Excellent book on one of the great incubators of American art and culture in the 20th century, Black Mountain College, by one of its alumni, Fielding Dawson, with much of its focus on the poetic genius of Worcester who was a teacher there and its last Chancellor, Charles Olson. ( )

Fielding Dawson (1930-2002) is one of the lesser known of the beat writers, and I only discovered him by chance while flicking through Edwidge Danticat's books at Nottingham University library (right next door alphabetically, see?). This book is a rather desultory account - jumping from straightforward narrative to concrete-style poetry through apparently unrelated ramblings - of the author's stay at Black Mountain College, near Asheville, North Carolina.

Much is made of Dawson's respect for his (principal?) teacher Charles Olson and the artist Fritz Kline, although the de Koonings, Robert Creeley, and Jonathan Williams are mentioned a few times. Dawson is quick to voice his admiration for Buckminster Fuller, although there is no other mention of the great man. The sexual activities, both hetero and homo, were interesting, although I skipped over a very laborious erection - the Tobacco Barn.

Nevertheless, this is a really significant insight into the Black Mountain College experiment.

http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com/ ( )