Marianne Moore was an unrelenting critic and censor of her own work. This
shows in her revisions of individual poems but it invisibly exercised a far
greater influence through her rigorous selection of poems to exclude or
preserve in succeeding collections.

When Moore assembled her first American book, Observations (1924), for
example, she included 54 of her 90 periodical publications from the previous
decade. Of these she allowed Eliot to reprint 39 in Selected Poems (1935)
and ultimately omitted several more from Collected Poems (1951) and Complete
Poems (1967).

In 2004 the conditions of Moore's literary estate finally allowed a new,
first posthumous edition of her poetry to appear, the Poems of Marianne
Moore, edited by Grace Schulman. Schulman collects all Moore's published
poems, together with additional texts from manuscripts, and presents them in
chronological sequence.

It begins with 68 "Early Poems 1907-1913" from manuscript, one previously
published in book form, a few in college magazines. This is not juvenilia.
A handful are prankishly collegiate but most represent journeywork
comparable to what Pound and Williams were publishing in these years.

The following section presents the work of the period during which Moore
found her mature style, including the 54 poems excluded from Observations
(1924) alongside the 36 that survived. Moore's self-criticism proves
accurate. Few or none of the poems that fall below her bar persuade us they
belong above it -- but she places the bar way too high.

Read through in sequence, the full range of her poetry in cumulative detail
reveals a teasing, high-spirited, innovative daring less apparent in Moore's
exactingly exclusive selection from this period, and watching Moore invent
Moore is the best way to learn how to read her work as it becomes
progressively more challenging. Schulman's edition fundamentally and
radically transforms readerly access to Moore's poetry in ways comparable to
Johnson's edition of Dickinson. It is a great way to meet Moore for the
first time or the second and a vast improvement over all previous editions.
--

.

Having had my curiosity for things Moore whetted lately

and with your tellingly wise advice I go

with a link and a tale told truly and a word

<link>

I’m soon bound to get a copy of Grace’s work at my door.

　

thanks…..

.

Dear Jim: The Schulman volume has the virtues you describe, but there are typos/errors in both hardback and paperback editions. I don't have the volumes to hand, but they include such things as misprinting "firs" as "fins" in the opening lines of "A Grave," and strange substitutions in the last lines of "Those Various Scalpels," etc. I hope we can look forward to a meticulously proofread and corrected edition. For sleuths & scholars, I also recommend Robin G. Schulze's book, Becoming Marianne Moore: The Early Poems, 1907-1924, which includes the versions of poems that appeared in her 1924 Observations; first presentations of Moore's poems published between 1907-1924 that appear in Observations; first presentations of Moore's poems published between 1907-1924 that do *not* appear in Observations. Jennifer

Yes, there are typos in Schulman’s edition of Moore; I list those I’ve found below. There are also typos, some equally disastrous, in Complete Poems (1967) – e.g. “is misfortune” for “in misfortune” in the 7th verse of What Are Years.

Nevertheless, Schulman’s edition is a huge improvement over all previous editions and does in fact radically transform our access to Moore’s poetry.

It’s “scholarly reception” did not begin to recognize this; instead, it consisted mostly of “professional” carping. But then, “professional scholarship” has been reading Wyatt for 30 years in an edition (Penguin, ed. Rebholz) that includes among 285 poems 101 that are plainly not Wyatt’s.

The book you mention edited by Robin Schulze, Becoming Marianne Moore: The Early Poems, 1907-1924, offers photographic reproductions of Observations plus all Moore’s periodical publications up to Observations. It is a useful tool for Moore "scholars" (if there are any actually concerned with her texts, that is, rather than, say, the sexual adventures of the editors of the magazines that published her). It is not a readers edition of her poetry.

Shulman’s is a first rate readers edition and does, overall, a good job with a difficult task. Until we have a competent variorum edition cataloging all Moore’s variants, it will be impossible to improve on Schulman, and until we have scholars who respect, and are competent to perform, textual criticism, we won’t get that either.

*

TYPOS:

A Grave: 145 6th verse: "first" for "firs"

The Monkey Puzzle: p. 179, 17th verse: lower case t for capital: "This
porcupine" not "this".

Those Various Scalpels 116: antepenultimate verse on page: "We" [does not
belong here]

Critics and Connoisseurs: 106-107: the gap after the 4th verse needs to be
closed up. It is not clear that the typographical layout of this poem
reflects a proper understanding of its 8-verse (not 9-verse) stanzaic form.
See attached text.

The Buffalo (206: verse 19, capitalize "Brown" as in 1967); this is
possibly a correction, and correct (but cf. "Over-Drove Ox" 2 stanzas later.

See in the Midst of Fair Leaves (231, v. 12): "seeking" not "seeing" [in
the source cited, New Directions in Prose and Poetry, ed. James Laughlin,
1936)

His Shield (p. 264, verse 12, cap for l.c. 't' in first word (should be
"the", not "The")


in notes p. 413: The introductory sentence and two poems Garter Snake and
Eloquence are misplaced here; they belong with the note on The Monkey
Puzzle, to which they pertain, on p. 415.

in notes p. 421 missing stanza break between 17th & 18th verses of Virginia
Britannia

in notes p. 432: 4th line from bottom: "third" should read "ninth"

Index: neither the title ("So far as the future is concerned") nor the
incipit ("If external action is effete") of the poem on page 97 is indexed.
In Observations this poem is called The Past Is The Present, as it is in
Complete Poems 1967; cross-referencing this title would also be a help.


MISATTRIBUTIONS

To Military Progress. said to be O but is in fact the first publication,
Egoist 4.2 (Apr 1915). The version in tercets is from the Egoist; the
version in sestets first appears in Observations.

Critics and Connoisseurs: is said to be O but in fact is based on 1951 (see
mislineation of 6th-7th verses in 1st stanza and lineation of 6th-7th verses
of the 2nd & 3rd stanzas).