226 The Gospel … heart With the 1963 printing the passage was changed to bring it closer to the King James version, although “Miriam” and two other differences (“to him” for “unto him” and “just man” for “just man”) were allowed to remain. A footnote added in the 1963 printing and keyed to “Miriam” reads: “The King James version, of course, reads “Mary,’ but it is recalled that Dr. Williams often referred to the mother of Jesus as Miriam. Cf. the Hebrew Miryām as root for both names.—ED.”
In keeping with the principles for Book V laid out in “A Note on the Text,” I have followed WCW’s probable transcription typescript, filed with Yale Za190, and note below the verbal differences with the first edition and the post-1963 printings.
found/found to be IST
public/publick 1963
privately/privily 1963
And Mary/But Mary 1963
sayings, pondering/things, and pondered 1963. The transcription typescript has no comma, added later.
Luke From St. Luke 2:19
226–227 Dear Bill … Edward From a letter to WCW from Edward Dahlberg, September 20, 1957 (Yale uncat.), the second of two letters from Dahlberg in Paterson, see note to p. 28. WCW omits the first page and the final page and a half of the letter. This first page, which asks whether any of WCW’s letters to Dahlberg were included in WCW’s Selected. Letters (1957)—none were—is also omitted by Dahlberg in his Epitaphs of Our Times: the Letters of Edward Dahl-berg (New York, 1967) 182–85, although he does include most of the final page and a half omitted in Paterson.
The text of this prose was checked against the original letter by the New Directions staff in February 1958, anticipating possible concerns of Dahlberg’s, and with WCW’s approval; however, some differences remain between the quoted text and its source, as noted below. The origin of the differences is WCW’s apparent transcription typescript filed with Za190, unless otherwise noted. There are no verbal differences between the first edition and the 1963 printing.
G.D./ Georges Duthuit
had returned/had to return
enclose/inclose
influenced/could influence
Following “is cheap” WCW added “(in Majorka)” but this is cut on the Harvard printer’s typescript.
Dahlberg continued to be no fan of Paterson, telling Josephine Herbst of Book V that he “could not refrain from feeling that the only good thing in Williams’ last poem is your letter, and all those winged and almost bird-like delights in the honey of flowers,” Epitaphs of Our Times 158.
227 “. the unicorn … background,.” The seventh tapestry of the Unicorn series, see note to p. 206.
227 There’s … to talk to Recorded as WCW’s prose by an editorial note on a Harvard typescript.
gets courage/get courage IST, Poetry (1958) Typing error in later typescripts
228 “That slepen … yë” Line 10 of the “General Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales.
228 beside the purple … threads besides/besides the purple … threads besides 1ST, Poetry/beside the purple … threads beside 1963. Possible error on the galleys. I follow the Harvard and earlier typescripts.
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.
BOOK VI (c. 1961)
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.
Acknowledgments
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 Al
derman 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.
BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
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
Copyright © 1946, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958 by W. C. Williams
Copyright © 1963 by Florence Williams
Copyright © 1992 by William Eric Williams and Paul H. Williams
Copyright © 1992 by Christopher MacGowan
Unpublished material by Marcia Nardi copyright © 1992 by Elizabeth O’Neil
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
This revised edition first published clothbound in 1992; published as New
Directions Paperbook 806 in 1995
Acknowledgments can be found beginning p. 309. See additional
acknowledgments, p. 311, for changes made with paperbook printing, 1995.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williams, William Carlos, 1883–1963.
Paterson / William Carlos Williams.—Rev. ed. / prepared by Christopher MacGowan.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-811-22341-6 (e-book)
1. Paterson (N.J.)—Poetry. I. MacGowan, Christopher J.
(Christopher John) II. Title.
PS3545.I544P3 1992
811’.52—dc20
92-22956
CIP
New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin
by New Directions Publishing Corporation,
80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011
Paterson (Revised Edition) Page 27
