John Ashbery has been called 'the finest poet in English of his generation' (The Times). A broad selection of Ashbery's prose writings from 1957 to 2004 is collected here for the first time. Literary reviews and essays, articles on film, and key pieces of art criticism, some never before published, reveal a critical intelligence that has had a profound impact on the cultural landscape of the past half-century. His reviews of Gertrude Stein's Stanzas in Meditation and of de Chirico's Hebdomeros, as well as his essays on Raymond Roussel, are contemporary classics. Less familiar, but equally illuminating, are his discussions of Antonin Artaud, Jacques Rivette, Marianne Moore and Robert Mapplethorpe.

This collection of Ashbery's critical writings dramatically expands the terrain covered by his first two books of essays, Reported Sightings: Art Chronicles 1957-1987 (Carcanet 1990) and Other Traditions (first presented as the Norton Lectures at Harvard in 1990).

Eugene Richie's introduction explores the cultural context of these writings, demonstrating not only their significance for Ashbery's poetic development, but their importance in the shaping of literature and the arts in the twenty-first century.

Table of Contents

An Introductory Note by John Ashbery

Introduction by Eugene Richie

(Dates below are of presentation or of earliest publication.)

Gertrude Stein. The Impossible (July 1957)

Michel Butor. Review of La Modification (October 1958)

Pierre Reverdy. A Note on Pierre Reverdy (January/February 1960)

Antonin Artaud. Antonin Artaud: Poet, Actor, Director, Playwright (1960)

Raymond Roussel. On Raymond Roussel (1962)

Raymond Roussel. Introduction to "In Havana" (1962)

John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch (A Conversation) (Summer 1964)

Jasper Johns. Brooms and Prisms (March 1966)

Philip Booth, Stanley Moss, and Adrienne Rich. Tradition and Talent (September 4, 1966)

Frank O'Hara. Frank O'Hara, 1926-1966 (September 1966)

Frank O'Hara. Writers and Issues: Frank O'Hara's Question (September 25, 1966)

Marianne Moore. Jerboas, Pelicans, and Peewee Reese (October 30, 1966)

Giorgio de Chirico. The Decline of the Verbs (December 18, 1966)

Robert Duncan. Introduction to a Reading (1967)

Jane Bowles. Up from the Underground (January 29, 1967)

Alfred Chester. Chester's Sweet Freaks (March 12, 1967)

Jorge Luis Borges. A Game with Shifting Mirrors (April 16, 1967)

Witold Gombrowicz. Ecrivain Maudit (July 9, 1967)

Marianne Moore. Straight Lines Over Rough Terrain (November 26, 1967)

The New York School of Poets (March 5, 1968)

Lee Harwood. Comment on The White Room (1968)

Ted Berrigan. Review of The Sonnets (1968)

Elizabeth Bishop. Throughout Is This Quality of Thingness (June 1, 1969)

Italo Calvino. Further Adventures of Qfwfq, et. al. (October 12, 1969)

Frank O'Hara. Introduction to The Collected Poems (1971)

Louisa Matthiasdottir. North Light (1972)

A. R. Ammons and John Wheelwright. In the American Grain (February 22, 1973)

Jacques Rivette. Rivette Masterpiece(S?) (October 24, 1974)

E.V. Lucas and George Morrow. Introduction to What a Life! (1975)

Kenward Elmslie. The Figure in the Carport (Fall/Winter 1977).

Elizabeth Bishop. Second Presentation of Elizabeth Bishop (Winter 1977)

Frank O'Hara. A Reminiscence (1978)

David Schubert. Schubert's Unfinished (March 8, 1983)

F. T. Prince. On the Poetry of F. T. Prince (1983)

Fairfield Porter. Introduction to The Collected Poems with Selected Drawings (1985)

Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. Introduction to Fantômas (1986)

Nicholas Moore. Featured Poet (February 1986)

Raymond Roussel. An Unpublished Note (1987)

A Note on "Variation on a Noel" (1987)

Gertrude Stein. Foreword to The Third Rose: Gertrude Stein and Her World (1987)

Introduction to The Best American Poetry (1988)

James Schuyler. Introduction to a Reading (November 15, 1988)

Poetical Space (May 19, 1989)

Michael Palmer and James Tate. Introduction to a Reading (April 11, 1991)

Raymond Roussel. Introduction to Documents to Serve as an Outline (1991)

Gerrit Henry. Introduction to The Mirrored Clubs of Hell (1991)

Mary Butts. Preface to From Altar to Chimney-Piece (1992)

Mark Ford. Review of Landlocked (1992)

Pierre Martory. Introduction to The Landscape Is Behind the Door (1994)

Robert Creeley and Charles Tomlinson. Introduction to a Reading (April 25, 1995)

Robert Frost Medal Address (April 28, 1995)

Robert Mapplethorpe. Introduction to Pistils (1996)

Joe Brainard. Introduction to Joe Brainard: Retrospective (1997)

Trevor Winkfield. Introduction to Trevor Winkfield's Pageant (1997)

Frederic Church. Frederic Church at Olana: An Artist's Fantasy on the Hudson River (June 1997)

Charles North. Introduction to a Reading (April 16, 1998)

Pierre Martory. Obituary (November 18, 1998)

Raymond Roussel. Foreword to Raymond Roussel and the Republic of Dreams (2000)

Lynn Davis. Introduction to Exhibition Catalogue (2001)

Jane Freilicher. View Over Mecox (Yellow Wall) (2001)

James Schuyler. Introduction to Alfred and Guinevere (2001)

Tony Towle. Introduction to a Reading (November 8, 2001)

Larry Rivers. Larry Rivers Was Dying. He Asked to See Friends (August 25, 2002)

Rudy Burckhardt. New York? Mais Oui! (2003)

Mark Ford. Foreword to Soft Sift (2003)

Paul Killebrew. Preface to Forget Rita (2003)

Joan Murray. On the poetry of Joan Murray (October/November 2003)

Val Lewton. The Seventh Victim (Autumn 2003)

F. T. Prince. On "The Moonflower" (2004)