A bold, pioneering, "free-souled" and long-rare classic of concrete poetry, available for the first time in 50 years
Originally published by Doubleday and Company in 1970, N.H. Pritchard’s The Matrix was one of a tiny handful of books of concrete poetry published in America by a major publishing house. Sadly, the book was given little support and was not promoted, and it has long been out of print. However, it remains a cherished item for fans of poetry due to its unique composition, and difficult but rewarding poetics. Forcing the reader to straddle the line between reading and viewing, the book features visual poems that predate the experiments of the Language poets, including words that are exploded into their individual letters, and columns of text that ride the edge of the page.
Praised as a “FREE souled” work by Allen Ginsberg, The Matrix feels as fresh and necessary today as when it was first published. This new facsimile edition, copublished by Primary Information and Ugly Duckling Presse, makes the book available to a new generation of readers.
A spread from 'The Matrix.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Poetry Foundation
Quinn Latimer
Pritchard’s collection reflects the experimental semiotic poetics and conceptual art rigors of the sixties moment risen within and against that moment’s manifold political movements.
Tank
A singular but often overlooked voice in 20th-century poetry, N.H. Pritchard’s concrete writing eschews discursive meaning in pursuit of the “transreal”
Brooklyn Rail
Erica N. Cardwell
Th[is] poetry collection exemplif[ies] the literary innovation of this era—a commitment to the pursuit and study of sound and a symbolic resistance to legibility.
Hyperallergic
Albert Mobilio
This recognition via fresh publication restores the author to his proper place in the avant-garde lineage that includes Concrete poetry, typewriting, and Visual Poetry. In addition to that important fact, having these books is an opportunity to experience the sheer pleasure of an elegantly venturesome mind at serious play.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Featured spreads are from The Matrix: Poems 1960–1970, Primary Information and Ugly Duckling Presse’s new facsimile edition of N.H. Pritchard’s classic but rare 224-page paperback collection of concrete poetry, first published by Doubleday in 1970. Fred Moten writes, “Here’s a truth to which the black experiment is especially foregiven: ‘words are ancillary to content.’ The converse is also true, indicating mutual aid and mutual trouble. When words and content get together, there’s enough room in the vast, infinitesimal blur not in between them for poetry to make its dispersive, displacing way. Pritchard loves that non-Euclidean neighborhood. He keeps bullet time there, after hours, in a club, which is an open cell, called The Matrix. Welcome to this ‘huge/entering’ of concrete breath—unprecedented, unsurpassed.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 5.25 x 8.25 in. / 224 pgs. LIST PRICE: U.S. $20.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $28 ISBN: 9781734489798 PUBLISHER: Primary Information/Ugly Duckling Presse AVAILABLE: 3/30/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Primary Information/Ugly Duckling Presse. By N.H. Pritchard.
A bold, pioneering, "free-souled" and long-rare classic of concrete poetry, available for the first time in 50 years
Originally published by Doubleday and Company in 1970, N.H. Pritchard’s The Matrix was one of a tiny handful of books of concrete poetry published in America by a major publishing house. Sadly, the book was given little support and was not promoted, and it has long been out of print. However, it remains a cherished item for fans of poetry due to its unique composition, and difficult but rewarding poetics. Forcing the reader to straddle the line between reading and viewing, the book features visual poems that predate the experiments of the Language poets, including words that are exploded into their individual letters, and columns of text that ride the edge of the page.
Praised as a “FREE souled” work by Allen Ginsberg, The Matrix feels as fresh and necessary today as when it was first published. This new facsimile edition, copublished by Primary Information and Ugly Duckling Presse, makes the book available to a new generation of readers.
