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Collected Poems
Don Gordon (Author), Fred Whitehead (Edited by), Fred Whitehead (Contributions by)
9780252066405
Paperback / softback, published 1 January 1997
352 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.454 kg
"What a joy it is to see this collection! New generations of poets can now hold in their hands not only an important connection to America's radical past but eloquent proof that socially engaged poetry can be great poetry. Congratulations to the University of Illinois Press for rescuing the work of this neglected master." -– Robert Edwards, editor, Pemmican
Don Gordon made his name in the 1930s as a passionate and outspoken political poet, his work being published in the most prestigious American journals. In spite of his growing literary reputation he was called before the Un-American Activities Committee of the U.S. House or Representatives in September, 1951. Due to his openly communist views and his reluctance to give the committee names of fellow radical writers, Gordon was blacklisted from employment in the film industry. He devoted his time to writing poems, despite the difficulty of finding a wide audience for them.
Many of Gordon's poems are suffused with themes of revolution and political activism, but this collection showcases the breadth of the subjects he addressed in his sixty years of writing, expressed with a rigorous aesthetic sensibility in a style that incorporates diverse influences, including modernism and surrealism.
"Don Gordon is great," Meridel LeSueur wrote, "because he shows the vigorous and wondrous strength of the people." With this complete collection of his poems, readers can at last experience the full range of this vigorous and challenging writer.