Four Lectures - by Stephen Rodefer (Paperback)

About the Book

"Stephen Rodefer was one of the most innovative and singular of American poets, a student of Charles Olson's often associated with the Language poets but whose eclectic, energetic verse defies categorization and embraces a worldly lyricism uniquely his own. Four Lectures is widely considered to be his masterpiece, a book of four long poems that explore the radical possibilities of language through a generous, intimate collage of the sights and sounds, the words and images that form the poet's world. Making freewheeling reference to Shakespeare and Sappho, Looney Tunes and Ethel Waters, among others, Rodefer boldly reimagines the modern philosophical poem, exemplified by Four Quartets and Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror, for a new and fragmentary age. First published in 1982 by Geoffrey Young's legendary press The Figures and long beloved by readers, these witty, playful poems have been unavailable in a single volume for nearly half a century. This new edition will reproduce the layout of the original, in which the material presentation of words on the page is integral to the meaning of the poem. Of Four Lectures, Ron Silliman writes: "Philosopher-harlequin, the poet speaks plainly, having just now invented the line. What other writer can give us this much of the real.""--

Book Synopsis

Originally published in the 1980s and out of print until now, Rodefer's four long poems are milestones in American avant-garde poetry.

Stephen Rodefer was an innovative, singular American writer--a student of Charles Olson's often associated with the Language poets but whose eclectic, energetic verse defies categorization and embraces a worldly lyricism all Rodefer's own. Four Lectures--first published in 1982 by Geoffrey Young's legendary press The Figures and long out of print--is widely considered to be his masterpiece. It is a book of four long poems that explore the radical possibilities of language through a generous, intimate collage of sights and sounds, voices and images, drawn from the poet's world. In city-block-like stanzas by turns philosophical and political, playful and playing for keeps, with freewheeling reference to everything from Shakespeare to Looney Tunes to Iceberg Slim and much else besides, Rodefer boldly reimagines the modern philosophical poem exemplified by T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets and John Ashbery's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror for an inundating, fragmentary age in which there are "more photographs in the world than there are bricks."

Review Quotes

"Part carnival, part war, the clamor of the world is loud in these works, submitted by a rigorous and passionate intellect to the clarities which only language can yield. . . . What other writer can give us this much of the real?" --Ron Silliman

"Stephen Rodefer's writing is simply one of the eight wonders of the world." --Ian Patterson

About the Author

Stephen Rodefer (1940-2015) was an American poet and painter who lived in Paris and London. Born in Bellaire, Ohio, he knew many of the early Beat and Black Mountain poets, including Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Charles Olson, and Robert Creeley. Rodefer, one of the original Language poets, taught at many universities, including Cambridge University, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, San Francisco State, and the American University of Paris. Rodefer was the first American poet to be offered a Fellowship at Cambridge University. He was the author of One or Two Love Poems from the White World, The Bell Clerk's Tears Keep Flowing, Four Lectures, Oriflamme Day (with poet Benjamin Friedlander), Emergency Measures, Passing Duration, Leaving, Erasures, Left Under A Cloud, Call It Thought, and Mon Canard, among other titles. His graphic work, Language Pictures, has been exhibited in recent years in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris, and Prague. He died in Paris.

Geoffrey Young is a poet and publisher. His press, The Figures, was the original publisher of Four Lectures.