The Guardian (14 May 1969).

“Hushed Symbols” [talk with LZ and description of his London reading by Edward Lucie-Smith]. The Sunday Times (London) (18 May 1969): 60.

“To Basil” (with CZ). Madeira & Toasts for Basil Bunting’s 75th Birthday. Ed. Jonathan Williams. Dentdale, UK: Jargon Society, 1975.

Louis Zukofsky: second edition (Outtakes from the NET film series USA: Poetry, recorded 16 March 1966 [see above]). Produced by Gordon C.A. Craig & edited by Peter Kunz for the American Poetry Archive & the Poetry Center of San Francisco State University, 1978.

“Discarded Poems.” Louis Zukofsky: Man and Poet. Ed. Carroll F. Terrell. Orono, ME: National Poetry Foundation, 1979. 145-162.

Miscellaneous Letters

“Three Letters to Cid Corman.” Origin, second series 1 (April 1961): 46-47 [excerpts dated 11 July, 13 Aug. & 25 Aug. 1960]. Two letters rpt. The Gist of Origin, ed. Cid Corman (New York: Grossman, 1975): 160. Even briefer extracts from all three excerpts plus an additional passage from another letter dated 30 Sept. 1960 are included in Corman’s “In the Event of Words” in Terrell 326-327.

[Remark on Picasso]. Origin 13, second series (April 1964) [as part of an exchange on “The Picasso Confession,” a couple of phrases quoted from 5 Dec. 1963 letter to Cid Corman].

“Letters between Zukofsky and Ezra Pound.” Ed. Barry Ahearn. Montemora 8 (1981): 158-165 [includes some letters not in EP/LZ].

Ahearn, Barry, Zukofsky’s “A”: An Introduction. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1983 [includes numerous excerpts from letters, especially from Lorine Niedecker].

“A Letter to Robert Creeley” [dated 11 Oct. 1955], Robert Creeley’s Life and Work: A Sense of Increment. Ed. John Wilson. Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P, 1987. 32-33.

“Two Letters to Cid Corman.” Line (Simon Fraser U) 14 (Fall 1989): 3-10.

“Selected Correspondence (1930-1976).” Ed. Barry Ahearn. Chicago Review 50.2/3/4 (Winter 2004/05): 39-50 [8 letters to EP, Robert Creeley, David Ignatow, Henry Rago, Mary Ellen Solt, Hugh Kenner, Tom Maschler and Gilbert Sorrentino].

The primary collection of Zukofsky’s manuscripts and papers are housed at the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. See the extensive inventory listing.
See also manuscript descriptions at HRC by Booth and Henderson (see Bibliographies).
See LZ Manuscripts and Papers for descriptions and locations of other LZ materials.

There are a number of reproductions of manuscript and typescript pages; see in particular the following:

Booth, Marcella. A Catalogue of the Louis Zukofsky Manuscript Collection. Austin: Humanities Research Center, The U of Texas, 1975 [reproduces over a dozen pages of misc. manuscripts and typescripts].

___. “The Zukofsky Papers.” Library Chronicle of the University of Texas, 2 (190): 48-59 [draft pages of “A”-12].

Henderson, Cathy. “Supplement to Marcella Booth’s A Catalogue of the Louis Zukofsky Manuscript Collection.” Oliphant, Dave and Gena Dagel, eds. Lawrence, Jarry, Zukofsky: A Triptych—Manuscript Collections at Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. Austin, TX: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, 1987 [the plan for “An Alphabet of Subjects” for Bottom and draft title page for I’s (pronounced eyes), plus an annotated page from Shakespeare’s Pericles].

Paideuma 7.3 (Winter 1978): 503-504 [two manuscript pages from 80 Flowers].

Phillips, Rodney, et. al, eds. The Hand of the Poet: Poems and Papers in Manuscript, ed. Rodney Phillips NY: Rizzoli, 1997. 185 [first page of typescript of “’A’/First and Second Movements” with EP’s annotations].

Yao, Steven. Translation and the Languages of Modernism: Gender, Politics, Language. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. 22-233 [the dust jacket of Catullus which reproduces the working notebook pages for Catullus 85].

Zukofsky, Paul. “Louis Zukofsky’s Maginalia.” Chicago Review 50.2/3/4 (Winter 2004/05): 101-102 [two pages of LZ’s marginalia on the King James version of the Bible].