Paterson (Revised Edition) (33 page)

194–95     Paterson … skull     From the
New York Herald Tribune
, September 18, 1950, p. 16. September 17 was WCW’s birthday.

WCW omits four final paragraphs on the Harvard typescript. The three remaining differences from the printed version are present in the Za189 typescripts:

months/month

told the police/told police

Following “county physician” WCW omits “who examined Nancy.”

The spelling “Garrett” is in the original and all typescripts and printings.

195–97     There was … Falls     Adapted, largely verbatim, from the prose in scattered pages of Charles P. Longwell,
A Little Story of Old Paterson as Told by an Old Man
(Paterson, 1901), pp. 24–25, 32–33, 66–67, 21, 21–22, 47, 51, 52, 53, 59, 49, 33 and 32.

197     Paterson … butchery     Taken from a much longer account in
The Prospector
, September 25, 1936, I and 4, where it is described as “the first crime of murder, in the County of Passaic.” The version in
Paterson
quotes from about a tenth of the source, selecting sentences from throughout the article.

The verbal differences from
The Prospector
appear in Za189 with one exception:

this county/the county

to find and arrest their man/to track him, who soon succeeded in finding and arresting him     WCW marks the revision on the Harvard typescript.

knowledge of /knowledge or

198     Trip … was     The Dutch rhyme appears in Nelson 395 and NS 156. All printings have “kocien” for “koeien”—an error on the typescripts.

199     the tame sea/the time sea     In all printings and on page proof, a possible uncaught error on the galleys. I have restored the reading in all typescripts.

202     John Johnson … spectacle     WCW adapted a note researched and prepared for him by KH, now filed with Za189, which reads: “John Johnson from Liverpool was convicted after 20 minutes conference by the Jury. He was hung on April 30th, 1850 in the Jail Yard in full view of thousands who gathered on Garrett Mountain and on the house tops to witness the spectacle.” The spelling “Garrett” is in all typescripts and printings.

WCW originally conceived
Paterson
as having four books, but even while completing Book IV he noted possible themes for a continuation. Subsequently, he published a twenty-four-line poem “Paterson, Book V: The River of Heaven” in 1952, but this poem developed into the long poem “Asphodel, that Greeny Flower.” See CP2 238–39, 310–337, and accompanying notes.

For a comment by WCW on
Paterson V
that appeared on the dust jacket of the 1958 text see the “Preface” of this edition.

206     at the end … was one     Probably WCW’s prose. The material appears as verse in early typescripts filed with an uncatalogued box at Yale.

206     The Unicorn     Within sections I and III of Book V WCW makes a number of references to details in the 15th—16th-century Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries in the collection of the Cloisters Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The six tapestries, and the fragments of another, all have rich floral backgrounds. The first tapestry depicts the hunters and dogs setting out, the second the surrounded unicorn at a fountain, and the third its attempted escape. In the fourth the unicorn gores a greyhound, in the fifth, the fragment, the virgin/maiden fondles the neck of the unicorn while the huntsmen gather, and in the sixth the slain unicorn is brought before the castle. In the seventh tapestry the gored but alive unicorn is alone within a low, circular wooden enclosure, and the image has been discussed as a symbol of the risen Christ, of the Blessed Virgin and the Incarnation, and as the consummation of marriage.

207     the Dadaist novel     WCW’s translation of Soupault’s novel was published in 1929.

208     Dear Bill … Josie     From a letter to WCW from Josephine Herbst, Monday May 14 [1956] (Yale uncat.).

As with the prose based on some other letters that are now at Yale, this passage was amended with the posthumous 1963 printing to bring it closer to the original, but inconsistently and—in this case—with the introduction of two new printing errors. In keeping with the principles for Book V laid out in “
A
Note on the Text,” I have generally followed WCW’s probable transcription typescript, filed with Za190, and note below the verbal differences from the original, the first edition and the post-1963 printings. Most of the changes from the original are introduced in one of the later Za190 drafts. For this particular passage, however, WCW or his typist apparently went back to the original after a number of retypings and picked up some dropped material. I have incorporated these changes from the transcription typescript into the text.

