William Everson, on Writing the Waterbirds and Other Presentations: Collected Forewords and Afterwords, 1935-1981

"In an earlier book, Earth Poetry (Berkeley: Oyez, 1980), I brought together selected essays and interviews of William Everson in an attempt to give greater currency to what I think amounts to an important corrective to the still prevailing Modernist aesthetic. On Writing the Waterbirds and Other Presentations, collecting the poet's forwords and afterwords written between 1935 and 1981 to his own work and the work of others, is a companion volume. Part I is comprised to twenty-two pieces which first appeared in Everson's own books; twenty of these items attempted to set in context works of poetry, "Prodigious Thrust" and "Archetype West" works of prose. Almost all of these esseys were included in limited editions or in trade editions now long out or print, while neither "In the Fictive Wish" nor "Prodigious Thrust" have appeared in print at all. Part II brings together Everson's prefaces to books by younger writers, as well as his introduction to the Novum Psalterium PII XII which, like his Granite and Cypress, is a major archievemetn in American handpress printing. In Part III are gathered together the poet's introductions and afterwords to his book on, and his editions of, the work of Robinson Jeffers." - editor's note.