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Charles Olson

Studio Recording at Black Mountain College, c. 1954

Complete Reading (11:31): MP3

At San Francisco State University, 1957

From Maximus, vol. 1

  1. I, Maximus of Gloucester, to You [I.1] (4:01): MP3
  2. The Songs of Maximus [I.13-16] 3:11): MP3
  3. Maximus, Letter 7 (Marsden Hartley's eyes) [I:30-38] (5:44): MP3
  4. Maximus, Letter 10 [1:45-51] (3:39): MP3

From Maximus, vol. 2

  1. Letter 14 (6:11):
  2. Letter 15 (5:12): MP3
  3. Maximus, The Twist (3:40): MP3
  4. Second Century Song (0:30): MP3
  5. Anecdotes of the Late War (0:43): MP3
  6. The Love of Anat (0:34): MP3
  7. The O'Ryan Poems (3:32): MP3

Reading in Boston, June 1962

  1. Maximus, to Gloucester (3:05): MP3
  2. So Sassafras (3:33): MP3
  3. Maximus, to Gloucester, Letter 27 (2:11): MP3 [TEXT] youtube
  4. An Ode on Cape Ann (1:01): MP3
  5. from Maximus IV (1:02): MP3
  6. View (1:44): MP3
  7. Chronicles (1:43): MP3
  8. The Gulf of Maine (3:02): MP3
  9. Maximus, from Dogtown I (6:25): MP3
  10. Going Right Out of the Century (0:50): MP3
  11. Maximus, to Gloucester, Letter 15 (4:14): MP3
  12. A Later Note on Letter #15 (1:11): MP3
  13. Letter 41 (1:02): MP3
  14. Maximus, from Dogtown II (3:36): MP3
  15. The Distance (2:03): MP3
  16. The Librarian (2:52): MP3
  17. To Gerhardt, There, Among Europe's Things... (12:52): MP3
  18. In Cold Hell, In Thicket MP3
  19. ABC (0:53): MP3
  20. Letter, May 2nd 1959 (4:13): MP3
Complete Reading (1:08:51): MP3

At Goddard College, April 12-14, 1962

Reading and lecture, April 12th: MP3 (1:55:31)
Kyle Schlesinger's transcript of the event: PDF

Discussion of Herman Melville, April 14th: MP3 (1:55:31)

These recordings were originally made available to PennSound by Kyle Schlesinger. Special thanks to Goddard College archivist Forest Davis.

At the Vancouver Poetry Festival, August 16, 1963

  1. Maximus, from Dogtown II [II;9-10] (4:18): MP3
  2. Maximus, to himself.as of 'Phoemicians' [II:111] (1:14): MP3
  3. Maximus, to Gloucester, Letter 27 [withheld] [II-14-15] [1:5-8] (2:14): MP3, TEXT, youtube
  4. Maximus further on (December 28th1959) [II:13] (1:11): MP3
  5. The Poem (0:28): MP3
  6. River #1 (1:19): MP3
  7. River#2 (0:46): MP3
  8. Okeanos' dream (1:18): MP3
  9. The South East Wind (1:20): MP3
  10. I Tell You It's cruel (2:34): MP3
  11. Three Poems (1:45): MP3
  12. Of Old Times (2:12): MP3
  13. They said she went out (0:23): MP3
  14. A Maximus (2:08): MP3
  15. A coast is not the same as land (9:59): MP3
  16. Maximus Letter Whatever (2:19): MP3
  17. First Stevens Song (1:22): MP3
  18. Upward Choking on Dogtown (1:17): MP3
  19. I force the calm grey waters (1:08): MP3
  20. By the way into the woods (0:22): MP3
  21. The rock listens to itself (0:42): MP3
  22. Later Tyrian business [II:36] (1:26): MP3
  23. For Robert Duncan who understands (8:48): MP3
  24. Further completion of Platt (3:58): MP3
  25. Untitled (1:11): MP3
  26. A prayer (0:37): MP3
  27. All having breakfast (0:59): MP3
  28. Gee Avenue (0:25): MP3
  29. Where is the B. Elery (0:11): MP3
  30. Maximus Written to be a note to myself (about Stevens) (3:01): MP3
  31. 23 School and 16 Columbia (2:12): MP3
  32. I stand on Main St. (0:33): MP3
  33. Letter 72 (1:46): MP3
  34. Descartes solider in a time of religious wars (0:45): MP3
  35. In the interleaved almanacs of 1646 (1:55): MP3
  36. Of the Parsons (3:33): MP3
  37. The Beginnings (5:38): MP3
  38. Maximus at the Harbour (2:56): MP3
  39. 2nd Century Song (7:10): MP3
  40. from "Fort Point section," Maximus II [II:83ff] (7:40): MP3
  41. From Maximus II, final poems [II:199- 202] (5:33): MP3
  42. The Songs of Maximus [I.13-16] (6:22): MP3
  43. Maximus, to Himself ("I have had to learn the simplest things / last ..." [I:52-53] (2:26): MP3
  44. The Blue Monster (0:57): MP3
  45. The Lordly & Isolate Satyr (8:38): MP3
  46. Le Bonheur (2:22): MP3
  47. The Charge (2:37): MP3
  48. Spring (1:16): MP3
  49. As the Dead Prey Upon Us (10:25): MP3
  50. Kingfishers (6:31): MP3
  51. Letter 3 ("Tansy buttons ..." [I:9-16] (8:00): MP3
Complete Recording (2:45:53): MP3 These recordings were originally made available to the Slought Foundation by Fred Wah. PennSound publication made with thanks to Slought and with the permission of Fred Wah and the Olson Estate.

