Calligraphy Typewriters

Larry Eigner began writing poetry at age eight and was first published at age nine. Revered by poets and artists across a broad spectrum of generations and schools, Eigners remarkably moving poetry was created through enormous effort: because of severe physical disabilities, he produced his texts by typing with only one index finger and thumb on a 1940 Royal manual typewriter, creating a body of work that is unparalleled in its originality. Calligraphy Typewriters showcases the most celebrated of Eigners several thousand poems, which are an important part of both the Black Mountain/Projectivist movement of the 1950s and the Language movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In its two sectionsSwampscott and Berkeley, named for the two locales where Eigner lived and workedthe volume traces his fantastic perception of the ordinary and his zeal for language. Eigners use of visual space, metaphor, and description provide fascinating insights into both his own life and the world that surrounded him. This volume maintains the distinctive visual spacing of his original typewritten manuscripts, reminders of his method, disability, and aesthetic sensibility. A collection that reimagines the ordinary, Calligraphy Typewriters is the definitive gathering of Eigners work, and will serve well not only poets and students of poetry, but readers and writers of every vein.