First edition of one of the most impactful poetic manifestos of the 20th century, which elucidated Olson's theory of "composition by field," an open poetic structure based not on meter but on "certain laws and possibilities of the breath." NY: Totem Press, 1959. First edition, with errata slip tipped onto title page verso. Saddle-stapled in red-and-black-printed wraps, 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 in. 14pp. Cover design by Matsumi Kanemitsu. Very good, with moderate soiling and toning to wraps. Former owner has penciled in margin corrections to the four errors corrected on errata slip. Laid in is a disbound copy of the same essay from the Donald Allen anthology, The New American Poetry 1945-1960.