F.     Original reads Florence [Mrs. Williams]

The farm … saw them. I have restored this sentence, which appears on the transcription typescript, but is dropped on the retyped draft that introduces most of the differences from the original. The next sentence begins directly under this sentence’s opening “The” on the transcription, and with the same word, and thus the omission is quite possibly a typing error. The 1963 text added an ellipsis. See A 269–271, where WCW describes the farm at Erwinna, Pa.

D.E.     Dick Eberhart

one D.E. envied when he saw it and/and D.E. envied it when he saw it     IST

writing     Omitted in IST

barn/farm     IST

who     Omitted in transcription, but appears in later drafts

in space/for space     IST

E’s/     E. in IST, “Eberharts” in original

E’s will/E’ll     IST and 1963, “Eberharts will” on original. I follow the transcription typescript.

H./Hanover     Sentence omitted in transcription, but appears in later drafts

J.G./Jean Garrigue

of memories/of them     IST

Hepatica/Hepaticas     IST

trees/the trees     IST

warblers … warbler/warbler … warblers     IST and 1963. I follow the transcription, which is as on the original,

confused     1963 and original have confounded

lined with sheepskin/lines with shipskin     1963 Error originates with 1963 printing.

Best/Warmest     IST

everyone/everybody     IST

Josie     Original and Yale typescripts read Jo; change occurs on Harvard printer’s typescript.

209     wounded wounded     Treated as an error and amended to “wounded” in the 1963 printing. As 1963 on one of the Za190 typescripts and as first edition on a number of others and the Harvard typescripts. When consulted during preparations for the 1963 printing, Thirlwall listed this among a number of suggested changes in a note to James Laughlin, adding “sounds a bit mushy for WCW” (ND Archives). Since WCW let the repetition pass on a number of the late typescripts and in the first edition I have restored it.

210–211     Dear Dr…. A.G.     The third letter from Allen Ginsberg included in
Paterson
, see also pp. 172–174 and 193. (May 20, 1956, Yale uncat.). The text was amended with the posthumous 1963 printing to bring it closer to the original, but inconsistently. In keeping with the principles for Book V laid out in “A Note on the Text,” I have generally followed WCW’s probable transcription typescript, filed with Za190, and note below the verbal differences with the original, the first edition and the post-1963 printings. Most of the changes from the original are introduced on one of the later Za190 drafts.

your introduction     WCW’s introduction “Howl for Carl Solomon” to Ginsberg’s
Howl and Other Poems
(1956).

the point/to the point     IST

though/thought     IST

on a ship/in a ship     IST

family on my/family on way to a     Original and 1963. I follow the transcription and IST.

have a whitmanesque/do have a whitmanic     Original and 1963. I follow the transcription and IST.

&/and     IST

image/images     Original and 1963. I follow the transcription and IST.

poppa/papa     IST

any case/my case     IST

struggle/trouble     IST

the stones/stones     IST

to the mind     All printings and transcription, original has “of the mind”

mind/mind too     Original, transcription and 1963, change occurs when original cut later.

magazine will be put out/magazeen will be out     IST

ANY TIME     All printings and transcription, original has TIME

SUNFLOWER SUTRA
     Omitted in IST. The poem appears in
Howl and Other Poems

WCW omits following “contain”:

3 shorter poems too, written subsequent to howl:

Supermarket in California—a homage to whitman

Sunflower sutra—declaration of the experience of

happy real mercy

America—make of it what you can.

WCW omits eleven lines of the letter following “times” that discuss the literary and travel activities of Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Robert Creeley, and Richard Eberhart.

Following “weeks” WCW omits “if the FBI doesn’t get me first. Shipping out for Govt Military Sea Transport to refurbish the DEW (defense radar arctic paranoia installactions).”

compassion The two dots are in AG’s original.

Following “find” WCW omits “not that hard. I mean to indicate next move, next step ahead, jump of the imagination, Whitman had enormous sense of humor and Freedom”; and following “shut up” WCW omits “here’s some more poems which will be going in the book.”

etc etc     In all printings, but not in the original, which has a period following “too,” the only word omitted here from the original.

out … etc.     WCW omits the final fourteen lines of the letter, which concern details of the magazine,
Moby
, and of possible contributors.

