The Gold Diggers and Other Stories (SL 326)

158, [2] pp. A collection of short stories by the author best known for his poetry, representing Creeley's first foray into prose (these stories were written before his 1962 novel The Island). Creeley is generally associated with the Black Mountain poets, despite his verse displaying a style somewhat different from most members of that group. He was friends with a number of other influential poets of his day, including Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. "Once known primarily for his association with the group called the "Black Mountain Poets," at the time of his death in 2005, Robert Creeley was widely recognized as one of the most important and influential American poets of the twentieth century. His poetry is noted for both its concision and emotional power. Creeley has shaped his own audience. The much imitated, often diluted minimalism, the compression of emotion into verse in which scarcely a syllable is wasted, has decisively marked a generation of poets."