XVI American Literature: The Twentieth Century

section on African American literature was unavoidably postponed this year; his section next year will cover material published in both 2003 and 2004. 1. Poetry The year was rich in new editions of major poets. Particularly welcome was the publication by New Directions of Ezra Pound’s The Pisan Cantos, edited by Richard Sieburth. This is the first time since 1948 that Pound’s famously controversial text has received publication separate from the other cantos, and it is a pleasure to see such reputedly specialist material presented attractively and cheaply, with the kind of relationship between price and critical apparatus typically reserved for classic fiction. The text, familiar to readers of the Faber and New Directions editions, contains no surprises; the extensive endnotes, however, include some material which will be new to many readers, even those familiar with Carroll F. Terrell’s Companion to the ‘Cantos ’ of Ezra Pound (UCalP [1980]). Sieburth contributes a useful introduction, albeit one whose adoption of a biographical framework might be taken to suggest that the Pisan Cantos are primarily to be read through the perspective of Pound’s life—which is, one might think, the perspective from which the poetry will need at some point to escape if its value is to be dispassionately assessed. Overall, the edition is a near-ideal one for students. Teachers will want to continue to refer to Carroll Terrell for the broader range of references (and interpretations) that he provides, but will no