A scholar of Beat Generation writers, Ann Charters, has written a new book about two celebrated poets connected and inspired by their experiences in Gloucester.
The book, “T.S. Eliot and Charles Olson: Young Tom and Charlie — Two American Poets at Home in Gloucester,” was published by the Gloucester Writers Center.
A special event with the author will take place this Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Rocky Neck Cultural Center, 6 Wonson St. in Gloucester.
Charters, who holds a doctorate from Columbia University, is professor of American Literature emerita at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
“The Gloucester Writers Center is really pleased to have helped bring Ann Charters’ vision to life in this new book. The fact that these two brilliant but extraordinarily different poetic imaginations were formed in part through their relationship to Gloucester is provocative,” said Eric Parkison, director of programming at the writers center. “These talents, assimilating the light and sounds of Gloucester, gave us two of the most daunting and monumental bodies of poetry in American literature. This book helps open the conversation about how that could be.”
The book, which delves into the childhood summers of Eliot and Olson, is described as a “rich tapestry of poetry and commentary that illuminates the formative influence of Gloucester’s unique environment on these young poets,” noted Henry Ferrini, a founder of the writers center.
Through essays, poems, and photographs, the city of Gloucester takes its place in the history of two boys whose poetry transformed the artform.
“A longtime Olson scholar, Ann Charters turns her critical attention to the relationship of place and poetry in Tom and Charlie. This book brings together some of Gloucester’s most eccentric and impressive sons. Charles Olson and TS Eliot both had childhoods shaped by the light and scent, the seascapes and hillsides of the city of Gloucester. Charters’ book raises the essential question of how this place influenced the perspective and craft of two such wildly different poetic spirits,” according to a program statement.
The book provides a comparative analysis of their poetic perceptions and how these were influenced by their surroundings, Ferrini said, who added that Charters offers readers a profound look at how a shared geographical location can shape the creative visions of two poets.
The book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the intersection of place and poetry, Ferrini said.
The back cover of the book shares an added insight: It was ‘The Gloucester Notebook’ of T.S. Eliot that connected the writing of young Tom and Charlie for Ann Charters, who found it while browsing on a summer afternoon at the Dogtown Books shop on Main Street. Though the two poets T.S. Eliot and Charles Olson never met, they became associated in her mind by their strong responses to this coastal city.
This new book supports the Gloucester Writers Center, an organization dedicated to preserving the city’s literary history and nurturing new generations of writers. This is the center’s third published book, after “Incredible Dancer: Poems from Vincent Ferrini to his friends on Cape Ann” and “The Inner Voice and The Outer World: Writings by Veterans and Their Families.”
