One of America's leading poets and critics offers a major interpretation of the poetry and poets of modern America, from the radical bohemians at the turn of the century through the leftist poets of the twenties, the reactionaries of the thirties and forties, the gradual emergence of the San Francisco school after the Second World War, to the more recent poetry of Allen Ginsberg, Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder. It is a work of re-experiencing the poems themselves, and in the process Kenneth Rexroth provides a controversial new look at the standard authors and boldly redefines the value of such poets as Levertov, Moore, and Lowell. This new paperback edition has been supplemented by a complete index of poets and a list of suggested readings. --back cover.