Readings at Berkeley, Buffalo, and Vancouver (date unknown)

  1. Introduction (0:56): MP3
  2. John Burke (1:37): MP3
  3. The Librarian (3:18): MP3
  4. Maximus (5:50): MP3
  5. Letter 24 (3:10): MP3
  6. Letter 25: A Plantation a Beginning (2:56): MP3
  7. Letter 26: Maximus to Gloucester (3:30): MP3
  8. Gloucester to Himself (2:23): MP3
  9. Songs of Maximus: Song 1 (3:45): MP3
  10. Tansy Buttons (5:47): MP3
  11. Poem of Spring based on a poem by Rimbaud (5:01): MP3
  12. In Cold Hell, In Thicket (8:53): MP3
  13. Maximus from Dog Town I (7:01): MP3
Complete Reading (56:35): MP3
(recording courtesy of Ron Silliman)

At Gratwick's Highlands, November 16, 1963

  1. Part 1 (1:37:26): MP3
  2. Part 2 (1:06:57): MP3
    3. (recording courtesy of Robert Creeley)

At Beloit College; March, 1968

Lectures 1-3 (1:57:41): MP3
On Black Mountain (2:06:23): MP3

Reading from Maximus, vol. 2, Beloit College (March 26, 1968)

  1. Introduction (0:47): MP3
  2. out over the land skope [II.126] (3:14): MP3
  3. Part of the Flower of Gloucester [II.127] (0:38): MP3
  4. Veda upanishad edda than [II.128] (0:15): MP3
  5. Wrote my first poems [II.129] (1:27): MP3
  6. the 1st lot from the Cutt [II.130] (0:31): MP3
  7. I am the Gold Machine [II.131] (1:47): MP3
  8. In the harbor [II.132] (0:11): MP3
  9. Kent Circle Song [II.133] (0:24): MP3
  10. I swung out, at 8 or 10 [II.134] (0:12): MP3
  11. JW (from the Danelaw) [II.135] (0:59): MP3
  12. proem [II.136-137] (4:12): MP3
  13. not the intaglio method [II.138] (0:16): MP3
  14. mother-spirit to fuck at noumenon [II.139] (0:16): MP3
  15. Monday, November 26, 1962 [II.140] (0:22): MP3
  16. he who walks with his house on / his head [II.141] (0:16): MP3
  17. she who met the serpent in the pond [II.142] (0:23): MP3
  18. the woman who said she went out every Sunday [II.143] (0:21): MP3
  19. into the Stream or Entrance to the Inner Harbor [II.144] (0:26): MP3
  20. The Frontlet [II.145] (0:57): MP3
  21. Homo Anthropos [II.146] (0:22): MP3
  22. to enter into their bodies [II.147] (1:02): MP3
  23. The Cow / of Dogtown (3:38) [II.148-150]: MP3
  24. Stage Fort Park [II.151] (1:15): MP3
  25. Further Completion of Plat (before they drown / Dogtown with reservoir, and beautify it) [II.152] (2:41): MP3
  26. Sequentior [II.153] (0:46): MP3
  27. Licked man (as such) out of the ice [II.154] (0:25): MP3
  28. Gylfaginning VI [II.155] (0:37): MP3
  29. Heaven as sky is made of stone [II.156] (0:18): MP3
  30. All night long [II.157] (0:31): MP3
  31. the Vault / of Heaven [II.158] (0:28): MP3
  32. turn out your / ever-loving arms [II.159] (0:42): MP3
  33. at the boundary of the mighty world [II.160-162] (7:46): MP3
  34. Maximus, from Dogtown — IV [II.163-172] [excerpt] (2:12): MP3
  35. I looked up and saw / its form [II.173] (0:14): MP3
  36. One of the Bronze Plaques Which Decorate These / Shores [II.174] (0:25): MP3
  37. A Letter, on Fishing Grounds [of, The Gulf of Maine] by Walter H. Rich [II.175-176] (1:59): MP3
  38. Maximus, to Gloucester, Letter 157 [II.177-178] (2:16): MP3
complete reading (50:51): MP3

Readings and Conversations at the Berkeley Poetry Conference, July 12-24, 1965

PoemTalk Podcast #34, discussing Olson's Maximus poems, July 26, 2010

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Also of Interest:

Charles Olson on PennSound Daily


These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author's estate. © 2004-2007, The Estate of Charles Olson. Used with permission of the Olson Estate. Distributed by PennSound.