Paterson (Revised Edition) (35 page)

229     Godwin     WCW’s uncle Godwin Wellcome, see A 7.

229     “the river … me”     WCW paraphrases and directly quotes from his early poem “The Wanderer,” see CP1 35, 116.

232     a French/French     
Art News
(1958)

234–235     She did … past     WCW’s paternal grandmother Emily Dickenson Wellcome, see note to p. 186, and A167–168.

235     Osamu/Dazai and his saintly sister     As Weaver 218 notes, a reference to the last chapter of Osamu Dazai,
The Setting Sun
(Norfolk CT, 1947).

235     “unless … anew”     The end of WCW’s 1955 poem “Shadows” (CP2 310) reads:

unless—unless

things the imagination feeds upon,

the scent of the rose,

startle us anew.

WCW told James Laughlin on September 23, 1958, that there might be a
Paterson VI
(WCW/JL 226), but these four preliminary typescripts were all that he completed of the project, and they were found among his papers at his death. A corrected version of the four pages was published with the 1963 and subsequent printings of the poem as an appendix. The typescripts themselves are reproduced here to illustrate the extreme difficulties WCW labored under in these last years in trying to compose. As a result of a series of strokes, his vision was poor, and problems of physical coordination frustrated his efforts to hit the intended typewriter keys.

The first typescript is reproduced from a private collection, the next two from copies in the ND Archives, and the fourth—which Mariani (847) suggests dates from July 1961—from a copy filed with Yale Za 191.

Lucy “The ‘Lucy’ poem, what memories
that
brings up! What a gal—a heart of gold—common as dirt she was—but Bill and I were very fond of her,” Florence Williams to James Laughlin, August 6, 1963 (ND Archives).

Mrs. Blackinger The name was changed to “Mrs. Carmody” for the printed version at the request of Mrs. Williams.

In preparing this new edition of
Paterson
, I have been helped by the generosity of many individuals and institutions. At New Directions, Peggy Fox continued the sensitive, invaluable editorial advice that she contributed to the two volumes of Williams’
Collected Poems.
James Laughlin very kindly allowed me to study the New Directions Archive in Norfolk, and his warm hospitality, and that of Mrs. Laughlin, will be a pleasure always remembered. I also thank Norman MacAfee for his careful and informed reading of the proofs and Hermann Strohbach, who is responsible for the elegant look of the
Collected Poems
, for so carefully adapting the design of the original volumes of
Paterson
to the present edition. I continued to draw on the experience and wisdom of my co-editor on Volume I of the
Collected Poems,
A. Walton Litz, and am deeply appreciative of his contributions.

My resources for preparing the edition were greatly increased by the kindness of individuals who allowed me to study and quote from material in private hands. William Eric and Paul Williams provided helpful information on their father, and were very generous in allowing me access to material. Priscilla and John Costello allowed me to study the papers of Kathleen Hoagland, and Elizabeth O’Neil the papers of Marcia Nardi. Thomas Thirlwall again allowed me access to his father’s records of his friendship with Williams, including a very helpful annotated copy of
Paterson.
Mike Weaver went to considerable trouble to send me his correspondence with Herbert Fisher. Gilbert Sorrentino and Stanley Stedman were kind enough to write informative letters in answer to my queries, as were Professor John Dollar, Mike Wallace, Allen Ginsberg, Patricia Willis, Miriam Sawyer, Robert Bertholf, Richard Swigg, Terry Halladay, J. Howard Woolmer, Andreas Brown, John Sitnik, Terry Thibodeaux, Paul Mariani, Deborah Morse, Barry Magid, W. Scott Peterson, Theodora Graham, Howard A. Levin, Pamela McCorduck, Linda Wagner-Martin, Jim Lowell, Albert J. Monack, Mrs. L. A. Post, and Thomas Sweetin. I would like to thank all of these correspondents for their time, their information, and for allowing me to quote from their letters, as needed, in the notes.

The notes to this edition demonstrate something of my indebtedness to scholars who have worked on Williams, and particularly on
Paterson.
Every Williams scholar knows the importance of Emily Wallace’s
A Bibliography of William Carlos Williams.
The catalogue of the SUNY Buffalo Williams collection compiled by Neil Baldwin and Stephen L. Meyers was very helpful, as was Paul Mariani’s biography of the poet. I came to appreciate anew the ground-breaking work of Mike Weaver, Benjamin Sankey, Joel Connaroe, Ralph Nash, George Zabriskie, Margaret Lloyd, and W. Scott Peterson.

I owe a debt of gratitude to the staffs of many libraries, including: the Yale Collection of American Poetry, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; the Poetry/Rare Books Collection, SUNY Buffalo; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the Harry Ransom Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; Kent State University Library; the Lilly Library, Indiana University; the Alderman Library, University of Virginia; the Rosenbach Museum and Library; Special Collections, the Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Special Collections, University of Delaware Library; I am also grateful to these libraries for granting permission to quote from materials in their possession.

I am also indebted to the resources and staffs of the New York Public Library; the Rutherford Free Public Library; the New Jersey Historical Society Library, Newark; The Bloomfield Public Library; the Paterson Free Public Library, with special thanks to Linda Brown; and the Passaic County Historical Society Library at Lambert Casde. My preparation of the edition was also helped by the following libraries: the Starr Library of Middlebury College; the John Hay Library, Brown University; the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University; Fairleigh Dickinson University Library; the Dartmouth College Library; Special Collections, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania. At the Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Carol Linton of inter-library loan services continued to be a tremendous help, as was my graduate assistant Susan Becker-Welts.

Grateful acknowledgment is made for the following quotations: from
Really The Blues
by Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe; copyright 1946 by Milton Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe; reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.; and from
Poems 1923–1954
by E. E. Cummings, copyright © 1950 by E. E. Cummings, published by Harcourt, Brace and Co.

An award from the National Endowment for the Humanities allowed me time to prepare this edition, and I am very grateful for their interest and support and for the additional research funds provided by the College of William and Mary.

Additional acknowledgments with the paper edition, 1995: I would like to thank Professor Louis Martz, and Professor Hugh Witemeyer, for drawing my attention to errors of detail in the notes to pages 15 and 184 of the poem, which this printing has given me the opportunity to correct. I have also added a bibliographical detail to the note for pages 87–91, and a version of Williams’ “Author’s Note” to the prefatory matter on p. xiv, both at the suggestion of Professor Martz.

Asphodel and Other Love Poems
The Autobiography of William Carlos Williams
The Build-up
The Collected Poems, Volume I
The Collected Poems, Volume II
The Collected Stories of William Carlos Williams
The Doctor Stories
The Embodiment of Knowledge
Imaginations
In the American Grain
In the Money
I Wanted to Write a Poem
Many Loves and Other Plays
Paterson
Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems
Selected Essays
Selected Letters
Selected Poems
Something to Say: WCW on Younger Poets
A Voyage to Pagany
White Mule
The William Carlos Williams Reader
Yes, Mrs. Williams