Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life is a landmark literary anthology

Anthology

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...

 of American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 working-class poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 written during the second half of the 20th century.

The book identifies within post-World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 American literature

American literature

American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...

 an emerging trend: a new poetry about mills and mines

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 and blue-collar neighborhoods. Much of this verse was inspired by the postwar industrial prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s followed by rapid deindustrialization

Deindustrialization

Deindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially heavy industry or manufacturing industry. It is an opposite of industrialization.- Multiple interpretations :There are multiple...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the 1970s and 1980s. The anthology offers nearly two hundred poems by seventy-five poets, most of whom are of the baby boomer

Baby boomer

A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom and who grew up during the period between 1946 and 1964. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve broad consensus of a precise definition, even...

 generation.

The collection was conceived and compiled by Peter Oresick

Peter Oresick

Peter Oresick is an American poet and Associate Professor of English at Chatham University, where he directs the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program...

 and further developed with co-editor Nicholas Coles

Nicholas Coles

Nicholas J. H. Coles is a British-American scholar in working-class literature and composition studies, and is Associate Professor of English and Director of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh...

, both of the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

. This "new work writing," argue the editors, "has its antecedents not with the proletarian literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 of 1930s, but more with Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...

, William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...

, the Beats, and Confessional poetry."

Working Classics is frequently used in U.S. and Canadian university courses in literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 and labor history

Labor history

Labor history may refer to:* Labor history , a subfield of the discipline of history**Labor history of the United States, describes the history of organized labor, as well as the more general history of working people, in the United States...

. It remains in print since its first publication in 1990 by the University of Illinois Press

University of Illinois Press

The University of Illinois Press , is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic projects...

.

The anthology's strong critical reception and sales, as well as a prompt within a book review

Book review

A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review could be a primary source opinion piece, summary review or scholarly review. It is often carried out in periodicals, as school work, or on the internet. Reviews are also often...

 of Working Classics by Fred Pfeil

Fred Pfeil

John Frederick Pfeil was an American literary critic and novelist. Pfeil was born September 21 in Port Allegany, Pennsylvania. He earned an undergraduate degree at Amherst College in 1971 and an M.A. at Stanford University in 1973...

 in The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

, spawned a sequel in 1995 by the same editors called For a Living: The Poetry of Work

For a Living

For a Living: The Poetry of Work is a literary anthology of American labor poetry written during the 1980s and 1990s.The book identifies within American literature of the current Information Age or service economy a new work poetry about the nature and culture of nonindustrial work: white collar,...

. This companion volume features poems about the nature and culture of nonindustrial work in the current Information Age

Information Age

The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...

 or service economy

Service economy

Service economy can refer to one or both of two recent economic developments. One is the increased importance of the service sector in industrialized economies. Services account for a higher percentage of US GDP than 20 years ago...

, i.e. work that may be categorized as white collar

White-collar worker

The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor...

, pink collar

Pink Collar

Pink Collar is an ABC sitcom which just only pilot episode aired. It stars Alicia Silverstone, Charlotte Ross, Matt Malloy, and Ryan Michelle Bathe. TV-Pilot set in an accident insurance agency, Pink Collar talking about the lives of four woman as they juggle their ambitions, friendships, and...

, clerical, or professional.

"A great feast of an anthology. . . . Here is a volume of great diversity, challenge, and reward, a Midwestern dark horse of a book whose riches, coming from the coal mines, canneries, sweatshops and factories of the country, compose an unprecedently American (and slightly Canadian) experience".

Jessica Greenbaum, The Nation

Selected Poets in Working Classics

Maggie Anderson

Maggie Anderson

Maggie Anderson is an American poet and editor with roots in Appalachia.-Life and career:Anderson attended West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1966–68 and earned a bachelor’s degree in English, with high honors, from West Virginia University in 1970. Her M.A. in English in 1973 and an M.S.W. in...

 · Antler

Antler (poet)

Antler is an American poet who lives in Wisconsin.Among other honors, Antler received the Whitman Prize from the Walt Whitman Association, given to the poet "whose contribution best reveals the continuing presence of Walt Whitman in American poetry," in 1985. Antler also was awarded the Witter...

 · Robert Bly

Robert Bly

Robert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...

 · Jim Daniels

Jim Daniels

James Raymond Daniels is an American poet and writer.Since 1981, Daniels has been on the faculty of the creative writing program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is the Thomas Stockham Baker Professor of English.He won the inaugural Brittingham Prize in Poetry in...

 · Patricia Dobler

Patricia Dobler

Patricia Dobler was an American poet.Born Patricia Averdick in Middletown, Ohio, she completed her BA in political science at St. Xavier College in Chicago, then married the writer Bruce Dobler in 1961...

 · Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn is an American poet. Dunn has written fifteen collections of poetry. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 2001 collection, Different Hours and has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dunn completed his B.A. in English at...

 · Tess Gallagher

Tess Gallagher

Tess Gallagher is an American poet, essayist, author and playwright. She attended the University of Washington, where she studied creative writing with Theodore Roethke and later Nelson Bentley as well as David Wagoner and Mark Strand...

 · John Giorno

John Giorno

John Giorno is an American poet and performance artist. He founded the not-for-profit production company Giorno Poetry Systems and organized a number of early multimedia poetry experiments and events, including Dial-A-Poem. He became prominent as the subject of Andy Warhol's film Sleep...

 · Donald Hall

Donald Hall

Donald Hall is an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2006.-Personal life:...

 · Edward Hirsch

Edward Hirsch

Edward Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry. He has published eight books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems , which brings together thirty-five years of work. He is president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial...

 · Richard Hugo

Richard Hugo

Richard Hugo , born Richard Hogan, was an American poet. Primarily a regionalist, Hugo's work reflects the economic depression of the Northwest, particularly Montana. Born in White Center, Washington, he was raised by his mother's parents after his father left the family...

 · David Ignatow

David Ignatow

-Life:David Ignatow was born in Brooklyn on February 7, 1914, and spent most of his life in the New York City area. He died on November 17, 1997, at his home in East Hampton, New York. His papers are held at University of California, San Diego.-Career:...

 · June Jordan

June Jordan

June Millicent Jordan was a Caribbean American poet, novelist, journalist, biographer, dramatist, teacher and committed activist...

 · Lawrence Joseph

Lawrence Joseph

Lawrence Joseph is an American poet, writer, essayist, critic, lawyer, and professor of law.-Life:Joseph's grandparents, Lebanese Maronite and Syrian Melkite Eastern Catholics, were among the first Arab Americans to emigrate to Detroit, where both Joseph's parents were born...

 · Philip Levine

Philip Levine (poet)

Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...

 · Robert Mezey

Robert Mezey

Robert Mezey is an American poet, critic and academic. He is also a noted translator, in particular from Spanish, having translated with Richard Barnes the collected poems of Borges....

 · Lisel Mueller

Lisel Mueller

Lisel Mueller is an American poet.She was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1924 and immigrated to America at the age of 15. Her father, Fritz Neumann, was a professor at Evansville College. Her mother died in 1953. "Though my family landed in the Midwest, we lived in urban or suburban environments,"...

 · Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...

 · Ed Ochester

Ed Ochester

Edwin Frank Ochester is an American poet and editor.Born September 15 in Brooklyn, New York, he was educated at Cornell University, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

 · Jay Parini

Jay Parini

Jay Parini is an American writer and academic. He is known for novels and poetry, biography and criticism.He was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania, and brought up in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1970 and was awarded a doctorate by the University of St. Andrews in 1975...

 · Kenneth Patchen

Kenneth Patchen

Kenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. Though he denied any direct connection, Patchen's work and ideas regarding the role of artists paralleled those of the Dadaists, the Beats, and Surrealists...

 · Vern Rutsala

Vern Rutsala

Vern Rutsala is an American poet, born in McCall, Idaho, in 1934. He was educated at Reed College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop . He taught English and creative writing at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon for more than forty years, before retiring in 2004...

 · Michael Ryan

Michael Ryan (poet)

Michael Ryan has been teaching creative writing and literature at University of California, Irvine since 1990.-Life:He taught previously at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, the University of Virginia, and in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers...

 · Gary Soto

Gary Soto

Gary Soto is a Mexican-American author and poet.Mexican-American parents Manuel and Angie Soto . In his youth, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley and in factories in Fresno. Gary's father died in 1957, when he was just five years old...

 · Susan Stewart · Tom Wayman

Tom Wayman

Thomas Ethan Wayman is a Canadian poet and academic.Born in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Wayman has lived most of his life in British Columbia. He studied at the University of British Columbia, Colorado State University, and the University of California, Irvine.Wayman has received the Canadian Authors...

 · James Wright

James Wright (poet)

James Arlington Wright was an American poet.Wright first emerged on the literary scene in 1956 with The Green Wall, a collection of formalist verse that was awarded the prestigious Yale Younger Poets Prize. But by the early 1960s, Wright, increasingly influenced by the Spanish language...

 · Robert Wrigley

Robert Wrigley

Robert Wrigley is an American poet and educator.His most recent book is Beautiful Country'. Other collections include Earthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems Lives of the Animals ; Reign of Snakes ; In the Bank of Beautiful Sins ; What My Father Believed ; Moon in a...

External links

• Look inside Working Classics at Google Books