 |
| In the picture: Tom Raworth |
An Outburst for Tom Raworth
Fifty-five years ago, only just yesterday, Tom Raworth published the first issue of a new magazine, Outburst, printed on the press of Richard Moore and Sons in the basement of 167 Amhurst Road, London E8. Two years earlier Elaine Feinstein had introduced her first issue of Prospect, a new Cambridge magazine, by throwing down an editorial gauntlet:
The present provinciality of English poetry and the lack of confidence that seems to go with it certainly invites unfavourable comparison with the liveliness of the American scene.
The first poem in her little magazine (which went on sale for that long-gone currency ‘One Shilling and Sixpence’) was by Paul Blackburn and it was titled ‘How to live with / one another somehow’. The issue also contained four poems by Denise Levertov and Charles Olson’s ‘Maximus to Gloucester’.
When less than two years later the young Tom Raworth snatched up that gauntlet his first issue of Outburst contained work by Levertov and Olson as well as introducing the London world to Anselm Hollo, Gary Snyder, Edward Dorn and Robert Creeley. The Americans shared the sheets of this new venture with Michael Horovitz, Pete Brown and Gael Turnbull: American and British poetry would never be quite the same again! Inflation had hit the world of poetry as Raworth’s magazine hit the counter at Two Shillings and Sixpence but it was a price worth paying as a breath of fresh air exploded from this new outburst. The second issue appeared two years later and included work by Douglas Woolf, Paul Blackburn, Philip Whalen, LeRoi Jones, Fielding Dawson, Allen Ginsberg and Larry Eigner. The last poem in the issue was by Alan Sillitoe whose The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner had appeared four years before. There was a sense of challenge in the air and underneath the Sillitoe poem there was an advertisement for further issues of Prospect:
Not arrogant but furious – with the lapses attendant on risk.
Elaine Feinstein and Tom Raworth were at the forefront of a shifting of the literary plates.
Ian Brinton, 23rd November 2016
 |
| In the picture: Ian Brinton (left), Tom Raworth (right) Photographer: Anthony Barnett |
Ian Brinton studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before going on to a career in English teaching. He is an associate editor of 'Tears in the Fence' and 'SNOW', has edited two books on J.H. Prynne and published translations of Philippe Jaccottet. He is the editor of An Andrew Crozier Reader (Carcanet, 2012).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As When (Carcanet, 2015) spans the range of Tom Raworth’s poetry to date. This edition is beautifully arranged, with an introduction to his life and work long overdue.
