Kenneth Rexroth Archive
Introduction
Texts at This Site
Texts at Other Websites
Rexroth Books in Print
Out-of-Print Rexroth Books
Introduction
This section of the BPS website is devoted to writings by and about the great poet, essayist, social critic and Renaissance man, Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982). The emphasis will be on his out-of-print works (especially his numerous essays, articles and reviews), but it will also include selections from some of the in-print works. The primary aim is to introduce readers to a truly wonderful writer and encourage them to seek out whatever books of his are available. If enough interest is generated, perhaps publishers will bring more of his works back into print.
Unlike most of the texts at this website, the Rexroth works are all copyrighted. As indicated after each text, they are reproduced here either by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. (80 Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10011) or by permission of Copper Canyon Press (P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368) or by permission of Bradford Morrow, Literary Executor of the Kenneth Rexroth Trust (21 East 10th Street #3E, New York, NY 10003). They may not be reproduced for any commercial purpose, and even any extensive noncommercial reproduction should first be okayed with New Directions, Copper Canyon, or Mr. Morrow.
This is not an “official” Rexroth site. I have no connection, economic or otherwise, with Rexroth’s heirs or publishers. The work on it is a labor of love and the choice of texts is completely my own.
—KK
Texts at This Site
By Rexroth:
Autobiography (excerpts)
Classics Revisited (selections from two books)
Communalism: From Its Origins to the Twentieth Century
(complete book)
Camping in the Western
Mountains (complete, never-published book)
Essays
Poems
Rexroth’s San Francisco (newspaper
& magazine columns)
Translations (from
Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish & French)
By Rexroth, translated into other languages:
Poems translated into French
(Joël Cornuault)
Le San Francisco de Kenneth Rexroth
(Joël Cornuault)
About Rexroth:
The Relevance of Rexroth (complete book by
Ken Knabb)
Éloge de Kenneth Rexroth (same book in
French)
Erotismo, Misticismo y Revolución
(same book in Spanish)
A Clueless Life of
Kenneth Rexroth (Knabb)
Discovering Rexroth (Knabb)
Talking about Rexroth (Gibson & Knabb)
See also the “Rexroth” entry in the Site Index.
Texts at Other Websites
By Rexroth:
Essays:
Jazz Poetry
Review of Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues
Tom Jones and The Ginger Man
Review of Eli
Siegel’s poetry
Letters:
Letters to Morgan Gibson
Poem and Translations:
A dozen poems
Three poems
A dozen poems plus several
translations from Greek and Japanese
Translations
of Ho Chi Minh prison poems
Poetry Read to Jazz:
Rexroth reads four poems
with jazz accompaniment (via RealAudio)
By Rexroth, translated into other
languages:
Seven poems translated into Spanish (Laura Wittner, Argentina)
Excerpts from The Dragon and the Unicorn translated into Spanish
(Pimienta Negra, Buenos Aires/Madrid)
Communalism
(complete book)
translated into Portuguese (Coletivo Periferia, Brazil)
Seven poems
translated into Turkish
About Rexroth:
Revolutionary Rexroth:
Poet of East-West Wisdom (complete book by Morgan Gibson)
Four essays
(Donald Gutierrez, Linda Hamalian,
Bradford Morrow, Sam Hamill/Elaine
Laura Kleiner)
Essay on Rexroth
and Paul Goodman (Gregory Knapp)
Kenneth
Rexroth: Protest, Rebellion, and Beyond (Karl Young)
Review of Rexroth’s
Complete Poems (Jack Foley)
When We With Rexroth (Jacket
magazine special Rexroth issue, with articles, interviews and tributes by Kevin
Gallagher, Sam Hamill, Jerome Rothenberg, Eliot Weinberger, etc.)
Rexroth Revisited (Gary Gach)
Third Rail (excerpts from special Rexroth issue)
Miscellaneous:
Daily Bleed Rexroth Page (links to assorted photos plus an anarcho-literary calendar
that includes frequent quotes from Rexroth)
Reading Rat (“Recommended
Reading” pages collate Classics
Revisited with several other lists of recommended books)
Rexroth’s Personal Library (Rexroth’s personal library of some 15,000 books was purchased by the Kanda University of International Studies (Japan). The collection has now been catalogued so that you can find out what books Rexroth owned by any given author, etc.) [NEW]
Rexroth Centennial (information on forthcoming celebrations around the world, including a forum where such events can be announced and organized) [NEW]
Rexroth Books in Print
(All are published by New Directions unless otherwise indicated.)
Collected Shorter Poems (1966)
Collected Longer Poems (1968)
Selected Poems (1984)
Sacramental Acts: The Love Poems (Copper Canyon, 1997)
Swords That Shall Not Strike: Poems of Protest and Rebellion (Glad Day, 1999)
Complete Poems (Copper
Canyon, 2003)
Beyond the Mountains: Four Plays in Verse (1951)
World Outside the Window: Selected Essays (1987)
Classics Revisited (1964; 1986)
More Classics Revisited (1989)
An Autobiographical Novel (1964; expanded edition, 1991)
Kenneth Rexroth & James Laughlin: Selected Letters (Norton, 1991)
Translations
100 Poems from the Chinese
100 More Poems from the Chinese
Women Poets of China
Complete Poems of Li Ch’ing-Chao
100 Poems from the Japanese
100 More Poems from the Japanese
Women Poets of Japan
Seasons of Sacred Lust: Selected Poems of Kazuko Shiraishi
Selected Poems of Pierre Reverdy
14 Poems by O. V. de Lubicz-Milosz (Copper Canyon)
Poems from the Greek Anthology (Ann Arbor)
These books can be ordered through bookstores or online distributors. The New Directions books can also be ordered at the New Directions website.
Out-of-Print Rexroth Books
Camping in the Western Mountains
(written 1939 but never published)
Bird in the Bush: Obvious Essays (1959)
Assays (1961)
The Alternative Society: Essays from the Other World (Herder & Herder, 1970)
With Eye and Ear (Herder & Herder, 1970)
American Poetry in the Twentieth Century (Herder & Herder, 1971)
The Elastic Retort: Essays in Literature and Ideas (Seabury, 1973)
Communalism: From Its Origins to the Twentieth Century (Seabury, 1974)
Flower Wreath Hill: Later Poems (1991)
Translations
30 Spanish Poems of Love and Exile (City Lights, 1956)
100 Poems from the French (Pym-Randall, 1972)
There is also an immense mass of articles, columns, essays, reviews, introductions,
interviews, letters, radio tapes, etc. that have never been collected.