A.G.     Original reads Allen Ginsberg, is signed Allen, and adds a c/o address.

212     … The whores … G.S.     Taken from a four-page typescript titled “Bordertown” now with Yale
Za190
, sent to WCW by Gilbert Sorrentino. An accompanying letter, dated 9 January, 1956 (Yale uncat.), begins:

I have just finished reading your book
The Desert Music
, and I’d like to tell you that I haven’t read poems of such beauty in months or even years. What interested me especially was the last (title) poem, ‘The Desert Music,’ since, about four years ago, when I was in the Army, I wrote a narration in prose, I suppose you could call it, called
Bordertown
, which deals with a town like the Juarez of your poem … this being Nuevo Laredo.

I’m taking the liberty of sending you the writing, even though it needs revision….

WCW replied on January 12, “Your story is a knockout and one of the best written accounts of the sort that I remember ever to have read.” And a week later: “The story is a rough one but exceptionally well written and must not be lost sight of—and I don’t intend to lose sight of it as you’ll see when the occasion shall arrive. … an unusual success in a young writer. More power to you” (Univ. of Delaware). And see Weaver 217. The sketch has not been published elsewhere.

On 6 April 1962 Sorrentino wrote to WCW: “When you praised that short sketch of mine (the one that you later used pieces of in Paterson 5) it was one of the great things to ever happen to me, both as a writer,
Perse
, and as a man. At the time, I was broke, miserable, had a huge body of poems and prose that no one had any interest in, and worst of all, I didn’t know a single writer to whom I could show any of the work, for ‘professional’ criticism. You gave me the confidence and the strength to feel my own slowly-ebbing confidence and strength fully. … I am deeply and permanently grateful to you” (Yale uncat.).

A number of changes were made to the passage in the 1964 second printing of the 1963 text (referred to below as 1964), in part through a note to James Laughlin from Hugh Kenner reporting “indirectly” on nine suggested corrections by Gilbert Sorrentino (Sept. 1, 1963, ND Archives), and also by the original typescript’s arrival at Yale. Nine of the ten changes are those communicated by Professor Kenner. While some of the changes return to the original, others create a further version. In keeping with the principles for Book V laid out in “A Note on the Text,” I have generally followed WCW’s probable transcription typescript, filed with
ZA190
(which in this case returns the text closer to the original than either previous printing), and note below the verbal differences with the original, the first edition and the 1964 text. Most of the changes from the original were introduced on one of the later Za190 drafts.

pleading/bleeding     IST

A real house, a real house     I follow the transcription and IST; original reads “A real house, a reel house,” 1964 reads “A reel house, a real house,” following the Kenner/Sorrentino correction.

vulgar assailing/vulgarassailing     IST and on transcription

against the dancers/against the door     In all printings. I follow the original and the transcription.

your ear/your ear dances     IST, your ear dancers 1964 following the Kenner/Sorrentino correction. I follow the original and the transcription.

you argue/argue     IST, and you argue 1964, following the Kenner/Sorrentino correction. I follow the original and the transcription.

laughs noise/laughs nose     All printings, I follow the original and the transcription.

four cuatro … cuatro dolares/four quarto … quatro dollars IST/four quatro … quatro dolares 1964, following the Kenner/Sorrentino correction. I follow the original and the transcription (although the latter reads “dolars”).

friend’s voice/friends     IST, friends’ voices 1964 following the Kenner/Sorrentino correction. I follow the original, the transcription reads “friend’s” but omits “voice.”

his face/the face     1964 following the Kenner/Sorrentino correction. I follow the original, the transcription and IST.

her fingers fragile touches/fingers fragile touch     1963, original has “fingers fragile touches”; 1 follow transcription and IST.

of whorehouses/of the whorehouses     1964, following the Kenner/Sorrentino correction. I follow IST and transcription, original has “of the whorehouse.”