Born in Berlin in 1903, Rakosi has become a much praised and published American poet, with awards from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ex cranium, night

Literature & Fiction

Rakosi, Carl

Poetry

Black Sparrow Press

For the new generation of poetry readers the work of Carl Rakosi will be an exciting discovery. Rakosi was well known in the Thirties, a leading member of the Objectivist Group, which also included William Carlos Williams, Louis Zukofsky, Charles Reznikoff, and George Oppen. New Directions published his Poems in 1941. Then, to the great disappointment of his admirers, Rakosi stopped writing; he had become disillusioned with the state of our society and felt there was no place in it for a poet. The world seems little better off today, but at least we can be grateful that Rakosi began to write poetry again three years ago and has now given us this selection from his poems, old and new. Rakosi's poetry has affinities with that of the other Objectivisits, but his voice is very much his own. His lines have distinctive tone and finish, deriving in part from a buoyant and ironic wit, in part from a rather unexpected vocabulary. Born in Berlin, educated in Hungary and the American Middle West, Rakosi studied both law and medicine, and brought to his work a unique, fresh, almost gnomic perception.

Amulet

The Collected Prose of Carl Rakosi

Jacket design by Arline Thomson with a photo by Burton Hatlen. From the front flap: As the poet approached his 75th birthday, he was asked to meditate about his lifetime as a writer and said: "The test of prose is whether it can escape into metaphor. If it can, it needs purifying. Ordinarily, therefore, I avoid prose, for there is nothing I like better than to escape into a metaphor. But I am also ironic and like to romp, and occasionally, therefore, write prose, which I strive, against my nature, to make atomic and as hard and tight and natural as a hickory nut."

Reference

Natl Poetry Foundation

Poems deal with loneliness, the past, animals, dreams, war, art, writers, letters, history, welfare, aging, workers, and the imagination

National Poetry Foundation

The Collected Poems of Carl Rakosi

Poems deal with loneliness, the past, animals, dreams, war, art, writers, letters, history, welfare, aging, workers, and the imagination

This new volume brings together, for the first time, all the poems Carl Rakosi wrote as an "Objectivist," together with his other poems of the 1920s and 1930s, printed in their original versions. The purpose of this current volume is to provide, as far as possible, a reliable account of what Rakosi wrote in the 1920s and 1930s. Working with Rakosi, Andrew Crozier has produced a carefully edited volume that will point up the innovativeness and talent of Rakosi's early writing.

Poems 1923-1941 (Sun & Moon Classics)

Sun & Moon Press

Poetry. Carl Rakosi remains a key figure in the group of poets formerly known as the Objectivists, that began to publish in the early 1930's. Louis Zukofsky, Charles Reznikoff, and George Oppen have been associated with the group. Today Carl Rakosi continues to write poetry and essays and to give public readings. THE OLD POET'S TALE includes 56 previously uncollected poems, and a new essay, Reflections on my Medium. With the publication of THE EARTH SUITE in 1997 Etruscan Books began to publish Rakosi's COLLECTED WORKS, continued in THE OLD POET'S TALE and two forthcoming volumes.

The Old Poet'S Tale: Collected Works Of Carl Rakosi, Vol. 1

Etruscan Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rakosi, Carl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Rakosi, Carl

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rakosi, Carl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Ex cranium, night

Amulet

The Collected Prose of Carl Rakosi

The Collected Prose of Carl Rakosi

The Collected Poems of Carl Rakosi

The Collected Poems of Carl Rakosi

Poems 1923-1941 (Sun & Moon Classics)

The Old Poet'S Tale: Collected Works Of Carl Rakosi, Vol. 1