New book! (release date: December 2013)


Mary Barnard, American Imagist
by Sarah Barnsley

Uncovers a new chapter in the story of American modernist poetry.

In this book, Sarah Barnsley examines Barnard’s poetry and poetics in the light of her plentiful correspondence with Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and others. Presenting Barnard as a “late Imagist,” Barnsley links Barnard’s search for a poetry grounded in native speech to efforts within American modernism for new forms in the American grain. The first book on Barnard, and the first to draw on the Barnard archives at Yale’s Beinecke Library, Mary Barnard, American Imagist unearths a fascinating and previously untold chapter of twentieth-century American poetry.

“Clearly structured and elegantly written, Mary Barnard, American Imagist far exceeds any act of routine scholarly ‘recovery.’ In addition to giving full recognition to Barnard’s superb skills as a translator of Sappho, Sarah Barnsley also makes a convincing case for her original poetic output and for her contribution to the evolution of American free verse.” — Peter Nicholls, author of Modernisms: A Literary Guide, Second Edition

Sarah Barnsley is Lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Preview of forthcoming book by Sarah Barnsley Mary Barnard, American Imagist, (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2013), http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5776-mary-barnard-american-imagist.aspx