A superb portrayal of the emergence of the society that we have inherited … The manner which Reznikoff has developed to convey his vision is as remarkable as the vision itself.
—W. S. Merwin

Recitative

Testimony

Poetry by Charles Reznikoff

Published in 1965, Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony: The United States 1885-1890 Recitative is a unique and historical document. This extraordinary poetic work, the first volume of a projected series of five, reflects in verse the social, economic, cultural, and legal history of the United States and its people from 1885 to 1890. Drawing on actual court records of this period, Charles Reznikoff, who was an attorney, produced a superb portrayal of life in our nation.

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Clothbound (published July 21, 1965)

ISBN
9781567925319

Charles Reznikoff

20th Century American writer of the Objectivist group

A superb portrayal of the emergence of the society that we have inherited … The manner which Reznikoff has developed to convey his vision is as remarkable as the vision itself.
—W. S. Merwin
Testimony: The United States 1885-1890 is a culmination of the Objectivist movement in poetry and tremendously impressive. As I kept reading, the feeling grew on me that an American classic was in the making.
—David Ignatow
… a very unique book indeed. He has collected with remarkable perception an extraordinary document of human event – terrifying, comic, and deeply moving. More, he has used all his skill as a poet to locate the given instances sans distortion, in the intense particularity of time and place.
—Robert Creeley