A Blessing Outside Us
n.p. Pourboire Press, 1979.
First trade edition. 85 pp., 5.5 x 8.25 inches. Sewn signatures glued into printed card covers. With a prefatory note by Robert Creeley, and back-cover photo of the author by Gerard Malanga. Warmly inscribed by the author to fellow poet Jane Glazer, and with Glazer's heavily annotated pamphlet from the 1986 Portland Poetry Festival's program devoted to Charles Olson (at which Morley appeared as a special guest). Light sunning to edges of covers and spine of book, otherwise very good; pamphlet folded and lightly rumpled, otherwise very good as well. Item #4638
The first trade edition of Morley's first book, following a limited edition published in 1976 through the efforts of Denise Levertov. In the 1940s Morley got to know many of the major abstract expressionist painters through her first husband, artist Eugene Morley; later, she taught at Black Mountain College during its artistic heyday under the rectorship of poet Charles Olson, alongside her second husband, composer Stefan Wolpe.
Given Morley's association with Black Mountain, it is perhaps no surprise that she was invited to participate in the panel discussion during the Olson program, along with Robert Bertholf, Robert Creeley, Robin Blaser, and Bill Tremblay. Jane Glazer's extensive notes from the presentation entirely cover the otherwise blank back page of the pamphlet and are scattered across the inner pages as well, in particular noting many of the shared philosophical and poetic issues central to Olson's and Morley's work, but also Morley's critique of the view of women by Olson and the Black Mountain milieu, to wit:
"Hilda — "division of my feeling for him."
Olson —> shared (1) love of DH Lawrence (2) criticism of society (America) (3) theory of field
Olson didn't see woman as seeker in her own right —
Olson, "woman renders service of an intimate kind."
Superior toward Denise Levertov
Black Mountain / arrogance = their ignorance"
An uncommon book, especially so inscribed, and with the addition of the Olson pamphlet, a fascinating document.
Price: $200.00