Two Typed Letters Signed and Addressed to Donald Allen

London and Sweet Briar, VA, 1963. Very Good. London and Sweet Briar, VA: 1963 and 1979. Pair of typed letters signed by Anselm Hollo (1934-2013) to the poetry editor Donald Allen (1912-2004). Old mail folds else Very Good. Both letters quite rich in content, providing insight into the work of the Finnish-born author's work as a poet and translator. Donald Allen is best remembered for editing the legendary anthology "The New American Poetry 1945-1960."

1. Dated London, 18 September 1963. Approx. 300 words on blue stationery (24.5x20cm). Previous folds and integral envelope addressed and postmarked on verso. Written in response to Allen returning manuscript poems that Hollo had sent him. "Glad you read them. I'm having a small collection, 'The Man in the Treetop Hat' out over here this autumn, with Fantasy Press, Oxford; in bygone times, they've published awful people like Kingsley Amis etc."

Hollo goes on to describe the translation work he was doing on the poems of Rainer Gerhardt: "that project has run into some difficulty--as the copyright does not belong to his wife, Renate Gerhardt...but to his mother, and the two (it seems) cannot agree on much anything [sic]... I have translated about half of the book; but--another complication!--Jonathan Williams tells me Robert Creeley has already done *all of it* -- years ago."

2. Dated Sweet Briar, Virginia, 7 May 1979. Approx. 200 words on white stationery (27.5x21.5cm). Previous mail fold. Evidently written to accompany a "batch of post-1975 work." Hollo describes his part-time residency at Sweet Briar and notes that he will be "in residence" in San Francisco in early June should Allen be in town.